Timothée Chalamet, one of Hollywood’s hottest young stars, is to make his London stage debut at the Old Vic in an “odd couple-style drama” with Dame Eileen Atkins.
Oscar-nominated Chalamet, who was recently named the most influential man in fashion and has been linked to his The King co-star Lily-Rose Depp, will play Dame Eileen’s grandson in 4000 Miles.
Artistic director Matthew Warchus, who will direct the play by US playwright Amy Herzog, said he used “the intoxicating” atmosphere of the historic Waterloo theatre to persuade the 23-year-old to make a rare stage appearance.
He said: “He was in London doing some publicity for one of his films and he came over to have a chat with me and we had a walk around the theatre and onto the stage, and I think he is excited by it.”
The play, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize when it was first produced, is set in the New York apartment of an ageing radical whose life changes when her grandson turns up in the middle of the night.
Warchus said he had no worries about casting Chalamet, whose theatre experience is limited to a few shows in the US. “The question about can film actors come up with the goods on stage is usually answered when I talk to them,” he said. “As a director, you can gauge an awful lot in that conversation about the understanding they have of what the job is and what it would take, if anything, to get them match fit for the stage. He is a phenomenally intelligent young man and he is fully aware of what is required.”
Dame Eileen made her stage debut in 1953 and has worked on Broadway and with the Royal Shakespeare Company as well as starring in hit TV shows. Last year Chalamet was nominated for an Oscar for Call Me By Your Name.
Warchus said he hoped the “radiant” story would bring in young and old audiences alike. He added: “It is someone nearing the end of their life and someone in the early stages thrown together in an odd couple-type situation.”
Tickets for the play, which runs from April 6 until May 23, go on sale next month.
