Wonka director Paul King didn’t want Timothée Chalamet, he wanted Lil’ Timmy Tim, viral video star

Watching Timothée Chalamet’s high school dance/rap performances as Lil’ Timmy Tim is a good litmus test for how you feel about the guy himself. For some, they’ll be funny and endearing—which does seem to be the intended reaction, as opposed to “this guy is fucking cool as hell,” which Lil’ Timmy Tim is not—but for others they’ll seem… a little grating. Or a little much. For Wonka director Paul King, though, they were all he needed to see to cast Lil’ Timmy Tim as the eponymous candymaker in his new candy movie.

Speaking with Rolling Stone, King (who also directed the beloved Paddington movies) said that Chalamet didn’t have to audition for the role of young Willy Wonka because he had seen the Lil’ Timmy Tim videos on YouTube and knew “from stanning for Timmy Chalamet” that he could “sing and dance really well.” Still, King also noted that he “didn’t know how good he was,” adding that Chalamet told him that he had also done tap dancing in high school and was eager to show people that he “can do that.”

Though this is probably not what King means, the implication of his comment is that he only knew of Chalamet as the kid from those videos, which suggests that it would’ve been pretty exciting for him to realize that he had cast an esteemed actor with a bunch of high-profile movies under his belt as the star of Wonka. Either way, the fact that King holds Lil’ Timmy Tim in such high regard is probably a good sign for Wonka. The reaction to the trailer didn’t seem enormously enthusiastic, but if Chalamet is bringing even a fraction of his Timmy Tim energy to this thing, it might be a blast.