Why The Actor In Bleu De Chanel Commercial Looks So Familiar

The actor in the Bleu de Chanel commercials is Timotheé Chalamet — and he's been in a ton of huge projects throughout the last several years.

Chalamet, who's just 27 years old, has made his mark as an in-demand Hollywood actor since he got his start in 2014 with a small part in "Interstellar." Now, he's the face of a major sci-fi franchise, an established leading man, and the face of Bleu de Chanel, a scent from the legendary fashion house. In a conversation with Vogue about his collaboration with Chanel, Chalamet revealed that his grandmother loved Chanel No. 5, so it feels like a perfect ode to his family to represent the scent. "I like that it feels a little pulled back, it's subtle but still assertive," he said, describing Blue de Chanel. "I'm not someone who wears scent all the time. For me, it's about emphasizing a moment." 

On top of all that, Chalamet stars in a new ad for the fragrance directed by Martin Scorsese — which, he told Harper's Bazaar, is a huge career milestone for him. "One of the highest honors, if not the highest honor, of my career: to get to work with Martin Scorsese in New York," Chalamet said. "I'm a New York boy—I'm a New York actor. Checking something huge off [the] personal bucket list." So where have you seen Chalamet before? Why does he look so familiar? Well, he's appeared in everything from emotional independent movies to star-studded Netflix comedies.

In 2017, Timotheé Chalamet scored his biggest role yet in Luca Guadagnino's queer love story "Call Me By Your Name" alongside now-disgraced actor Armie Hammer. Chalamet plays the role of Elio Perlman, a young man who travels from the United States to Italy with his family each summer. During this particular summer, Elio's father (Michael Stuhlbarg) invites Hammer's Oliver to help him with academic research, and after forming a close friendship, Elio and Oliver end up involved in a relationship.

The two carry on in secret, but Elio's parents seem to know that there's something between them, and the boys travel to Bergamo together for a trip alone. After that, though, they part ways, and Elio later gets a call over Hanukkah that Oliver is engaged to be married to a woman he was involved with before he and Elio had their affair. 

Chalamet is extraordinary in the film and the closing moment — where Elio absorbs the news that the man he loves is marrying someone else and simply stares into the fire — is gorgeous and heartbreaking all at the same time. Clearly, Academy voters thought so, as the role earned Chalamet a nomination for Best Actor at the 2018 Oscars.

"Call Me By Your Name" was one spin on a coming-of-age story, and Timotheé Chalamet's next big role was in a very different one — Greta Gerwig's 2017 directorial debut "Lady Bird." The film marks Chalamet's first collaboration with Gerwig and the film's star, Saoirse Ronan, who plays the title character Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson. 

During Lady Bird's senior year of high school, she clashes with her mother Marion (Laurie Metcalf) and tries to change everything about herself, ditching her best friend Julie (Beanie Feldstein) for more popular kids and pretending to be someone she's not. A big part of that involves dating Chalamet's Kyle, an irreverent cool kid who doesn't believe in cell phones and attends the brother school of Lady Bird's Catholic school. Kyle is, bluntly, kind of terrible, but in such a wonderfully specific way, and it's a testament to Gerwig's talent that he felt instantly familiar to basically any girl who attended high school.

Lady Bird and Kyle sleep together (causing a rift when Kyle admits that he lied to her about being a virgin) but when Kyle and the other popular kids decide to skip prom, Lady Bird leaves them behind to reunite with Julie. Kyle's role isn't much more than a supporting player, but his impact on Lady Bird's journey is hugely important.

In 2019, Timotheé Chalamet worked with director David Michôd ("Animal Kingdom," "The Rover") on the Netflix original film "The King," casting Chalamet as the real-life English monarch Henry V. After the death of his father Henry IV (Ben Mendelsohn), Henry, more casually known as Hal, has to leave his days of partying, drinking, and womanizing behind and assume the British throne, despite a total lack of desire to lead his country. Unfortunately for Hal — who finds himself politically sparring with the Dauphin of France (Robert Pattinson) — his father was engaged in a war before he died, specifically with France. 

