The Buzz Around Timothee's Speech

what's wrong with wanting to dream, to aspire?

“ I’m really in the pursuit of greatness. But I want to be one of the greats.”

Timothee Chalamet received an award at the SAGs, for the best male actor, in a leading role and has received backlash for his speech, when he received the award. Let’s unpack it, shall we?

What is the issue with Timothee’s Speech?

Absolutely everything. I’m kidding. It’s actually my first time witnessing the speech, and still I see no flaws with it. It’s an actor’s dream, or well anyone, in whatever field they find themselves to be, to aspire to be great. To be well known, even someone like me, wishes to be an amazing author like Dolly Alderton or an amazing poet like Emily Dickinson. I, myself, wouldn’t say I’m in the pursuit of greatness, but it does hold weight for someone like Timothee, to have just received an award such as this. He’s the youngest to ever receive it, and in just his few small years, in the acting industry, he’s done so much. He’s played, an drug addict, a messiah, a young boy in Italy.

So really, when you weigh all those things on a scale, what is the problem with what he said? With a matter like this, you can only assume, what it can be about, and play devil’s advocate. In life, it’s expected for people to always have something to say, and you’ll always get someone critiquing you, for something you said. Even in a speech like this, where it’s not Timothee being vain, but also sharing the great title with other greats. His speech could’ve been way worse, of course, because the issue would truly be… if he came up there, and spoke only about himself, and disregarded everyone else. I believe, as someone who has no issues with Timothee’s speech, think that, maybe, it is about Timothee’s age. Maybe because he’s young, is why he’s able to be hit with criticisms, even when not meaning to come across badly. Other people who have a problem with his speech, might have felt like the people who were in the running to receive this award, should’ve got it, instead of him, and maybe… people don’t want Timothee to be great. They could believe that he might be somewhat of an overrated actor, which is a label that gets thrown out a lot in cinema.

The Backlash

“ Acting is not a sport” - The Social Podcast

If you think about it, in detail, Acting is somewhat like a sport, because you have to practise to be well at it, so she’s wrong about that. It’s not a sprint, it’s a gradual jog, just as with most things. No one’s perfect at a certain thing, and you do need, what she mentioned about the recognition and like the audience having your career in their hands, so to speak. But, I also don’t feel like we have that much power, that she was trying to push forwards. It’s all in the actor’s ability, at the end of the day, and being convincing enough, powerful enough.

Talking about actors…

It’s Sunday. The Oscars, and it will be interesting to see, who really is the greatest? Personally, I hope it goes to Timothee, but there’s so many great actors, in general, that any one of them could deserve it, and even if Timothee doesn’t receive an Oscar this time around, it doesn’t mean he won’t ever, which is basically the point of his speech.