Harder was contending with the paparazzi, who were soon snapping Chalamet and costar Gwyneth Paltrow locked in a passionate embrace in Central Park. The internet lit up, as did Paltrow’s own group texts. “It was so ridiculous,” says Paltrow. “I was like, ‘You guys, calm down.’ ” But they couldn’t. Chalamet just has that effect on people. He reduces mom chats to pre-language exclamations.
In Marty Supreme, which also stars Tyler, the Creator, Fran Drescher, Sandra Bernhard, Kevin O’Leary, Odessa A’zion, and Penn Jillette, Paltrow plays a stifled former actress contemplating her comeback. Her character is married, but she embarks on an affair with Marty, who takes a wrecking ball to her fragile equilibrium. The role marks Paltrow’s most substantial return to the big screen in well over a decade, and Chalamet made it nice. “I love that he’s such a free and independent thinker,” she says. “You know how a lot of us in conversation are like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah’? He’s sort of like, ‘No….’ He’s always running things through the filter of, ‘How do I actually feel about this?’ ”
Chalamet was no less in awe of Paltrow. “Here’s someone whose sense of self-worth and whose sense of how their time is being respected or not has nothing to do with the film industry,” he says. “She seemed healthy in that regard—and really chic.”
He admires her cool detachment. He can’t relate.
Chalamet flew from France to Las Vegas for Vogue’s cover shoot with Annie Leibovitz. The process was exhausting and exhilarating—three days in the Nevada desert at the massive land-art installation City by Michael Heizer. “It’s just a totally remote experience,” Chalamet says. (The site is open three days a week and allows only six visitors per day, but Heizer’s work will be more accessible to New York audiences come February, when Gagosian mounts an exhibition of his new work.) “Annie is an absolute beast,” Chalamet says while he paces around a hotel room on FaceTime with me. “Sometimes when people become so ubiquitous or iconic, you can lose sight of how much effort goes in. She’s the first one up at 5:30 a.m. You’re coming downstairs, and she’s poring over materials.”
His conversations with Leibovitz about portrait setups and character arcs reminded Chalamet of collaborations with film directors. “She almost had a crazy compulsive creative attitude,” he says. “She wasn’t concerned with anything but getting great stuff, and then I’m sure she went on to the next thing.”
