Timothée Chalamet: Hollywood superstar, GQ cover model, and...former gaming YouTuber? Yes, more than a decade ago, the Dune actor used to operate a YouTube channel under the handle ModdedController360, where he showed off custom paint jobs of Xbox 360 controllers.
This morning, Vice published an extensive investigation—citing security experts and uncovering old social media posts—into Chalamet’s history as a YouTuber. But the outlet was scooped by its subject. Last week, Chalamet and his Dune co-star Zendaya sat down for an interview with internet personality Nate Hill, ostensibly to promote Chalamet and Zendaya’s Fortnite skins. (They also played some of the game.)
In that interview, Chalamet fully admitted to posting YouTube videos about custom-painted Xbox controllers.
“I had a YouTube channel people found,” Chalamet said. “It’s YouTube dot com back-slash ‘ModdedController360. And I used to paint-mod controllers.”
ModdedController360, which currently has about 15,000 followers, has just three videos, all of which were posted 11 years ago. One shows off a “Christmas-themed” controller with a red face and a green backplate (74,000 views as of this writing). Another shows a blue-and-silver controller with a bit more panache in terms of design (68,000 views). The third and final video features a red tiger print that’s described by ModdedController360 as “nice” and “sexy” (99,000 views).
Chalamet does not show his face in any of the videos on the channel, though you can see it pretty much everywhere these days.
On Friday, Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch, which features Chalamet, opened. The young actor is also the leading man in Dune: Part One, inarguably the biggest movie in the world right now. According to the box-office-tracking site Box Office Mojo, the film opened last week to a staggering (for the post-pandemic world) $40 million domestically. That’s on top of an impressive $180 million international cume. Yesterday, Legendary Pictures, the production company, officially announced the sequel, as if anyone had any doubts.
Not to brag (OK, maybe to brag a little bit), I got to see it a few weeks ago. Verdict: It’s pretty good! My advice? Watch it with a friend who’s read the books. Otherwise, you’ll be as lost as Chalamet’s character is during the plodding second act.