Timothée Chalamet Gets Candid About Social Media’s Impact, Says ‘Societal Collapse Is in the Air’

The 'Call Me By Your Name' actor is in Venice with his latest Guadagnino collaboration 'Bones & All,' which he says explores particularly timely themes.

September 2, 2022

Timothee Chalamet is seen on the red carpet — Image via Getty/Vittorio Zunino Celotto
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Timothée Chalamet, whose new film Bones & All is among the films being given the Venice International Film Festival treatment this month, spoke decisively and candidly about social media and “societal collapse” during a press conference on Friday.

As reported by Deadline and others, Chalamet—who acts alongside Taylor Russell in the latest film from his Call Me By Your Name collaborator Luca Guadagnino—told reporters on Friday “it was a relief” to step into a world where the characters aren’t dependent on social media.

“To be young now, to be young whenever—I can only speak to my generation—but it is to be intensely judged,” Chalamet said. “I can’t imagine what it is to grow up with the onslaught of social media and it was a relief to play characters that are wrestling with an internal dilemma absent the ability to go on Reddit or Twitter or Instagram or TikTok and figure out where they fit in. Which is, without casting judgment on that because if you can find your tribe there then all the power, but I think it’s tough to be alive now. I think societal collapse is in the air. It smells like it. And without being pretentious, that’s why hopefully these movies matter. Because the role of the artist—or so I’m told—is to shine a light on what’s going on.”

What spurred the comments was a question from a reporter about the film’s exploration of “isolation from choices” and the idea of judgment at a young age, as seen starting around the 15:17 mark in the video below.

Following a run of festival screenings, Bones & All—based on the award-winning novel by Camille DeAngelis—is set to open theatrically here in the States in November. Peep the film’s official Venice-shared synopsis below:

Of course, I’d be doing anyone reading this a massive disservice if I didn’t also take this opportunity to again mention the recent (and not-praised-nearly-enough) Luca Guadagnino series on HBO, We Are Who We Are. Get into it as soon as humanly possible if you missed it during its original run back in 2020.