Actor Timothee Chalamet developed some new skills while filming ‘Wonka’. The actor, 27, shared that performing the film’s dance numbers was “a great learning experience.”
The actor chatted with ‘Extra’ at the film’s London premiere and said, “I loved it. My mom is a dance teacher and my grandmother was a dancer; my sister is a dancer, so I was always sort of around it but it’s a big difference between being around it and having to do it”, reports People magazine.
As for the singing, he joked that it involved “a lot of auto-tune.” Chalamet told People on the red carpet that he also had to learn how to “live and love the tone” of the film.
“I realised everything I’ve worked on (has had a) grounded seriousness to it, and here I had to loosen up and play, kind of like I did in high school, but I hadn’t done it in 10 years or something. So, that was the learning curve,” he said. “But once it was in full swing, then it felt like we were cooking.”
As per People, the film serves as the prequel to Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, with Chalamet as Willy Wonka. While Chalamet has expressed that he had a learning curve he had to go through in the film, Wonka director and co-writer Paul King previously said how he was impressed by the actor’s performance.
“I think what’s so remarkable about his performance is not only that he is funny and mischievous and quite mysterious, as well—just like the Willy Wonka that people will know—but also that he brings such heart to the role and he’s a brilliant actor,” said King.
The director also said that fans can expect to see Willy Wonka’s “energy” shine during the musical numbers.
“We try to evoke that through these kinds of dance sequences there. And there’s a couple of really big numbers in there, and there’s an amazing sort of zero-gravity set piece (and) some really lovely numbers”, he said.
