Timothée Chalamet talks playing a cannibal in Bones & All

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Exclusive: "For me, it felt like the cannibalism was a metaphor for what your ancestors leave you with"

Bones and All movie still
(Image credit: MGM / BonesAndAllFilm / Twitter)

Timothée Chalamet and director Luca Guadagnino are reteaming for a new project – and it couldn't be more different from Call Me By Your Name. Their upcoming movie, Bones & All, sees the Dune actor play a cannibal who falls for a fellow flesh-eater, played by Taylor Russell. Despite the on-screen gore – veering into horror territory occasionally – this is a love story, and one with many layers. For the new issue of SFX, featuring Willow on the cover, Chalamet touches on the movie's themes. And yes, we talk cannibalism. Here's a snippet of the Q&A.

SFX: How did you interpret your character Lee and Russell's Maren’s need to feed?

Chalamet: For me, it felt like the cannibalism was a metaphor for what your ancestors leave you with – your immediate parents, but also the trauma that you’ve lived with from generations past. You wrestle with that. Sometimes it’s something you can actually overcome and break the cycle. And sometimes a curse remains a curse and a blemish remains a blemish.

Was there anything else you felt as you were making it?

During, it felt like this quickly became a metaphor about addiction for me – especially young people who are addicted, are figuring out the most rudimentary things about themselves, what it means to be in love, what it means when you’re in a relationship, what it means to try to support someone in a relationship. You are wrestling with something so intense, so dangerous, as to affect other people’s mortality or your own... Without giving anything away, love can be something that rescues you out of it and lifts you up. But I also like the other interpretation – again, without giving too much away – that love can lift you, ultimately to sort of crush you too, because sometimes those demons remain.

Do you think the film has a feel of Badlands or Bonnie And Clyde? 

Those are two huge inspirations for the movie. When I think about Bonnie And Clyde and Badlands, it was just a style of acting in those movies that was more direct. It felt old-fashioned that way and felt inspiring. Badlands is a movie I hadn’t seen before I read the script. And then you watch it and you’re deeply invested in these characters.

That's just a snippet of the long read, available in the Willow issue of SFX Magazine, available on newsstands from Wednesday, November 2. For even more from SFX, sign up to the newsletter, sending all the latest exclusives straight to your inbox.

James Mottram
Freelance writer

James Mottram is a freelance film journalist, author of books that dive deep into films like Die Hard and Tenet, and a regular guest on the Total Film podcast. You'll find his writings on GamesRadar+ and Total Film, and in newspapers and magazines from across the world like The Times, The Independent, The i, Metro, The National, Marie Claire, and MindFood.