Timothée Chalamet Opens Up About Losing At The Oscars Twice

Timothée Chalamet has lost at the Oscars twice so far, and he’s now opening up about what nominees really think when they fail to secure a win. The actor received Best Actor nominations for Call Me By Your Name and A Complete Unknown, which he lost to Gary Oldman and Adrien Brody, respectively.

Days before his loss at the 2025 Oscars, he stepped on stage at the SAG Awards to accept Outstanding Male Actor in a Leading Role for portraying Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown.

During an interview with Vogue, Chalamet revealed the mindset of actors when they lose a major award. He claimed that the nominees who lose feel frustrated over the disappointing news. While he’s been around actors who have no ego and are “deeply generous,” most of them are at least thinking to themselves, “F***!” when they lose.

Chalamet isn’t shy about admitting he’s a “try-hard,” which he’s been called in the past. Critics can say whatever they want about him, but he’s “the one actually doing it here,” so of course, it’s disappointing to lose out on a huge award like an Oscar.

If there’s five people at an awards show, and four people go home losing, you don’t think those four people are at the restaurant like, ‘D***, we didn’t win’? I’ve been around some deeply generous, no-ego actors, and maybe some of them are going, ‘That was fun.’ But I know for a fact a lot of them are going, ‘F***!’

People can call me a try-hard, and they can say whatever the f***, but I’m the one actually doing it here.

Chalamet got his start as an actor in small TV roles on Law & Order and Royal Pains, as well as several episodes of Homeland, before launching his movie career with films like Interstellar.

His career exploded after starring with Armie Hammer in Call Me By Your Name, which has a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. That film earned Chalamet his first Oscar nomination.

The movie star moved on to Lady Bird and Little Women before landing the role of Paul Atreides in Dune alongside Zendaya, based on one of the best sci-fi books ever written. He returned for Dune: Part Two and is working on the threequel.

As his stature rose in Hollywood, he also became the latest actor to play the iconic Roald Dahl character Willy Wonka, following in the footsteps of Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp.

Several years later, his lead role in A Complete Unknown got Chalamet closer than ever before to winning an Oscar. He competed against Brody, Colman Domingo, Ralph Fiennes and Sebastian Stan. Both Brody and Chalamat were the frontrunners in the Best Actor category, with Brody taking home the win for The Brutalist.

Leading up to the 2025 Oscars, Chalamet did win at the SAG Awards. During his acceptance speech, he turned heads when he admitted he was pursuing greatness and rattled off multiple award-winning stars like Daniel Day-Lewis and Viola Lewis as examples of who he wants to emulate. He received some backlash for his comments, with critics calling the actor big-headed.

However, Chalamet is not apologizing for feeling that way, and he still hopes to win an Oscar and be considered one of the greats someday. Whether that actually happens is an open question at this point, but he doesn’t seem afraid to forge ahead and at least try to attain his lofty goals.

Losing out on the Oscar is really disappointing, and the 29-year-old just wants everyone to understand where he and his fellow actors are coming from, even if he gets called a “try-hard” along the way.