‘Wonka’ Director Praises Timothée Chalamet’s Singing Voice, Says the Movie Isn’t a Musical

Wonka director Paul King is praising his star, Timothée Chalamet, once again.

In a new interview with Total Film to promote the upcoming adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, King took a moment to shout out Chalamet’s singing voice.

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“[He]’s got a beautiful singing voice,” he told the publication. “The person it reminded me of was Bing Crosby. There’s quite a range because it does go from a couple of bigger, showstopper-y sort of things, to moments of real, pure emotion, and he can do it all… I’m going to sound like a crazed fan.”

The Paddington helmer also made it a purpose to establish that while the film has songs in it, he doesn’t exactly consider it a musical.

“The Oompa Loompas sing a lot in the book, and Dahl always uses poetry,” King explained. “But I didn’t want it to just become a musical where people are singing dialogue to each other for no discernible reason. I felt like it was more like a movie with songs than a musical.”

This isn’t the first time the director has sung his star’s praises. In a previous interview with Rolling Stone, he revealed Chalamet didn’t even need to audition for the part because the actor was the only person he thought could do it.

“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,” King said, “so I knew from stanning for Timmy Chalamet that he could sing and dance really well. And I knew that was in his arsenal, but I didn’t know how good he was.”

Wonka also stars Hugh Grant as an Ooompa Loompa, Olivia Colman, Keegan-Michael Key, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson, Colin O’Brien, Matt Lucas, Simon Farnaby, Natasha Rothwell, Rufus Jones and more.

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