The internet has become a great leveling field of sorts for stars and their audiences, where any enterprising performer can become a social media sensation on Instagram, TikTok, etc. with the right kind of content. Recently, Dune star Timoth&ée Chalamet confirmed during a Q&A session (via NME) that he used to run a YouTube channel called ModdedController360 where he talked about, you guessed it, modded Xbox controllers.
the story behind timothée chalamet’s youtube channel: moddedcontroller360 pic.twitter.com/y8wIHsyisv
— ☆ (@frostedchalamet) October 22, 2021
“I used to paint/mod controllers. I did three… I would, like, open them up and paint them. And I would charge people ten dollars… I made thirty bucks… My parents were like, ‘There’s spray paint all over the house. You can’t do this anymore.'”
In gaming circles, “modding” is the practice of making changes to store-bought video game hardware and software to give it a personal, customized touch. Special types of “modded” controllers can sell for large amounts on sites like eBay, although the ethics of selling such items by third parties that technically belong to gaming companies have frequently been called into question.
The fact that Timoth&ée Chalamet might actually be ModdedController360 has been the subject of much speculation for years, ever since the rumor was started on Instagram back in 2018. The image of the budding actor as a gaming enthusiast went against his reputation for being a “serious” dramatic actor, which is why many people had trouble believing the 15-year-old YouTuber talking about his newly-made “Red Tiger” controller looking “sexy” was actually Chalamet.
The YouTube page for ModdedController360 shows three videos from eleven years ago which only depict the page owner’s hands and torso. After it was confirmed that Chalamet was the young boy in the videos, the page rapidly gained hundreds of thousands of new views as well as more than thirty thousand subscribers at the last count.
This is not the first time Chalamet has shown an unexpected side to his public persona. Another video from the young actor’s past that quickly went viral was one that Chalamet had made for his school LaGuardia high. In the video, a skinny young Chalamet raps about “Statistics” as his hip-hop alter ego ‘Lil Timmy Tim.
Despite his detours into rapping and modding controllers early on, today former Youtube influencer Timoth&ée Chalamet is best known as one of Hollywood’s hottest upcoming actors, someone who has already begun to be compared to both Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis based on his acting ability and choice of roles.
2021 has been a big year for Chalamet, with two major movies of his getting released after months of delay. The actor plays the lead in Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic Dune, and is one of the leading actors in Wes Anderson’s comedy-drama anthology film The French Dispatch.
Chalamet’s work in both movies has been praised, and the tremendous interest the internet has in his personal life is proof of his rising popularity with mainstream audiences after years of being known for more indie fare. He will next be seen in the lead once again as Paul Atreides in the sequel to Dune that has already been greenlit by the studio. This news comes to us from NME.
Source: movieweb.com