How Timothée Chalamet’s Childhood Love for AS Saint-Etienne Shaped His Identity as a Hollywood Star

He doesn’t miss a single one. Every time he has the opportunity to shout to the world his love of AS Saint-Etienne, Timothée Chalamet takes advantage of it. “Allez les Verts” launched during previews in France, an ASSE jersey worn during a talk show “Late Night with Seth Meyers”, the star of Wonka, which is released in theaters this Wednesday, is what we call a hardcore fan of the current 8th in Ligue 2. The distance or the bad results have obviously not altered his immoderate love for the ten-time champions of France. But where does this passion come from? How could one of Hollywood’s biggest stars fall in love with the Greens?

The story is simple and has its roots in the childhood of a young boy with a dual culture: French, through his father, and American, through his mother. Every summer, when he was still just a football fan like any other, Timothée Chalamet went to the family home of his paternal grandparents, in Chambon-sur-Lignon. A village perched on the heights of Saint-Etienne, where the star of Dune visited again last August, an hour as the crow flies from Geoffroy-Guichard. Generally, in these corners of Loire and Haute-Loire, the Greens are part of the DNA and supporting them is non-negotiable.

Timothée Chalamet, huge fan of AS Saint-Etienne

Credit: Quentin Guichard

When he was young, little Chalamet dreamed of a professional career. At the beginning of the 2000s, he even participated in Bernard Bosquier’s training courses in the region and played goalkeeper. “I realized at twelve or thirteen that I didn’t have the talent or the physique to have a career like that,” he later confided to our colleagues at RTL. His father, Marc, ended up emigrating to the United States after studying at the Cévénol college in Chambon-sur-Lignon. Family roots are strong on the Haute-Loire plateau. Timothée Chalamet therefore took with him this love, unusual on the other side of the Atlantic, for the family club.

ASSE – Guingamp drives him crazy

On the wall of his teenage bedroom in New York, a poster of Jimmy Briand, another of his idols, and every weekend, an eye on the result of Saint-Etienne and of course, a detour by Geoffroy-Guichard whenever he can. “I spent a lot of time at Le Chaudron supporting Bafétimbi Gomis, Dimitri Payet, Jérémie Janot… I’m really a fan!”, he explains during an issue of 50 Minutes Inside. Same statement a few months earlier on the red carpets: “My life has not changed, I spend more time in Los Angeles but I still watch the Saint-Etienne matches.” The Greens did not forget to offer him a jersey when he was nominated for the Oscars for his role in “Call me by your name”.

An attention which had particularly touched the one who is, however, at the center of everything: “It upset me when I saw that!”, he admitted to the 8 p.m. news on TF1. This year again, despite the slow decline of his protégés, Chalamet keeps the flame alive. In May, he shared with his 18 million followers, most of whom have probably never heard of ASSE, his joy after a crazy victory against Guingamp and shouted after a goal from Ibrahima Wadji: “But What’s going on in this match!”

Ambassador of the Greens in NY?

Chalamet and the Greens are a frank, sincere and, a priori, eternal love. His dad, Marc, would even like things to go further and for the New Yorker to become the club’s ambassador to the Big Apple: “I’m pushing him to take care of it,” he told Progrès. He would like it and we had discussed the idea. Only, for the moment, he has crazy timing. The Saint-Etienne colony is less numerous than that of the Gones in the Big Apple but there is a small hard core which does not ask only to unite. Timmy will be perfect in this role of unifier.” On a promotional tour for the film Wonka, Timothée Chalamet gave a final nod to his club. When he was asked by Seriousely what superpower he would like to have, the answer came: “May Saint-Etienne win L1.” Love sometimes makes you unreasonable…

2023-12-13 11:47:00
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