Why Timothée Chalamet Calls ‘Wonka’ the Role of a Lifetime (Exclusive)

Grab your golden ticket — the chocolate factory is back in business with Timothée Chalamet at the helm!

“Extra’s” Terri Seymour sat down with Timothée and Hugh Grant in London to talk “Wonka,” which Timothée calls the role of a lifetime.

Chalamet shared, “This is a tone and a character I never thought I would get to be.”

The movie is a prequel to the original 1971 classic “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.”

Timothée noted, “This film is really a companion piece to the Gene Wilder ’71 film… Some of the musical numbers from that film are in this one.”

Chalamet is playing a younger version of Willy. He said, “An ambitious Willy, sort of a naïve Willy. He’s full of hopes and dreams. He doesn’t have that quality that we see in the other Willy Wonka films.”

Hugh remarked that he saw some of Gene Wilder in Chalamet, joking that they had the "same slightly demented look in the eye."

"I'll take it as a huge compliment," Timothée replied.

When Hugh was asked if he ever imagined playing an Oompa Loompa, he quipped, “I didn’t think I'd have sunk this low, this fast.”

The role required Hugh to dance and sing! He admitted, “That’s always torture. I just thought it’d be funny, watching a 63-year-old Englishman putting his head between his legs.”

As for Timothée, he said the "Wonka" world was quite the switch-up!

"The two physically intense movies I did before, "The King" and "Dune," they were sort of evidently physically demanding, the war scenes and battles," he reflected. "This, because there's an element of play and fun, the physical demands kind of snuck up on me. You know if you’re doing 13 takes of a dance number and maintaining that generous spirit... This required a different energy, so that part snuck up on me. But I felt that my ability to be in that tone got smoothed out pretty quickly. But at first it was a brand new world to me."

Terri also asked Chalamet about his headline-making press tour fashions, including that lavender latex outfit.

Hugh teased, "There was an awkward moment in Japan where we both put on the same red latex jumpsuit. Panic, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, panic," Timothée agreed. "We did a coin toss and I got to wear it."