Timothee Chalamet sings like a young Bing Crosby, says Wonka director: ‘I’m going to sound like a crazed fan’

Wonka director Paul King couldn’t be happier about bagging Timothee Chalamet for the lead role of Willy Wonka in his upcoming Warner Bros. film.

The reaction to Timothee’s casting as the infamous Roald Dahl chocolatier has been relatively mixed, but King is so onboard the Chalamet train that he’s worried he sometimes sounds “like a crazed fan.”

In a recent interview with Variety, King gushed about Timmy’s “beautiful singing voice” and compared it to that of Bing Crosby.

“There’s quite a range, because it does go from a couple of bigger, showstopper-y sort of things, to moments of real, pure emotion and he can do it all… I’m going to sound like a crazed fan,” he said.

This isn’t the first time that King has spoken about his obsession with Timothee, either.

In an interview with Rolling Stone back in July, the director admitted that he knew from ‘stanning’ Timmy online that the actor would be perfect for his film.

“Because he’s Timothee Chalamet and his life is so absurd, his high school musical performances are on YouTube and have hundreds of thousands of views,” King explained.

“So I knew from stanning Timmy Chalamet that he could sing and dance really well.

“I knew that was in his arsenal, but I didn’t know how good he was. When I spoke to him he was quite keen. He’d done tap dancing in high school and he was like, ‘I’d quite like to show people I can do that.’”

The director revealed that, after doing a deep dive into Chalamet’s online repertoire, he directly offered the Call Me By Your Name star the role of Willy Wonka.

“It was a straight offer because he’s great and he was the only person in my mind who could do it.”

Despite confirmation that Chalamet will be showing off his singing and dancing chops in the film, King insists that Wonka isn’t a straight movie musical.

“The Oompa Loompas sing a lot in the book, and Roald Dahl always uses poetry,” King told Variety. 

“But I didn’t want it to just become a musical where people are singing dialogue to each other for no discernible reason. I felt like it was more like a movie with songs than a musical.”

Wonka is due to hit theatres in December 2023.