This post was written before the Oscar nominations and by the time you read it, Timothée Chalamet will likely have received his second Oscar nom for his work in A Complete Unknown. He will then have the opportunity to get right in Oscar voters’ faces this week as the host and musical guest on Saturday Night Live. 

 

For months now, during Timmy’s latest round of press to promote his performance at Bob Dylan, I’ve been talking about the way he’s managed his campaign, resisting any encouragement to play to the older segment of the Academy to make up for his youth in relation to the other nominees in this category, to pander to the olds instead of repping Gen Z. This is a lame throwback but… “OK boomer”. 

 

Timmy is Gen Z’s favourite actor, his choices, both professional and personal have consistently remained coded to not only the demographic that has supported him but the one to which he belongs. This is smart, but it’s also both honest and cynical. Because it’s true to a generation that’s been wired to smell manipulation, even when it’s not there. 

So, back to Timmy and SNL, and the first promo that was released yesterday. And they made it all about the now iconic Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest. Hyperbolic? Nope. This is the contest that spawned a trend that never came close to the original. And HE is what made the original the viral story that it became when he showed up, unannounced, breezed through the crowd, was both more and less Timothée Chalamet than the pretenders, and then seemingly magically disappeared again in a cloud of mystery and chaos. As the kids would say, he’s a legend for this. 

 

And now, bringing them all back for this bit… 

…it’s the perfect timing, first of all. And it’s an update on the lookalike thing itself, because there’s a skinny pink scarf that shows up on Fallon, LOOOOLLLLLL… 

 

And also works as a tease because the big question going into Saturday is what, exactly, he’ll be performing as the musical guest. Gen Z has probably never anticipated SNL as much as they are this weekend. Until Zendaya hosts, that is.

Back to all those Timmys though – should he bring them all to the Oscars? Or by that point will it be too much? I can’t answer this, I’m not Gen Z.