In 2017, Timothée Chalamet broke through in Call Me by Your Name, and the culture was like, “Will do. But how, exactly, would one pronounce your name?” As the years passed, Chalamet emerged as one of the biggest movie stars of a generation, and we learned that his French heritage is why he spells his name with two E’s and, as my colleague Zoë Haylock called it, “a sexy little accent mark.” But throughout all this, there’s been one person who understands exactly where Timothée Chalamet and his name come from: Tim Baltz, the comedian and actor best known for playing BJ on The Righteous Gemstones. That’s because Tim Baltz is actually Timothée Baltz. For years in comedy and show business, the truth of his real name was only something people close to him knew about, but with Chalamet up for Best Actor at the Oscars this weekend for A Complete Unknown, Baltz is ready to break his relative silence about what it’s like living as a Timothée.
What is your name?
My name is Timothée Joseph Baltz.
Is there an accent?
Technically, there’s an accent. I would never use it. The accent would get so confusing.
Why is that your name?
My mom emigrated from France when she was in her late 20s. She definitely didn’t think anything of it. To her, it was completely normal.
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Joliet, Illinois.
How would people react to that spelling of your name?
Just a lot of confusion. I remember peers not really understanding and pointing to an alphabet chart and pointing to the letter Y. “Do you not know that this letter exists? It’s supposed to be spelled like this.” There was maybe even a tinge of that midwestern Who do you think you are? And the teachers really struggled. When someone’s pronouncing it with a Y instead of two E’s, I can hear it. Maybe part of the reason I’m so empathetic is that most of my childhood was spent watching these adults struggle with those two E’s.
You understand how people react to small differences.
If I’m being completely serious and earnest, this minor thing, at a very young age, opened my mind to how people will key in on differences. If they like them, that’s something special. If they don’t like it, it’s something bad, and you’ll be othered. And I went to public schools in Joliet, which was very diverse, and I think that it did naturally give me a head start on empathy. I know that sounds really ridiculous, but it’s probably true. Also, if you’re getting teased for something that minor, you’re like, This is so stupid. You just have this awareness that a lot of cultural norms and customs are arbitrary, but everyone is acting like it’s gospel.
What did you ultimately go by as a kid?
When I first started school, I was going by Timothée, because I liked drawing the little letters and spelling out my full name. Then I went by Timmy. Then people would call me Timmy B. a lot. Then by the time I got into junior high, it was like — I got to be cool — “It’s just Tim.”
Did you spend time in France as a kid?
We would go visit my grandparents in the summers, and we’d spend four or five weeks there. They lived in the north of France in a town called Roubaix — which, to be honest, is a lot like Joliet, Illinois — then we’d travel around the country. We would go stay with family, friends, and things like that. So it was a very family-oriented — not rural, but a small-town experience of France. I didn’t go to Paris until I was 18, even though I went to France a dozen times before I was 18.
Did you stay with Tim through college?
Yeah. But I had a fake ID in college and I put my real name on it, which was so stupid. But the Timothée part of it actually helped, because I looked like I was 14 until I was about 31. But when I would present it to bouncers or at liquor stores, they’d see the two E’s, and it would create just enough confusion for them to be like, If this is a fake ID, why would this dumbass kid spell it with two E’s?
When you started in comedy, did you reconsider what you’d go by?
My middle name is Joseph. When I was growing up, there were other kids who went by T.J., and I thought T.J. was kind of fun. But there was always someone else going by T.J., and you don’t really want to compete with that and have someone be like, “I was going by T.J. first.” Then when I started doing comedy, there already was a legend of Chicago improv comedy named T.J. Jagodowski. So I was like, Damn, it happened again. So I just kept going by Tim.
I never really considered going by Timothée. It would be like I was trying to rebrand myself, which I think now is way more acceptable, but back then in sketch comedy at Second City, it would have felt bizarre. I’ve always been pretty low-key about my French background. It’s always just been a hidden surprise, where people are like, “Wait, you speak fluent French? You got to be kidding me. You literally just talk about NBA basketball and Tom Petty all the time.”
What about when you started acting?
I definitely had a moment when I first got my SAG card where I thought, Am I one of those three-named people? Am I Timothée Joseph Baltz? But I felt established as Tim already.
You were credited as Timothée Baltz on your episode of Chicago P.D. and when you were on Parks and Recreation.
