Timothee Chalamet Shares the Advice Tom Cruise Gave Him

Timothée Chalamet is on a meteoric rise as a movie star, with the upcoming release of Dune: Part Two thrusting him into the biggest spotlight of his career. As Chalamet entered the next phase of his stardom, he got advice from one of the only people in the world who understands what superstardom is all about: Tom Cruise. 

There’s a new GQ profile on Timothée Chalamet, timed for what would’ve been the release of Dune: Part Two, before the Writers’ and Actors’ Strikes delayed the film’s release until 2024. In that profile, we get insight into what Chalamet was doing while filming Dune 2, and it turns out that one of his favorite pastimes was watching Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick. That anecdote led to another story of what happened when Chalamet first met Tom Cruise, after filming the first Dune movie: 

“After I met Tom Cruise, right after finishing the first Dune, he sent me the most wonderfully inspiring email,” Chalamet revealed. “He basically said, in Old Hollywood, you would be getting dance training and fight training, and nobody is going to hold you to that standard today. So, it’s up to you. The email was really like a war cry.”

Every new generation of actors has offered up someone who is anointed to be ‘the next Tom Cruise,’ but few actually measure up to the legacy when it comes to both dramatic and action/stunt performance. Cruise’s note to Chalamet speaks to the range of skills he’s built over his long and storied career – and maybe to the reason why none of the would-be Cruise successors actually fit the mantle. 

That all said: director Denis Villeneuve’s epic Dune movie saga seems to be a project that will push Timothée Chalamet to new heights of both dramatic and action/stunt performance – especially in Part Two. So Cruise’s advice may quickly turn out to be invaluable. 

Who Does Timothée Chalamet Play In Dune? 

In the Dune movie franchise, Timothée Chalamet stars as Paul Atreides, the heir of the galactic empire of House Atreides. The first Dune film tracked how Paul’s father Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) came to the planet Arrakeen to harvest the coveted “spice” that’s local to the planet – only to be betrayed and assassinated by the malevolent rival Harkonnen Empire. Paul and his mother Lady Jessica escaped into the desert, where Paul’s visions came true when he met the Fremen desert fighters and the literal girl of his dreams, Chani (Zendaya), hinting that an epic (and brutal) destiny of war and conquest is waiting in Paul’s imminent future. Dune: Part Two will explore if that prophecy is true. 

Dune: Part Two will be released in theaters on March 15, 2024.