On Feb 23, 2025, the 31st annual Screen Actors Guild Award Show took place in Los Angeles. Winners such as Jane Fonda and Demi Moore gave powerful speeches about the purpose of actors and the importance of this industry. However, one speech stood out from the rest.
Timothée Chalamet, critically acclaimed French American actor, gave one of the most honest speeches in acting history. When accepting an award, people tend to lean towards modesty saying that they never expected to win and are fortunate for the opportunity. This will always read well to an audience, it shows humility and makes the acceptance of that award seem like a bigger honor than it already was. Timothée, showing a lot of gratitude for the award, doesn’t downplay the amount of work it took to play this role and how giving his all has yielded outstanding results.
“You know, I know the classiest thing would be to downplay the effort that went into this role and how much this means to me,” said Chalamet during his speech, “But the truth is, this was five and half years of my life. I poured everything I had into playing this incomparable artist, Mr. Bob Dylan. And it was the honor of a lifetime playing him.”
His acknowledgement and owning his pride in his work is so raw and real. I feel like it’s hard to engage with actors in their speeches because at the end of the day, they’re actors. It’s difficult to tell if they’re really feeling the things they say or if they’re just feigning gratitude to seem more down to Earth. This is not a question with Chalamet’s speech. At 29 years old, he became the youngest person to win this prestigious award on top of 140 nominations and 41 accolades.
“ I can’t downplay the significance of this award because it means the most to me. And I know we’re in a subjective business, but the truth is, I’m really in the pursuit of greatness. And I know people don’t usually talk like that but I want to be one of the greats.”
Chalamet has been in a range of award-winning films such as “Call Me by Your Name” (2017), “Beautiful Boy” (2018), “Wonka” (2023) and now “A Complete Unknown” (2024). He’s had other roles that have gotten a lot of praise like “Little Women” (2019), “Dune” (2021), and “Lady Bird” (2017). With these critically acclaimed films and many more memorable roles, Chalamet has demonstrated unwavering dedication to his craft and a clear passion for acting, which he displayed openly in his speech.
He attributes his perseverance to the greats who came before him, and expresses his desire to be among them. For the next generation of actors to include him in their lists of inspirations. “I’m inspired by the greats here tonight. I’m inspired by Daniel Day-Lewis, Marlon Brando, Viola Davis, as I am by Michael Jordan and Michael Phelps. And I want to be up there. So I am deeply grateful to that.”
I’m a big Timothée Chalamet fan. He has been in some of my favorite works that have changed my opinion on entire genres. He has such an amazing range of acting ability to express so many different states a person can be in. I think he exudes greatness and harnesses the acting prowess one needs to reach the top. With his resumé at the very young age of 29, the possibilities are endless for him. There are so many more stories to tell and so many ways he can exercise his skills, something that’ll only get better as time goes on. He makes a mention that this is only the beginning saying, “This, this doesn’t signify [greatness], but it’s a little more fuel. It’s a little more to keep going. Thank you so much.”
I always liked the quote “if you love where you work, you don’t work a day in your life,” and with Timothée, I think he shows that this is so much more than work for him. This is his life’s purpose. This is his path to being immortalized in history, and he walks this path with determination and his head held high.
