Timothée Chalamet Names The Actor He Rates Above Everyone: “He’s No. 1 for me”

Timothée Chalamet tends to keep a little mystery around his process. He talks about craft with care and usually lets the work do the heavy lifting. Every now and then though he drops something surprisingly direct about what fuels him.

One of those moments came during a phone conversation with musician Frank Ocean at the start of Chalamet’s breakout years. He sounded equal parts thrilled and nervous to be speaking with an artist he admires. “It is an honor to speak to you, man. I’m such a huge fan.”

When the talk turned to influences, Chalamet did not hedge. Asked about the performers he studies most closely, he went straight to the point and singled out his all time favorite. “There’s five or six artists I’m really trying to follow in the footsteps of creatively,” he said, before adding the line that made his answer unmistakable. “I get the opportunity to be on the phone with one right now, but on the acting side, Joaquin is No. 1 for me.”

That choice will not surprise anyone who has watched Chalamet build a career on intensity and curiosity. Phoenix is known for chasing roles that push against the edges of what a leading man is supposed to do. Chalamet has built his own path by chasing the same feeling and by choosing projects that give him room to stretch and to surprise.

The way he talks about the artists he studies also reveals something about how he thinks. He pays close attention to creative footsteps. He treats influence like a roadmap for risk taking rather than a set of rules to follow. You can hear it in the way he frames that list of five or six north stars and then zeroes in on one name that sets the bar for him.

It also connects to the origin story fans love to point out. Chalamet has often described being jolted awake by performances that feel alive and electric. Those are the ones that make a young actor decide to lean all the way in. They are the ones that stick in your head when the cameras are not rolling and the next role is still a question mark.

In the end, choosing a favorite says as much about the chooser as it does about the chosen. Picking Joaquin Phoenix reads like a mission statement. It signals a taste for nerve and for characters who refuse to sit still. It suggests a career driven less by comfort and more by the chase for something new.

Chalamet may keep some secrets about how he gets where he is going. Still, moments like that candid admission pull back the curtain just enough. They tell you what he is aiming for and who he believes has already hit the mark. And for him, the mark has a name. Joaquin.