Timothée Chalamet praised for "shameless" SAG Awards speech for Best Actor

24 February 2025, 15:57

By Sam Prance

Timothée Chalamet is the youngest actor to ever win Best Actor at the SAG Awards and his speech has gone viral.

Timothée Chalamet just won Best Actor at the SAG Awards and his bold acceptance speech is receiving praise online.

There's no denying that Timothée Chalamet is one of the most beloved actors of his generation. Over the course of his career to date, Timothée has delivered standout performances in critically-acclaimed films like Call Me By Your Name and Little Women. He's also appeared as the lead in massive blockbuster movies like Wonka and Dune.

Nevertheless, despite multiple nominations at The Academy Awards, The Golden Globes, The BAFTAs, The Critic's Choice Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Timothée has never won any of them. Until now, that is. Last night (Feb 23), Timothée became the youngest actor to win Best Actor at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

• Read more: Timothée Chalamet was told to "put on weight" after losing Divergent and Maze Runner roles

Timothee Chalamet poses with SAG award

Winning for his performance as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, Timothée beat out Daniel Craig (Queer), Colman Domingo (Sing Sing), Ralph Fiennes (Conclave) and Adrien Brody (The Brutalist). Timothée previously lost the Best Actor award to Adrien Brody at The Golden Globes, The BAFTAs and The Critic's Choice Awards.

Reacting to his win, Timothée seemed genuinely surprised. He said: "I was not expecting this at all."

However, Timothée then spoke frankly about his ambition as an actor. He explained: "I know the classiest thing would be to downplay the effort that went into this role and how much this means to me, but the truth is this was five and a half years of my life. I poured everything I have into playing this incomparable artist."

He continued: "I know we're in a subjective business, but the truth is, I'm really in pursuit of greatness. I know people don't usually talk like that, but I wanna be one of the greats, I'm inspired by the greats."

Timothée ended by saying: "I'm as inspired by Daniel Day-Lewis, Marlon Brando and Viola Davis as I am by Michael Jordan and Michael Phelps. And I wanna be up there.”

Timothée Chalamet: Award Acceptance Speech | The 31st Annual SAG Awards

Timothée's speech received some criticism. Some found his comments out of order. One person tweeted: "What an arrogant speech." However, others came to his defence and praised Timothée for being so honest about what he wants. One fan wrote: "this level of honesty and shamelessness feels so refreshing in this day and age."

Another pointed out that Timothée is over due this moment: "Timothée Chalamet has starred in seven Best Picture Oscar nominees since 2017, leading four of them. There are A-listers who haven’t been in a single one over the course of decades. But sure, let’s knock him for caring too much and wanting to be great."

Timothée is once again nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards which take place this Sunday (Mar 2). He is nominated against Adrien Brody, Ralph Fiennes, Colman Domingo and Sebastian Stan.

What did you think of Timothée's speech?

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