Timothee Chalamet ‘Desperate’ to Be Better Than Hollywood Rivals: ‘The Saddest Thing About Him’

Timothée Chalamet is at the peak of his career right now, but he’s still ridiculously paranoid about his competition – and friends are begging him to take a chill pill before he totally self-destructs, a source exclusively tells Life & Style.

"Timmy is successful and becoming a global movie star, for a lot of good reasons,” the source says.

“He's good looking, he's talented, people like his work, and big time filmmakers want him on their sets. But there's a dark side to his personality that also played a part in his rise to the top.” 

“Timmy is utterly paranoid about the competition, the other young actors out there, who have gone after the roles that Timmy ultimately won.” 

As Life & Style previously reported, Timothée, 28, is constantly concerned with box office rivals edging him out of roles he feels should be his in Hollywood.

According to a different source that corroborates much of what the first insider says, the Dune star is “having to give the competition a serious look.” 

Despite making himself into a leading man and one of the industry’s most desirable actors, Timothée has found in Glen Powell, who is “constantly circling the same filmmakers and sometimes the same scripts,” as the Call Me By Your Name actor.

However, “earlier in his career, he was obsessed with Ansel Elgort,” the first source says, “who won the lead in Baby Driver over Timmy, and these days he's looking over his shoulder about Gabriel LaBelle, who is getting amazing reviews for playing Lorne Michaels in the Saturday Night film that is just coming out.” 

“But the larger problem here is that all of Timmy's self esteem is wrapped up in being the guy on the movie poster or walking the red carpet at one of his big premieres. That's no way to live life, even for a Hollywood movie star, and if Timmy just talked to some guys who have been around the block, like Matthew McConaughey or Keanu Reeves, he might understand that being a Hollywood leading man for your entire adult life means there are going to be ups and downs, some things are not going to work out, and you have to roll with the punches.” 

Despite taking in some expert wisdom from veteran A-lister and heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio, a different source said that Timothée’s “number one priority is to build a career that’s even bigger than Leo’s – by any means necessary.”

It’s clear Hollywood’s new leading man has a serious competitive streak and would benefit by taking a load off and listening to the advice of his older, more experienced peers.

“That's not how Timmy operates right now – he seems so afraid that somebody is going to come along and put together a hot streak of hits way bigger than the one he's in right now.” 

“He's very desperate to protect all of that, and it really is the saddest thing about him.” 

“It also makes relationships hard, especially friendships, because he refuses to acknowledge that anybody his age is a better movie star than him.” 

“So far, it's working, but it's a totally warped way to go through life."