With his boyish good looks and impeccable acting chops, the half French, half American New York native, Timothée Chalamet, has conquered Hollywood, his trajectory to the top in many ways symmetrizing that of a young Leonardo DiCaprio.
But where Leo made a name for himself playing overtly straight characters in films such as This Boy’s Life, Titanic, and Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet, Chalamet’s breakout role was Elio Perlman in Call Me By Your Name.
A young man who finds himself drawn to his father’s research assistant, the much older Oliver, played by (unfortunately) Armie Hammer. But as far as anybody outside of Timothée’s inner circle knows, off-screen, he is a heterosexual man.
As it always does, a role that explores gay sexuality inspires the masses to question the orientation of the actor portraying the character, especially if they’re convincing and do the role artistic justice.
Chalamet is indeed talented enough to convince, but he in no way continued living Elio’s life after Luca Guadagnino called a final “Cut!”.
Why Do We Assume That Timothée Chalamet Is Straight?
Nothing is 100% confirmed, but there are many reasons why it’s generally accepted that Timothée Chalamet is a straight man.
Granted, he has given candid interviews in which he claimed to experiment with sexuality in his youth, but the results of said experiments clearly leaned towards the heterosexual persuasion.
Here’s what we mean by that…
The Dating History Of Timothée Chalamet
The press is always hounding celebs, trying to get a glimpse into their personal lives, especially where romance is involved, and as heinous as this violation of privacy is, it does give us an insight into how Chalamet identifies sexually.
In his recent, flash-photography-exposed life, he has dated or thought to have been romantically tied to a number of people, all of which are women.
The gossip goes that the most recent possible relationship is between Chalamet and Victoria Secret’s model, Sarah Talabi.
And before this, on the tail of his CMBYN success, a more concrete relationship was reported with Lily Rose Depp… and yes, for the uninitiated, that is Depp as in Johnny — Lily is his daughter.
Fast forward a couple of years and it’s confirmed that Timmy C is dating Mexican actress and singer Eiza Gonzales. Fast forward a scooch more, to fall that very same year, and it’s reported that the couple has gone their separate ways.
Now taking things back, way back – we’re talking Chalamet’s college days – at the age of 17, Timothée hooked up with another offspring of the rich and famous, Lourdes Leon, daughter of the inimitable Madonna.
So, as you can see… not much variety here. Of course, this doesn’t prove anything, but it does seem rather conclusive.
Lack Of Intervention In Interviews
After taking on a role such as Elio, Timothée was bound to be bombarded with a plethora of questions prefaced with the phrase… “As a straight actor/man…” Yada, yada, yada.
Yet, never did Chalamet make any sort of correction when this assumption was made. He simply accepted the questions as they were posed, so it stands to reason that he perhaps agreed with the phrasing.
Of course, if he was simply trying to keep his private life, well… just that, he might not have felt comfortable intervening and inhibiting the flow of the interviews only to expose himself.
Still, it’s the interviewer’s job to know their guest, so you’d have to assume their facts are more or less on point.
The Call Me By Your Name Backlash
Call Me By Your Name may have received the longest applause in the history of the New York Film Festival, with Chalamet’s performance leaving both critics and casual observers positively spellbound, but not everyone was such a big fan of the film. Or, more specifically, the casting.
The problem many had with the Chalamet – Hammer duo is that it’s understood that neither of these actors is actually gay, which, for many, is problematic.
Why, for instance, weren’t gay actors cast to play gay characters? But that wasn’t the only gripe from within, and to a lesser extent, outside queer communities.
People also took issue with the depiction of queerness in the movie, claiming that it succeeds in presenting a rather sweet love story, but little in the way of authenticity and realism.
This perhaps implies that if Timothée was in fact gay, he’d be privy to these shortcomings and address them publically, or maybe that he might have turned the role down to begin with.
Why Do Some People Think Timothée Chalamet Is Gay?
The primary cause of the unfounded rumor that Thumothe Chalamet is gay was his role in Call Me By Your Name, but there’s no doubt that, for a lot of people, something else reinforces this erroneous assumption, but what exactly is it?
Some might claim that his slightness of frame and manner of expressing himself gives off a “camp” or “feminine” vibe, but this is all just false categorization via stereotyping, which is obviously problematic.
Some write online that he uses too many hand gestures to be straight, which is as hilarious as it is misinformed.
His often flamboyant style on the red carpet is no doubt a contributing factor as well, but the gender dichotomy of clothing has officially blurred into oblivion at this stage in history, and estimating sexual orientation simply by judging an outfit is an absurd notion.
With long, dark, wavy hair; sculpted bone structure, and a flowery French name, Timothée also exudes an air of elegance that perhaps doesn’t align with many people’s ideas of traditional masculinity.
But the fluidity of masculinity is by no means a new discovery for straight men.
Final Thoughts
It’s certainly possible that in his heart of hearts, Timothée Chalamet is bisexual, but as far as the “evidence” goes, he appears to identify as a straight man, at least presently.
Things may change in the future, as self-discovery is a rather nebulous process that follows no temporal track, but the string of beautiful ex-girlfriends does seem to indicate a sexual fascination with the fairer sex.
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