Wonka director Paul King has finally disclosed why Timothée Chalamet was his first choice for the lead role of Willy Wonka.
In an interview with Total Film Magazine, King talked about the musical aspects of the film adapted from Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
“The Oompa Loompas sing a lot in the book, and Dahl always uses poetry. I didn’t want it to become a musical where people sing dialogues to each other,” said King.
The director added that Timothée has “a beautiful singing voice”, and that his skills reminded him of Bring Crosby.
Calling himself “a crazed fan”, “There’s quite a range, because it does go from a couple of bigger, showstopper-y sort of things, to moments of real, pure emotion and he can do it all.”
Previously, King told Rolling Stone that he has always had his eyes on Timothée for the role of Willy Wonka. “His high school musical performances are on YouTube which have hundreds of thousands of views,” he said.
King said when he spoke with Timothée about the role, he was very keen, “He’d done tap dancing in high school and he was like, ‘I’d quite like to show people I can do that.’”
Inside Timothée Chalamet love life with Kylie Jenner:
Timothée Chalamet been in the news recently after he was spotted with Kylie Jenner at Beyoncé’s concert, and later they were seen packing on PDA at a US Open match.
Recently, an insider told Page Six that their relationship is not casual, “They are very good at communicating with each other in a ‘coupley’ sort of way that makes this feel like the real thing.”
