timothée chalamet's ode to effort

vis-a-vis ivy lynn (smash) (2012-13) (i'm so serious)

I’ll be honest with you: this whole thing was almost solely about Smash (2012-13), but then I was like, no, Clara, it's 2025 and you're trying to get people to actually read this newsletter. For god's sake, find a new angle. Then Timothée Chalamet won a SAG award and the new angle found me.

To be clear, I will still be discussing Smash, it'll just be a sort of co-starring situation. The five Smash fans who subscribe to Hmm will be disappointed, but luckily few groups are more accustomed to enduring disappointment than Smash fans.

But first: Timmy. Timmy, who's been nominated for 7 SAGs,¹ 3 Critics Choice Awards, 4 Golden Globes, 2 BAFTAs, and 2 Oscars, and until this weekend, won zero of them. Timmy, who got up on stage in his little leather suit and lime-green shirt that brought back Limewire memories and in a speech I know left Nike marketing execs in a state said, "I'm in pursuit of greatness."

The second face kills me lol like yeah I said that, so what!

Now, I'll be super honest with you: of the five actors nominated in his category at the SAG awards, Chalamet's performance is the only one I haven’t yet seen. It wasn't an intentional miss, it just hasn't been in theaters around me. I will seek to remedy my error posthaste.

But, regardless of my own personal failures: do you know how bold you have to be, to stand in a room full of your peers, many of them older if not necessarily more accomplished than you, and declare such a thing? To draw them all into your lofty goals, making them not just observers but participants in your accomplishments, present and future? I know we often (and rightly, to be sure) mock awards ceremonies as self-absorbed bits of theater, but I think we all wish we could all stand in a room of our peers and prop each other up. (Sorry if that’s too earnest, I get like this when spring approaches.)