Tim Baltz discusses sharing a name with Timothée Chalaamet

In 2017, Timothée Chalaamet entered Call -me by your nameand the culture was like: “Will do. But how, exactly, did you pronounce your name? “As the years passed, Chalaamet appeared as one of The largest movie stars of a generationAnd I learned that his French heritage is the reason why he spells his name with two E and, as a colleague Zoë Haylock called -o“A sexy brand of accent.” But, along all these things, there was a person who understands exactly where Timothée Chalaamet and his name come from: Tim Baltz, the comedian and the best known actor for playing BJ on Right precious stones. That’s because Tim Baltz is actually Timothée Baltz. Years in comedy business and shows, the truth of his real name was just something that close people knew, but with Chalaamet up for best actor at Oscar This weekend for A complete unknownBaltz is ready to break his relative silence on how to live as Timothée.

What is your name?
My name is Timothée Joseph Baltz.

Is there an emphasis?
Technically, there is an emphasis. I never used it. The emphasis would be so confused.

WHY is your name?
The mother emigrated from France when she had in the late 20s. He certainly didn’t believe anything. For her, it was completely normal.

Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Joliet, Illinois.

How would people react to that spelling of your name?
Just a lot of confusion. I remember that colleagues did not really understand and did not show an alphabet graph and pointing to the letter Y. “Don’t you know that this letter exists? It is assumed to be written like this. “It was perhaps even a temptation of that middle -west Who do you think you are? And the teachers really fought. When someone pronounces it with a y instead of two e, I can hear it. Perhaps part of the reason I am so empathetic is that most of my childhood was spent watching these adults fighting with the two E.

Y.Understand how people react to small differences.
If I am completely serious and serious, this minor, at a very young age, opened my mind to the way people will be part of the differences. If they like it, this is something special. If they don’t like it, it’s something bad and you’ll be different. And I went to the public schools in Joliet, which was very diverse and I think it naturally gave me a start of empathy. I know it sounds very ridiculous, but it’s probably true. Also, if you are teasing for something so minor, you are like, Is so stupid. You only have this awareness that a lot of cultural rules and habits are arbitrary, but everyone acts as the gospel.

What did you finally pass by the child?
When I first started school, I was going to Timothée, because I liked to draw the small letters and write my full name. Then I went next to Timmy. Then people tell me Timmy B. Very much. Then, when I entered Junior High, it was like – I have to be cool – “it’s just tim”.

Have you spent time in baby France?
We would go to visit my grandparents in the summer and spend four or five weeks there. They lived in northern France in a city called Roubaix – which, as honestly, resembles Joliet, Illinois – then I would travel throughout the country. We would go to stay with family, friends and things like this. So it was an orientation to the family-rural, but an experience in the small city of France. I did not go to Paris until 18, even though I went to France dozens of times before 18 years.

Did you stay with Tim through college?
Yes. But I had a fake id to college and I put my real name, which was so stupid. But the Timothée part helped it, because I showed that I was 14 until about 31. But when I present it to Bouncers or Liqueur stores, I would see the two E and would create enough confusion to be like, If this is a false ID, why would this bad child write to him?

When you started in the comedy, did you reconsider what would you pass?
My middle name is Joseph. When I grew up, there were other children who passed TJ and I thought TJ was a bit fun. But there was always someone else who went through the TJ and you don’t want to compete with it and make someone like this: “TJ first.” Then, when I started doing comedy, there was already a legend of the improvisation comedy in Chicago, called TJ Jagodowski. So I was like, Damn it happened again. So I continued to go with Tim.

I never thought about going with Timothée. It would be as if I had tried to rebraw myself, which I think is now more acceptable, but then in the sketch comedy at Second City, it would have felt bizarre. I have always been quite low about my French background. It was always a hidden surprise, where are people: “Stay, do you speak French fluent? You have to joke. Literally just talk about NBA and Tom Petty basketball all the time. “

But when did you start acting?
I certainly had a time when I first received my card where I thought, Am I one of those three people called? Are Timothée Joseph Baltz? But I felt established already as Tim.

