He’s one of the most promising actors in recent years, but even Timothée Chalamet has had his off days in his career. Before he became the mega movie star we know him to be today with films like “Call Me by Your Name,” “Dune,” and “Marty Supreme,” Chalamet had a brief run on television before his big breakout. One of his most prominent roles on television was playing Finn Walden, the son of the U.S. vice president in the thriller series “Homeland.” There was a time, however, when A&E had their eye on him for the role of a young monster in the making when they were hunting for the star of their upcoming horror prequel series, “Bates Motel.”
Released in 2013 and running for five seasons, “Bates Motel” followed the early life of “Psycho” in the making, Norman Bates, and followed the tumultuous relationship with his mother that would come to have a vast and killer impact on him in later years. Easily one of the best shows inspired by a film, “Bates Motel” cast Freddy Highmore in the role of Norman, opposite Vera Farmiga as his mother, Norma Louise Bates. But first, Chalamet was approached for the role, and given his clear acting capability now, there’s no doubt he could’ve handled the part. The problem was that he spent time researching the wrong movie psycho before the audition.
Timothée Chalamet looked to American Psycho for inspiration instead of the original Psycho
Talking about his close encounter with the original owners of the Bates Motel, Chalamet revealed that a misjudged search for psychos led to him flubbing his audition. “I did it when I was 14 or 15, and I was told this was a young ‘Psycho.’ And I went to Netflix, and the first thing that came up for ‘Psycho’ was ‘American Psycho,’ which is obviously very specific tonally and performance-wise,” Chalamet told Backstage. His research led him to the 2000 Mary Harron film starring Christian Bale, which gave the world an equally unnerving and violent individual with Patrick Bateman, not Norman Bates. “So there’s an audition for ‘Bates Motel’ somewhere that’s a Patrick Bateman impression that’s way off tonally.”
Of course, hindsight is a hell of a thing, so perhaps it’s better that Chalamet didn’t end up at the motel, after all. Doing so could’ve kept us from the incredible and immense career the actor has had in the years since. While we may have been deprived of a television performance, nabbing the role could’ve meant we’d have missed out on Freddy Highmore’s consistently brilliant take on the character, as well. For now, let’s just be glad that Chalamet has had plenty more massive movie roles instead, and keep in mind that there are plenty of psychopaths he could end up playing in the future.