It was just straight up a mistake for those two shows. I’m not kidding. I filled out my W-2, and I just put my full name on it absentmindedly. I probably asked someone, “Do you need my full name on this?” and they said “Yeah.” So I just put “Timothée.”
Do you remember when you first learned about Timothée Chalamet?
The first time I heard about him was when he came out with that rap video in high school — like 2012. That was the year I auditioned for SNL. But I do remember that when I saw that, I was like, This guy spells his name that way I do, too. Whoa!
What did you think of him?
He grew up between New York and Paris, which is the polar opposite of me growing up between two Joliet, Illinoises. I thought that was pretty funny and jokingly thought, Maybe I should come out with a rap video about high school, too. But wait, I’m 31. I shouldn’t do that.
The only other time this has happened is there’s this French basketball player named Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot. That got me really excited. I really wanted him to be a big deal.
Since 2017, when Call Me by Your Name came out, Timothée Chalamet has emerged as one of the biggest and coolest movie stars of a generation. What has it been like for you?
It’s great! It feels like normalization of that spelling. Before, when I presented my ID someplace, I’d see them looking at it with confusion. Now there’s almost like an excitement and a clocking of “another one.”
Does it ever feel like his success is taunting you? Like, I could’ve been this guy if I used my real name?
I probably am more jealous of Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot because I love basketball so much. A Complete Unknown blew me away. I loved that. So no — to me, it’s always been, This is kind of fun and normalizing, and again, it’s a little secret when people find out that I spell my name that way. It’s less about branding; it’s always been a very personal thing, and if you want to know more, then I share more about it, and if you don’t, it’s not a big deal. I feel lucky that I get to have a completely different experience of life through another culture and another language. I’ve always had a foot on both continents. If I met Bradley Cooper or Timothée Chalamet or Victor Wembanyama, it would just be really cool to be like, “Hey, nice to meet you.” And then in French, be like, “Hey, have you had the crab cakes tonight?” And watch them be like, “Wait, what?”
When you hear Timothée Chalamet’s name said at awards shows, how do you feel?
I do have this sense of Franco-American pride. I didn’t really know anyone who grew up between the two countries. I don’t want to name-check anyone in a bad way, but God, what if he was famous and terrible? Instead he’s famous and awesome.
Do you want Timothée to win best actor at the Oscars?
Yeah, I thought he was so good. I don’t know if you’ve seen a lot of documentary stuff with Dylan in it, but I thought he just nailed how cool Dylan could toss things off. Especially the first half of the movie, I was really drawn by his portrayal. That ability to just be casual because his mind is so focused on the genius that he’s pursuing. Yeah, I’m very much rooting for him to win that.
Specifically, because of your names?
Yeah, definitely. I mean, I wanted Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot to be all-NBA. That didn’t happen. So a lot is riding on Chalamet right now.
Imagine you are a kid again in Joliet, Illinois, but it’s 2025 and Timothée Chalamet is famous. Do you think you’ll go by Timothée?
Yeah, it’s probably normalized, so maybe I do. I bet I would still go through the cycle of Timmy B, but I probably would have used the full Timothée in different ways.
Any final thoughts about your names?
I love the normalization of it. It would be very fun to speak French with him someday. I’ve gotten close to meeting Bradley Cooper, and I’ve seen him do press in France. That’s always been electric to see. My dream would be to do a project that takes me there, and I get interviewed on French TV and have people be like “This makes no sense.” I’ve always been a little too French here, and definitely a little too American there. People see my face and they’re just like, “Hey, you’re American.” I’ll speak perfect French, and it will not matter.
I was on a podcast, and the host was like, “You play these characters … Is something repressed?” And I was like, “Honest to God, it comes from hypervigilance stemming from being different and being very observant.” I grew up being introduced to a lot of comedy by my dad, but also I would go to France and see a lot of other stuff there. I was lucky to have a lot of different influences. There’s a very interesting book I read by a French writer and comedian, Isabelle Alonso, called L’Exil est mon pays (Exile Is My Country), who was investigating why she was funny and why she gravitated toward comedy, and she settled on this idea, “drôle de la différence,” which means you’re funny because of your difference. Whether it was like a survival mechanism or defense mechanism, growing up with that difference — those tiny little two letters instead of one letter — did start me down this path toward Chicago and comedy.