Before he was dodging giant sandworms in Dune and leading armies in The King, actor Timothée Chalamet was a gamer. Specifically a YouTuber who focused on modded Xbox 360 controllers and boasted about 14,000 subscribers, as reported by Vice.
After Vice published its report, a clip of Chalamet was shared showing him admitting to his past as a young controller modder.
the story behind timothée chalamet’s youtube channel: moddedcontroller360 pic.twitter.com/y8wIHsyisv
— ☆ (@frostedchalamet) October 22, 2021
"I spray painted them on my pillow. I would open them up and I would charge people $10," Chalamet said, noting he made a grand total of $30 before his parents told him to quit filling the house with paint fumes.
You can check out each video on Chalamet's old channel here, where he shows off a red and green Christmas-themed controller, a blue and silver controller, and a red and black controller. It's an interesting time capsule of Chalamet's life just around the time he got his big break playing a small but significant role in Law & Order in 2009. The videos were posted in 2010, before Chalamet worked on USA's Royal Pains and Showtime's Homeland, making him about 15-years-old.
Chalamet narrates his videos, opening up with "what's good, YouTube?" before quickly explaining his color choices and asking viewers to "subscribe if you want" and giving a shoutout to 2009's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for being the "best video game right now."
The videos don't show Chalamet's face, but some digging by Vice determined that not only was the voice very much like what Chalamet sounded during his early roles, but also that the background of the videos matched an old Instagram picture from Chalamet's youth. A telltale scar on Chalamet's finger can also be found.
Chalamet has come a long way since his short career as a YouTuber. He most recently starred as Paul Atreides in Denis Villinueve's Dune: Part One and will return for Part Two in the future. Before that, he had starring roles in Little Women, Netflix's The King, he was nominated for Best Actor at the 90th Academy Awards for his role in Lady Bird, and starred in the Oscar-nominated Call Me By Your Name.
Chalamet will also be starring as the eccentric candy maker Willy Wonka in the upcoming prequel, simply titled "Wonka."
Joseph Knoop is a writer/reporter/sand worm for IGN.