As his unique name continues to hit headlines, Timothée Chalamet reveals how to accurately pronounce it.
During his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Thursday, Feb. 1, the Dune: Part Two actor explained to the late-night talk show host how to say his name correctly. “Honestly, it’s ‘Tim-oh-teh,” the actor said. “But I would not oblige you to say it like that and it can be Timothy or Timmy or Doug or Allen.”
Kimmel responded by saying, “It’s ‘Tim-oh-teh’?”
Timothée Chalamet then said that his parents were responsible for the confusion. “That’s what it was supposed to be – my parents cursed me with that,” he declared.
Kimmel replied, “They did? And you were like, ‘No I’m not going along with that.”
Timothée Chalamet went on to confirm by saying, “I’m not going along with that so, it’s whatever you like.”
Clalamet also shared that his middle name is Hal. “Which breaks it up in a – It breaks it up in a bizarre way,” he said. Fellow Dune: Part Two star Florence Pugh said, “That’s not the flow.”
Timothée Chalamet Previously Spoke About the Pronunciation of His Name During an Interview With Frank Ocean
In 2018, Timothée Chalamet spoke to Frank Ocean for his VMan interview about how to pronounce his name correctly.
“My whole life I was Timmy and then as I got older,” Chalamet said at the time. “It seemed like Timmy was youth’ing me out, so it’s been Timothée since. I tried Timo and Tim, too. The real pronunciation is Timo-tay. I can’t ask people to call me that. It just seems really pretentious. My dad is from France, so it’s a French spelling, but it seems like too much of an obligation to ask people to call me that.”
Timothée Chalamet also said that when he acts in French, it’s really shocking to him how it feels more grounding than acting in English. “I grew up speaking French with my dad, but it’s not a language I have as much command over, so when I speak or act in French, the words mean so much to me; I’m so focused.”
Timothée Chalamet’s Dune co-star Pugh revealed during her appearance on The Graham Norton Show she calls him “Timothée Chala-mala-bing-bong.”
“I loved his surname Chalamet and every time I read it, I read it as ‘Chala-mala-bing-bong,’” Pugh said. “My gran met him last week and after she came up, she was like I met ‘Timothée Chala-mala-bing-bong.’”