Kid Cudi may be the reason we have Timothée Chalamet. Yes, that is just as random as it sounds. In a new interview with GQ, Timothée details how the rapper/actor saved his career at a point when he almost quit. 
 
At a critical juncture when the walls were closing in, Timothée spent a couple hours with one of his personal gods, Kid Cudi. Backstage at a show in Montreal, Cudi described his own lows and the single-minded determination that forced him to double down on his efforts to perform his way out of trouble. Timothée excused himself to run home so he could write down everything he'd heard. He keeps the notes on his phone. The takeaway was: Are you, Timothée, the sort of person who can't possibly live any other way? "F-ck yeah."

After this encounter, Timothée landed Call Me By Your Name. GQ refers to Kid Cudi as Timothée’s “personal god.” This may be surprising to some since Kid Cudi hasn’t had a hit in years and he’s never been touted as a musical god like Kanye or Timothée’s other fave, Frank Ocean (not that he necessarily deserves the title) but it actually makes sense that a kid Timothée’s age would feel a connection to Scott Mescudi, the artist known as Kid Cudi, an early voice of sensitive, emo, introspective hip-hop. Cudi’s most acclaimed album Man on The Moon: The End of Day came out when Timothée Chalamet was about 12 years old, right around that pivotal age when music is helping mold you into the person you become. Kid Cudi has also had a long career of highs and lows – he’s been open with his battle with depression and his music has been hailed as inspirational for its willingness to tackle mental health issues, a topic mainstream rap has been known to shy away from. It makes sense that when Timothée hit what he thought was a career low (my advice would have been, “dude, you’re not even 25 yet! It’s OK!”), he went to his favourite artist for advice.

At the party for Timothée’s GQ party, the two were reunited. Timothée is now an Oscar nominee getting the chance to thank the man who encouraged him to keep going, even when he wanted to give up. I know the team at GQ clearly put in a call to Kid Cudi’s people after Timothée gave them that amazing anecdote and orchestrated this reunion, but I’m not mad at it. They had the throwback pic on standby for their Instagram stories but I can’t knock this social media game. They deliberately orchestrated a photo op to go viral and it did. Not only that, it turned into a really beautiful moment. 
 


Look at the joy on Timothée’s face! 

I’ve written before that my favourite thing about Timothée Chalamet is the fact that he’s an unabashed fanboy. He nerded out over Cardi B on the red carpet. He fawned over Frank Ocean over the phone. Now, he’s the reason Kid Cudi is back in the headlines which is still random as hell but it makes me happy. 
 
Next time we’re admiring how cute or charming or handsome Timothée Chalamet is, remember we have Kid Cudi to thank.