You have been credited as Timothée Baltz in your episode of Chicago pd And when you were on Parks and recreation.
It was simply a mistake for these two shows. I’m not kidding. I completed my W-2 and only put my full name on it absent. I probably asked someone: “Do you need my full name in this regard?” And they said “yes”. So I only put “Timothée”.

Do you remember when you first learned about Timothée Chalaamet?
The first time I heard about him was when he went out with that rap video in high school – as in 2012. This was the year for which I heard Snl. But I remember that when I saw that, I was like, This guy spells his name like that. Oh!

What did you believe about him?
It has grown between New York and Paris, which is my opposite pool, growing between two Joliet, Illinoises. I thought it was quite funny and joking, Maybe I should go out with a rap video about high school. But stay, I am 31 years old. I shouldn’t do that.

The only time this happened is that this is this French basketball player named Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot. That excited me. I really wanted him to be a big deal.

Since 2017, when Call -me by your name It came out, Timothée Chalaamet appeared as one of the biggest and most coolest film stars. How was it for you?
It’s great! It feels like a normalization of spelling. Before, when I presented the ID somewhere, I saw it with confusion. Now it is almost like an emotion and a clock of “another”.

Does he ever feel his success will deceive you? That, I could have been this guy if I used my real name?
I’m probably more jealous of Timothé Luwawu-Cabarot because I like basketball so much. A complete unknown he was driving me. I liked that. So no – for me, it was always, This is a kind of fun and normalizationAnd again, it’s a little secret when people find out I’m writing my name. Is less about branding; It has always been a very personal thing and, if you want to know more, then I share more about it and, if not, there is no big deal. I feel lucky to have a completely different experience of life through another culture and another language. I always had one foot on both continents. If I had met Bradley Cooper or Timothée Chalaamet or Victor Wembanyama, it would be very good to be like: “Hey, I’m glad to meet you.” And then in French, be like: “Hey, did you have crab cakes tonight?” And follow it to be like: “Wait, what?”

When you hear the name of Timothée Chalaamet told at the prize shows, how do you feel?
I have this feeling of Franco-American pride. I didn’t really know anyone who grew up between the two countries. I do not want to check the name on anyone in a bad way, but God if they were famous and terrible? Instead, it’s famous and wonderful.

Do you want Timothée to win the best actor at the Oscar?
Yes, I thought it was so good. I don’t know if you saw a lot of documentary things with Dylan in him, but I thought he just beat Dylan to throw things. Especially the first half of the film, I was indeed attracted to his portrait. This ability to be just casual, because his mind is so focused on the genius he pursues. Yes, I am very rooted for him to win that.

Specifically, because of your names?
Yes, for sure. I mean, I wanted Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot to be all-nba. That didn’t happen. So many ride Chalaamet right now.

Imagine that you are a child again in Joliet, Illinois, but it’s 2025, and Timothée Chalaamet is famous. Do you think you will go with Timothée?
Yes, it is probably normalized, so it can do it. I bet I will continue to go through Timmy B’s cycle, but I would probably have used Timothée in different ways.

Do you have final thoughts about your name?
I like its normalization. It would be very fun to speak French with him once. I approached myself to meet Bradley Cooper and I saw him doing a press in France. That has always been electric to see. My dream would be to do a project that would take me there and be interviewed on the French television and make people “this makes no sense.” I have always been a little too French here and certainly a little too American there. People see my face and are just as “hey, you are American.” I will speak perfect french and will not count.

I was on a podcast, and the host was like: “Do you play these characters … is something repressed?” And I was like: “Honest for God, it comes from hypervigilance that derives from being different and to be very observed.” I grew up being introduced in a lot of comedies by my father, but I would also go to France and see many other things there. I was fortunate to have a lot of different influences. There is a very interesting book that I read by a French writer and comedian, Isabelle Alonso, named L’Al est monly pay (Exile is my country), which investigated why it was fun and why it was gravitated to comedy, and sat on this idea, “Diférence Drôle”, which means you are fun because of your difference. Whether it was as a survival mechanism or a defense mechanism, the growth with this difference – those small two letters instead of a letter – they started on this path to Chicago and comedy.