Timothee Chalamet wanted to "lean away" from playing a drug addict in ‘Beautiful Boy’.
The 22-year-old actor stars opposite Steve Carell as real life father and son Nicholas and David Sheff in the drama, and while the movie documents how they dealt with his alter ego’s substance abuse issues, he insisted the film is about much more than that.
In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, he said: "For me, it goes back to meeting Nick and David and getting the sense that this wasn’t just a biopic, and that just making it human was the most galvanizing imperative.
"I realised I should lean away from playing a drug addict and rather play a human who’s in a very difficult set of circumstances."
Timothee worries that some elements of pop culture have led to a "glorification" of drug use, though he thinks some music genres offer a true "lens into disillusionment" felt by young people.
When asked whether he could enjoy the use of drugs in comedy after his role in the film, he said: "It’s tough because I’m young and love pop culture and certainly, what I say next, I’m not an authority on in any way, and I don’t want to be cavalier about it, and I don’t have a solution to it, but just to observe it as a phenomenon.
"There’s a scene in ‘Beautiful Boy’ that references Nirvana and there is equally a nihilisation of, not even necessarily to addiction…particularly now it’s like a longer conversation or something, but like with SoundCloud rap that’s a good example.
"It’s a real lens into a lot of the disillusionment of young people feel, not only in America but all over the world, and how they’re dealing with it by numbing, by with opiates and Xanax, and there’s a glorification of it that I’m not saying anything about, but I’m just saying it’s there."
Timothee Chalamet ‘leaned away’ from simple addict portrayal
