Timothée Chalamet Shocks With Best Actor Win at 2025 SAG Awards

Timothée Chalamet's performance as Bob Dylan in ‘A Complete Unknown’ earned him the Best Actor prize at the 2025 SAG Awards, making it a memorable night.  The 29-year-old brought his mother, Nicole Flender, as a date to the ceremony, which took place at the Shrine Auditorium. He praised her lengthy tenure with the stage union Actors' Equity and said he was shocked to win, saying he hadn't anticipated it at all.

Chalamet referred to playing Dylan as the honour of a lifetime, reflecting on the five years he spent training for the part with director James Mangold.  He also paused to acknowledge his fellow performers, highlighting his own quest for excellence.  He talked about being motivated to work harder by the commitment of athletes like Michael Jordan and Michael Phelps, as well as by renowned artists like Daniel Day-Lewis, Marlon Brando, and Viola Davis.

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Leading both ‘Dune: Part Two’ and ‘A Complete Unknown’, Chalamet has had a hectic year.  For their efforts on the biopic, which also features Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, and Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, he and Mangold were previously recognized at the 2025 Gotham Awards with the Visionary Tribute.

Chalamet defeated formidable competitors in the SAG Best Actor category, including Ralph Fiennes (‘Conclave’), Daniel Craig (‘Queer’), Colman Domingo (‘Sing Sing’), and Adrien Brody (‘The Brutalist’).  Brody won Best Actor at the 2025 Critics Choice Awards and BAFTAs for his well-praised portrayal of a Holocaust-surviving architect in ‘The Brutalist’.  

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Craig's second significant part since leaving ‘James Bond’ was in the love drama ‘Queer’, which was set in 1940s Mexico City.  While Domingo, an Emmy winner and Oscar candidate, has garnered multiple accolades for his portrayal of John "Divine G" Whitfield in ‘Sing Sing’, Fiennes wowed viewers as Cardinal Thomas Lawrence in ‘Conclave,’ a Vatican-set thriller based on Robert Harris's novel.

Chalamet's victory solidifies his status as one of Hollywood's most sought-after performers and adds another noteworthy accomplishment to his long list of professional accomplishments.

–Farheen Ali