Hollywood sensation Timothée Chalamet is once again talking about his love for professional wrestling. The Oscar-nominated star recently shared WWE’s massive influence on him while he was growing up.
As a kid, Chalamet wanted to be an athlete but didn’t feel he had the physical tools for it. Wrestling became a perfect mix of sports and storytelling for him. Even though he grew up around actors, acting wasn’t his first dream.
He described WWE as a world where athletes mix real physicality with drama. While some people call it fake, he pointed out that the hits and bruises are very real.
Timothée Chalamet Calls Professional Wrestling Deeply Archetypal Storytelling
During a Variety/CNN Town Hall interview with Matthew McConaughey, Chalamet was asked if wrestling influenced his acting. “Hugely,” he said.
“Professional wrestling for me was sort of a guidepost growing up because I wanted to be an athlete. I just didn’t have the skill, the body, the physique, the speed. Acting was sort of… I grew up in an actor’s building and it wasn’t my dream at its core… It just wasn’t for whatever reason. WWE and professional wrestling was somewhere in the middle. It was like the titans our athletes, both men and women but with this showmanship and storytelling,” Chalamet said.
“It’s planned, it’s scripted, it’s fake some people say but the blows are real. The bruises are real. So, it was hugely inspirational. Not to get too pretentious, but almost in a Greek theater setting, the archetypes that these guys represent,” he added.
One of his childhood favorites was The Boogeyman, whose creepy character left a strong impression on him as a teenager. Chalamet also mentioned hardcore legend Sabu. He said hearing Sabu’s entrance music still gives him chills. He even showed McConaughey a video of Kevin Nash’s entrance backstage.
“I loved a wrestler named The Boogeyman and he was just archetypally nightmarish. Even going back to it, it could be kind of cheesy sometimes but it made me… They say when you’re a teenager, things imprint on your brain more than they ever do later in life. When I listen to those old WWE clips or this guy Sabu who just passed away this past year, his entrance theme. We were watching Kevin Nash backstage today, I showed you [Matthew McConaughey] a Kevin Nash entrance video because he did Magic Mike with Kevin Nash,” Chalamet said.
Chalamet also pointed to stars like Bad Bunny and IShowSpeed getting involved in wrestling as proof of its wide appeal. He feels New York’s mix of different cultures and personalities fits well with wrestling’s larger-than-life vibe.
“Professional wrestling and WWE has been hugely influential to me. I feel like what I love with Marty Supreme and Matthew’s work as a whole and WWE, you see this with Bad Bunny tapping in or IShowSpeed and stuff like that, I just feel like it’s of the people, no matter how cheesy that sounds. New York is sort of a weird spot on the map of the world or America because New York, you can get the highest of the high and the lowest of the low. WWE is more of an Americana thing. New York’s got a lot of love for WWE,” he said.
Chalamet also shared that he once attended a WWE Survivor Series event in New York and loved the energy in the building. “I went to Survivor Series when I was like 14, 15 years old. I was walking to Master Square Garden and I got a one ticket alone from just me. And I heard Booker T’s theme song, and it was like a New York crowd, man. It was like rough around the edges,” Chalamet said.
And if Timothée Chalamet ever became a wrestler himself, he already has a name ready- “The French Fool.”
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