By now you’ve probably seen or heard of those Timothee Chalamet photos getting attention this week. No, I’m not talking about the paparazzi shots of him holding hands with Kylie Jenner in Paris. I’m talking about the images of Timmy strolling up to the London premiere of A Complete Unknown astride an electric Lime bicycle. Not only was the bike his mode of transportation to the event (there was traffic, he said), but the kid even rode the bike on the red carpet. It was fun! He’s the star of the movie, and anyway Timothee has the cache to set the mold for what it means to be a Gen Z movie star. By the next day, Timmy was off to Paris for more film promo duties, including a stop at French talk show Quotidien (if your name is Timothee Chalamet then you’re legally obligated to be fluent in French), where Timmy revealed that in his brief time using the Lime bike in London he’d gotten a £65 fine for parking it incorrectly. Sacré bleu!
Although Timothee Chalamet opted for a sensible mode of transportation for his latest red carpet, apparently no good goes unpunished.
After the Oscar nominee arrived to Tuesday’s London premiere of A Complete Unknown on a Lime bike, he revealed he was slapped with a £65 (roughly $79) fine for incorrectly parking the ride.
“It’s ecological!” explained Chalamet on the French talk show Quotidien of why he hopped the bike. “It was horrible, because it was actually kind of an advert for them.”
He noted that he opted out of taking a car to the BFI Southbank premiere due to a traffic jam.
Chalamet’s bike ride comes after he earned a Golden Globe nomination for his performance as Bob Dylan in writer/director James Mangold’s biopic A Complete Unknown.
Now playing in theaters, the biopic follows an enigmatic 19-year-old from Minnesota who arrives in NYC in 1961 with his guitar and revolutionary talent, destined to change the course of American music. He forges intimate relationships with music icons of Greenwich Village on his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking and controversial performance that reverberates worldwide.
A Complete Unknown also stars Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash, Will Harrison as Bob Neuwirth and more.
Do I think Timothee Chalamet can pay a $79 fine without feeling the pinch? Absolutely. After all, he was mensch enough to offer to cover the $500 lack of permit fine incurred at his own lookalike contest. If nothing else, he has a billionaire girlfriend who could spot him the change. That being said, Timmy’s argument is right! Lime couldn’t buy the kind of publicity Timmy just handed them — for free! When contacted by Forbes, Lime was cagey about whether they even issued the fine, let alone how much it was (most of their fines are no larger than £20). I can’t figure out when they could’ve even reached Timmy. He zipped across the channel tout suite! And no, it didn’t go unnoticed online that Timmy got into trouble for going electric, via bike, while promoting a Bob Dylan biopic that depicts the uproar Dylan faced for going electric, via guitar. In that light, Timmy is so particular with his red carpet moments… could he have planned this whole kerfuffle? I wouldn’t put it past Le Chalamet!
photos credit: James Warren/Bang Showbiz/Avalon