'Wonka' Director Reveals Timothee Chalamet Didn't Audition for Role - Here's Why He Got the Part

Travis Scott is taking aim at Timothée Chalamet in one track off his latest album. At least that’s what fans think!

Fans think Travis Scott is dissing Timothee Chalamet.

Oompa, Loompa, doom-pa-dee-do, I’ve got another scandal for you. Hugh Grant’s casting as an Oompa Loompa in the Timothée Chalamet-led film “Wonka” has sparked controversy among actors with dwarfism, reports the BBC. George Coppen, who has dwarfism, slammed the “Notting Hill” star’s casting.

Timothee Chalamet is stepping out for a quick slice.

Hugh Grant as an Oompa Loompa in Wonka.Directed by Paul King (Paddington), the upcoming film is based on the universe created in Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. Timothée Chalamet plays the lead role of Willy Wonka, in what’s billed as a prequel to the 1971 film adaptation.George Coppen, who is best known for playing Sweet Cupid in Netflix’s The School For Good And Evil, believes the Oompa Loompa role should have been given to an actor with dwarfism.Speaking to the BBC, Coppen said: “A lot of actors [with dwarfism] feel like we are being pushed out of the industry we love.“A lot of people, myself included, argue that dwarfs should be offered everyday roles in dramas and soaps, but we aren’t getting offered those roles.

Naman Ramachandran Hugh Grant’s casting as an Oompa Loompa in “Wonka” has been criticized by an actor with dwarfism. The film belongs to the universe created by British author Roald Dahl in 1964 novel “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” It is directed by Paul King (“Paddington”) and produced by Heyday Films, Village Roadshow Pictures and Warner Bros.

A Charlie and the Chocolate Factory superfan has amassed so much memorabilia he's had to create his own 'Wonka Wing' at home. Nick Anderton's £150,000 collection even includes an original Wonka Bar given to him by the actor who played Veruca Salt.

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Wonka, it has been revealed.The prequel movie, which will be released in cinemas on December 15, sees Chalamet play the title character.A first trailer for Wonka was released earlier this week, giving fans their first proper glimpse at Chalamet’s singing and dancing young chocolatier, and director and co-writer Paul King has now shared a bit more information regarding the film’s set.In a scene previewed in the trailer, Wonka and his friend Noodle (Calah Lane) find themselves in a sea of chocolate, and King explained to PEOPLE how they shot the scene.“We actually made an enormous vat of hot chocolate — not scalding, just warm hot chocolate for them to immerse themselves in,” he said. “So there was a lot of chocolate around.”King then praised the film’s “incredible” on-set chocolatier, saying: “She made these incredible concoctions, and we would taste them.“They tasted much better than they needed to, because obviously actors are good at pretending things, but the miracle was they tasted every bit as good as they looked.”A synopsis of Wonka reads: “Starring Timothée Chalamet in the title role, this irresistibly vivid and inventive big screen spectacle will introduce audiences to a young Willy Wonka, chock-full of ideas and determined to the change the world one delectable bite at a time – proving that the best things in life begin with a dream, and if you’re lucky enough to meet Willy Wonka, anything is possible.”Alongside Chalamet, the star-studded cast includes Keegan-Michael Key, Rowan Atkinson, Sally Hawkins, Olivia Colman, Hugh Grant (as an Oompa-Loompa), Jim Carter and Matt Lucas.King also recently revealed that Chalamet didn’t have to audition for his leading role in the film.

Timothee Chalamet is stepping out for the day.

Timothée Chalamet was born to play Willy Wonka.

