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Marie Claire
Marie Claire
Lifestyle
Iris Goldsztajn

How Timothée Chalamet's "Emotional Intelligence" Will Transform the Character of Willy Wonka

The King Australian Premiere - Arrivals

Timothée Chalamet is set to portray famous fictional chocolatier Willy Wonka in an upcoming origin story movie simply titled Wonka.

This, if you ask me, is the most perfect casting choice anyone has ever made, and of course the movie's director agrees with me.

"I think what's so remarkable about his performance is not only that he is funny and mischievous and quite mysterious, as well—just like the Willy Wonka that people will know—but also, he brings such heart to the role and he's a brilliant actor," Paul King told People in a recent interview.

"He's incredibly emotionally intelligent and can bring a great deal of emotional truth to the role."

Wonka is a musical, so the great thing about this for King is that we get to find out that Chalamet "can also sing and dance brilliantly" as well as being a fantastic actor with an already glowing resume.

Going on to describe how exactly Chalamet portrays Wonka, King said he will be "everything that people would expect, but also a whole lot more, because there has been emotional depth and truth—which is a side to the book that we haven't seen in either of the Charlie movies, because [Wonka is] really at the heart of the movie in a way that Charlie was at the heart of the previous movies."

Chalamet will be taking over the role from Johnny Depp, who portrayed the chocolate maker in 2005's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Gene Wilder, who created the role in the 1971 version. The story was based on the 1964 novel by Roald Dahl.

As for Wonka, which premieres in December, it tells the story of how the titular character came to create his chocolate empire, and it looks absolutely delightful based on the trailer. Cannot wait.

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