Ultimately, Hal comes into his own both as a king and a warrior and aided by his closest friend John Falstaff (Joel Edgerton), he tricks the French army by stranding them in muddy conditions and is victorious during the Battle of Agincourt. Ultimately, Hal leads England to victory when France's King Charles VI (Thibault de Montalembert) surrenders, and Hal marries Charles' daughter Catherine of Valois (Lily-Rose Depp). The story doesn't quite end there, though; right at the end of the film, Hal is betrayed by his ally William Gascoigne (Sean Harris), and ends up killing the man before reminding his new wife that he requires her honesty and loyalty.

Timotheé Chalamet reunited with Saoirse Ronan and Greta Gerwig in 2019 for her second film, an adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel "Little Women" — and this time, he scored a much bigger role. Chalamet plays Theodore "Laurie" Laurence, grandson of the wealthy Mr. Laurence (Chris Cooper) and neighbor to the March family. After meeting Jo March (Ronan) at a party, Laurie finds himself welcomed into the March family by its matriarch Marmee (Laura Dern), forming an intensely close relationship with Jo and bonding with Meg (Emma Watson), Beth (Eliza Scanlon), and Amy (Florence Pugh) as well. 

Gerwig cleverly splits the narrative across two timelines, and we learn early on that, in Jo and Laurie's younger years, he proposed marriage, and she turned him down. (We don't see that scene until later, but it's a stunning bit of acting from Ronan and Chalamet alike.) Later, Laurie finds himself in Paris at the same time as Amy, who's studying painting, and an unexpected relationship arises between them (leading to yet another classic scene where Amy explains the practicality of marriage to Laurie). They end up married, leaving Jo resigned yet quietly heartbroken. Laurie is incredibly important to the March family in every adaptation, and Chalamet plays the character perfectly.

For years, it seemed like Frank Herbert's science fiction epic "Dune" would never get a worthy screen adaptation (yes, there are some defenders of David Lynch's take on it out there, but still). That all changed when Denis Villeneuve — known for ambitious films like "Arrival" and "Blade Runner 2049" — took over the project, directing the film and writing it alongside Jon Spaihts and Eric Roth. Ultimately, Timotheé Chalamet was chosen to lead the film as Paul Atreides, heir to House Atreides who has to lead his home planet of Arrakis (the home of a highly in-demand substance known as "spice," which can help the user gain more awareness and strength). 

Alongside his father Leto (Oscar Isaac) and his mother, Leto's consort Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), Paul is ultimately hunted by Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård), who once controlled Arrakis and wants to destroy House Atreides. Alongside a sprawling cast that includes Zendaya, Dave Bautista, Josh Brolin, and Javier Bardem, Chalamet more than holds his own, and his will likely become even more powerful in the upcoming sequel "Dune: Part Two."

In 2021, Adam McKay worked with Netflix on the original film "Don't Look Up," which boasted an insanely stacked cast including Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, and Cate Blanchett (among others). A satire about a world in which two climate scientists — Kate Dibiasky (Lawrence) and her superior Dr. Randall Mindy (DiCaprio) — realize a giant meteor is headed for earth, but the governments of the world implore citizens to simply ignore it, and not "look up." Obviously, this is a blunt critique of the way climate change is currently being handled, and in McKay's dystopian story, everyone from the President (Streep) to television hosts (Blanchett's Brie Evantee) actively discourage people from realizing that the world's days are numbered.

So where does Timotheé Chalamet fit in? He plays the supporting role of Yule, a shoplifter who messes with Kate after she's left disgraced for speaking out against the meteor (and has to move home and work at a grocery store). Yule and Kate ultimately carry on an affair after he tells her that he's impressed by her attempts to tell the truth, and alongside Randall and a few others, they quietly embrace the meteor hitting the earth as they share one last supper together.