Timothée Chalamet recalls agent advising him to gain weight early in career

Timothée Chalamet has recalled how an agent once told him to gain weight early in his career.

During a conversation for Apple Music's The Zane Lowe Interview Series on Monday, the Academy Award-nominated actor compared his experience of navigating Hollywood as a young person to the way Bob Dylan carved out his own path as a musician in Minnesota in the late 1950s.

Chalamet plays Dylan and serves as a producer on the upcoming biographical drama, A Complete Unknown.

"If I auditioned for The Maze Runner or Divergent, things of that variety that were popping when I was coming up, the feedback was always, 'Oh, you don't have the right body,'" he recounted. "I had an agent that called me and said, 'You got to put on weight,' basically - not aggressively, but you know.

"I found my way into these very personalised movies," the 28-year-old continued. "For (Dylan), it was folk music. He couldn't keep a rock and roll band because they would all get hired by other kids that had more money, literally, in Minnesota."

But instead of bulking up and auditioning for blockbusters, Chalamet opted to appear in a "very personal style" of project, such as 2017's Call Me by Your Name and 2019's Little Women.

"Those were smaller budget, but very - I don't know how else to put it - personable movies that started in this theatre space. This is where I found my rhythm, my confidence, my flow, whatever you want to call it," he shared.

Of late, Chalamet has taken on the lead role in several big-budget films, including 2021 sci-fi hit Dune and its sequel, Dune: Part Two, as well as Willy Wonka in 2023's Wonka.

Between the Dune follow-up and Wonka, the star has appeared in two films that grossed more than $200 million (£155 million) at the box office in the U.S. within eight months, beating a record set by John Travolta 45 years ago when he headlined Grease and Saturday Night Fever.

A Complete Unknown is set to open in U.S. cinemas on 25 December.