The actor who plays a young Willy Wonka in the 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' prequel has found singing and dancing in the new movie a 'great learning experience.'
- Dec 3, 2023
AceShowbiz - Timothee Chalamet quipped he needed "a lot of auto-tune" in "Wonka". The 27-year-old actor plays confectioner Willy Wonka in the "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" prequel, and while he found learning the dance routines a "great learning experience," having to sing proved more of a challenge.
"I try. It is a lot of auto-tune… No, I'm kidding!" he joked about his singing when speaking to Extra at the world premiere of the movie in London on Tuesday, November 28.
And of the dancing, he added, "I loved it… My mom is a dance teacher and my grandmother was a dancer, my sister is a dancer, so I was always sort of around it but it's a big difference between being around it and having to do it... It was a great learning experience."
Timothee recalled how quickly he was "charmed" by the script for the origin story and insisted it is a valid addition to Roald Dahl's original tale.
He said, "I thought it was very clever, and I know people can be kind of cynical about Hollywood remakes and there's a fine line between it feeling warranted, but within three pages of reading the script I was so charmed by what Paul [King] had come up with for Willy's origin story and a snapshot of how Willy was before success, before becoming the man that wants to give away the chocolate factory, before being the man that has a chocolate factory."
But the 'Dune' actor needed to learn how to "live and love the tone" of the film by going back to his younger years as it was much less "serious" than a lot of his recent work.
He told People magazine, "I realised everything I've worked on [has had a] grounded seriousness to it, and here I had to loosen up and play, kind of like I did in high school, but I hadn't done in 10 years or something. So, that was the learning curve. But once it was in full swing, then it felt like we were cookin'."