Hugh Grant is one of the greatest rom-com heroes of our time, having starred in Bridget Jones’s Diary, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and more. He’s also a king of the period drama, making his big-screen debut in the 1987 Merchant Ivory classic Maurice before charming Emma Thompson in 1995’s Sense and Sensibility.

revealed to Rolling Stone that the “Dune” actor was able to beat out the likes of Donald Glover, Ezra Miller and Ryan Gosling for the role of the famed chocolatier Willy Wonka — without auditioning — on the strength of a few YouTube clips of an all-singing, all-dancing young Chalamet. NYC native Chalamet attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, graduating in 2013.King was surprised by “how good he was,” realizing he’d found the right whimsical fit for the “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” prequel musical.“It was a straight offer because he’s great and he was the only person in my mind who could do it,” King said.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Despite reports over the years that Warner Bros. was courting the likes of Donald Glover, Ezra Miller and Ryan Gosling to play Willy Wonka, it was only Timothée Chalamet who got the offer to lead director Paul King’s prequel musical “Wonka.” And Chalamet didn’t even have to audition. King recently told Rolling Stone that he was a Chalamet “stan” and thus knew the actor had the singing and dancing chops required to play Wonka. “It was a straight offer because he’s great and he was the only person in my mind who could do it,” King said. “But because he’s Timothée Chalamet and his life is so absurd, his high school musical performances are on YouTube and have hundreds of thousands of views. So I knew from stanning for Timmy Chalamet that he could sing and dance really well.”

In the much-anticipated musical prequel titled Wonka, Timothée Chalamet takes on the role of the eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka – but he's overshadowed by a late arrival in the short clip. The trailer for the latest adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic tale was released on Wednesday and showcases a star-studded cast including Olivia Colman, Rowan Atkinson, Keegan-Michael Key, Matt Baynton, and Matt Lucas.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director The official trailer for Warner Bros.’ “Wonka” gave moviegoers a first look at Timothée Chalamet’s singing and dancing chocolatier. It also dropped a surprise at the very end: Hugh Grant sporting green hair and orange skin as an Oompa Loompa. How did such casting come about? Thank “Wonka” director Paul King, who previously cast Grant as the villainous Phoenix Buchanan in “Paddington 2.” “Going back to the book, and reading all those poems, and hearing [the Oompa Loompas’] voice as a very sort of cynical, sarcastic, cruel, funny, but wicked voice, I went, ‘Oh… That’s sort of a bit like Hugh!’,” King told Empire magazine. “It was a real light bulb moment – you go, ‘Hugh Grant’s an Oompa-Loompa! Yes please! Merry Christmas, with a bow on it.’”

Timothée Chalamet. The first trailer has been released for “Wonka,” showing a new side to the beloved story and character that has existed for decades in films and novels.

Hugh Grant has been spotted in the official trailer for the upcoming movie about Willy Wonka, where he portrays a tiny CGI Oompa-Loompa. In the film titled "Wonka," Four Wedding star Grant features alongside Timothee Chalamet, who takes on the role of the eccentric chocolate factory owner.

Wonka.Directed by Paul King (Paddington), the prequel film sees Timothée Chalamet take on the iconic character, who originates from Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel Charlie And The Chocolate Factory.Wonka also boasts a star-studded supporting cast, including Keegan-Michael Key, Rowan Atkinson, Sally Hawkins, Olivia Colman, Hugh Grant, Jim Carter, and Matt Lucas.As shown in the trailer, Wonka serves as a prequel to Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and follows Willy Wonka in his youth prior to the opening of his factory. As such, unlike past screen versions of the character, Wonka will be largely unshackled from Dahl’s source material.

At just 27, Timothée Chalamet has played a wide range of characters already in his career. There’s plenty of precocious and/or troubled youths in his filmography, like the upstart Henry V in “The King,” Frank Herbert‘s hero Paul Atreides, or the cannibal drifter Lee in “Bones And All.” But this winter, Chalamet plays an altogether different type of young man in the first musical of his career: Willy Wonka in Paul King‘s “Wonka.” READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2023 King’s prequel to Roald Dahl‘s 1964 novel “Charlie And The Chocolate Factory,” “Wonka” sees Chalamet don the eccentric candymaker’s top hot and cane after Peter Sellers and Johnny Depp.