Offerings #16: Josh O'Connor addresses being an Altar Boy

Josh O’Connor has been in 100 (4) movies this year and he’s finally addressing his Altar Boy status — it is his face after all that I modeled the construction paper logo of this newsletter after. 

Ahead of his SNL debut, the British sweetheart went on Seth Meyers, where the host said, “You had a brief altar boy time in your life and it turns out you’re not good at it.” To say my ears perked up is an understatement! Josh responded, “I thought I was brilliant at it.” And he’s right. He’s charming, inoffensive, and very talented. What more could you ask for from an Altar Boy (in this newsletter’s definition of the phrase). 

Of course, Meyers was referring to altar boys in the tradition sense, you know the ones found in churches — Irish Catholic churches in Josh’s case. It’s a position Josh was fired from for smiling too much. My point stands, a perfect Altar Boy!

THE STATE OF TIMOTHEE CHALAMET Now onto an Altar Boy on the verge of being fired. 

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but something is amiss with Timothee Chalamet. Perhaps something always was, but I was blinded by his boyish charm … and being 17-years-old. I can see clearly now that the curls are gone. Quite literally everything he’s doing to promote Marty Supreme is threatening his Altar Boy status. Below I’ve outlined my key takeaways so far from this press cycle.

I: Marketing is his passion

If you were a millionaire and could spend the time you’re not doing the work that makes you a millionaire doing anything, what would you do? I know none of you answered marketing. That is seemingly where Chalamet’s interests lie. 

As writer Mattie Khan puts it in her profile of Chalamet for Vogue, he is “interested in pushing other kinds of boundaries” and no, those aren’t artistic boundaries. Those are the boundaries of marketing a movie. He personally hired the team of musicians and set decorators for his musical performance on SNL and is self-funding the ping pong ball head posse that’s following him around — let that sit with you — and the custom Marty Supreme jackets. 

GQ published a piece titled, “Is the Marty Supreme Jacket the Defining Garmet of 2025.” Please don’t piss me off. 

The profile reads, “‘I feel thrilled by it all,’ he says. Where else would he rather spend his money than on making his work better? ‘I found I have a point of view and authorship that’s unusual,’ he says.” I’m confused. How does a Marty Supreme blimp make his work better? Maybe I’m just a naive, unemployed journalist infrequently writing a newsletter for free, but last time I checked, making more money doesn’t make your work better. If anything, these stunts draw attention away from his work and onto him. 

Tom Cruise, who is a supervillain in his own right, actually wants movies broadly to succeed. Timothee Chalamet on the other hand wants Timothee Chalamet to succeed.

Admittedly he can be charming in playing with his new marketing-obsessed persona. Soon after the profile he released an eighteen minute skit of him presenting his ideas for Marty Supreme to the A24 marketing team. It acknowledges and pokes fun at his obsession with promoting the film by pushing it to extremes. His computer background is an image of himself accepting the SAG award for The Complete Unknown — his acceptance speech about his “pursuit of greatness” ruffled a lot of feathers. But then again it’s an eighteen minute skit of a marketing meeting! 

II: He’s only interested in endeavors that will result in fame

This is kind of a side note, but there’s this insane part of the Vogue profile that you honestly have to read for yourself where he talks about his time at Columbia and how he basically didn’t try.

III: He “believes procreation is the reason we’re here”

That statement leans a little too much towards right wing rhetoric for my taste. Whenever someone millions of people look up to uses that sort of rhetoric I think it’s a serious issue. It also serves as a necessary reminder that he went on This Past Weekend with Theo Von. 

Lately I’ve found myself consistently disappointed with the lowkey right wing or antifeminist rhetoric peddled by celebrities in profiles. And I’m not talking about the obviously evil ones. I’m talking about Lorde parroting MAHA/antiabortion talking points about birth control in Rolling Stone, 35-year-old Jennifer Lawerence saying, “Believe me, I’m going to get one” re: the new style of facelift in the New Yorker, and Amanda Seyfried saying she’ll get Botox for life in Who What Wear. Then I remembered for some reason our society values people who became famous as teenagers’ opinions instead of literally anyone else!

Julia Phillips put it quite brutally in her memoir You’ll Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again, “It’s pretty funny all this posturing from a bunch of people who are predominantly street hustlers, most of whom haven’t gone to college, let alone graduated from high school. They read moving their lips and have horrible table manners.”

IV: The Timothee Chalamet / Josh O’Connor Cold War

So this is something I just made up. Back in October, Josh lightly shaded Chalamet’s SAG speech in GQ. He said he found the speech refreshing and that Chalamet had already achieved greatness. Then speaking directly to Chalamet via GQ, he said, “Great that you want that, but I hope you want that in your real life too, and I hope it doesn’t only become greatness in acting. I hope it’s greatness in … friendship or being a great son.” First, I love that Josh couldn’t help himself and had to get a little messy here. And more importantly, at the moment it seems like the two actors are vying for the greatest actor of their generation in two different ways. It's interesting to see them come head to head so directly — or as directly as speaking to each other through profiles gets.

LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE BOYS? Why are grown-up publications stooping to the likes of Altar Boys. When an adult magazine only praises male actors in its Hollywood issue it’s suspect, even to me. The spread from Vanity Fair was so perplexing from Ottessa Moshfeg using the phrase “internet boyfriend” down to Andrew Garfield’s inclusion as a “new” leading man. Ah yes, the 42-year-old new leading man! The only accuracy found in the entire issue was praising Harris Dickinson’s filmmaking with the label, “The Auteur.”  

NEW SENSITIVE GUY TALKING POINT In the past week both Ethan Hawke and Jacob Elordi have referred to AI as boring. In a short-form video being shoved down my throat, Hawke said “I’m so bored by AI.” He’s also “open to rebellion.” OK. 

In Vanity Fair Jacob said, “It bores me, personally … as far as I’m concerned, I would much rather kiss on the beach, and read a novel, and be sunburnt.” Some epic stuff to bring up in response to a question about the future of AI and filmmaking. 

BROOKLYN COLLAB Lucas Hedges starred in Cameron Winter’s music video for “Love Takes Miles.” It’s too random not to note. 

Due to this issue’s negativity, here are some interviews I actually really, really enjoyed:

Winona Ryder interviewed by Tavi Gevinson in Interview Magazine. 

The New Yorker’s profile of Noah Baumbach 

The Face’s Romy Mars cover story

INDULGENCES: MY ALTAR BOYS

Former Skins cast members, anyone Irish, British actors whose breakout role was “playing gay,” rappers from Kentucky, and men in Ocean’s Eleven (and their codependent best friends) are all fair game.

HARRY STYLES shaved his mustache. The moment I saw Harry Styles’ entire face it all briefly all flooded back to me, the decade of devotion to him… I’m not embedding a photo because it’s too dangerous of an image.

MJ LENDERMAN shared his ideal selfie angle while wearing sunglasses at the GQ Man of the Year red carpet.

@gq

#MJLenderman: 🤳 Catch our full #GQMOTY red carpet livestream at the link in bio and at Youtube.com/GQ.