Timothée Chalamet Recalls Thinking ‘Could You Imagine If This Is How I Go Out?’ While Interviewing Kendrick Lamar During Drake Beef

Timothée Chalamet has marshaled giant sandworms in Dune, corralled spoiled kids in Wonka and wrestled Bob Dylan’s unique singing style to the ground in A Complete Unknown. But put him in the middle of the most heated rap battle of the modern era and the Marty Supreme star — and possible secret rapper EsDeeKid — will admittedly fold like a cheap ping-pong table.

While Visiting the 7PM in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony podcast on Monday (Dec. 15), Chalamet was asked what stuck with him when he interviewed Kendrick Lamar before his performance at this year’s Super Bowl. “I was so impressed that this man who was so calm sitting next to me and I was like, ‘wow, he’s engaged in a gladiator sport right now,’” Chalamet said of the brutal lyrical combat that KDot engaged in with Drake last year that culminated in what is widely regarded as one of the most brutal KO’s in beef history via Lamar’s “Not Like Us” single.

“And as much as I love hip-hop and all, I was sitting next to [him] and I was like, ‘Wow, I could not do that!’,” Chalamet said, admitting that he could not have been that calm in the midst of a “that big a war” with another huge rapper and “just be chilling… that was just unfathomable to me.”

Chalamet recalled that the Lamar interview initially took place in a studio and that night it seemed both men felt it was “too stiff” and didn’t really come across as they’d hoped, so the next day they decided to hop in a car — Lamar’s GNX, of course — and try it again. “And my white ass was like, ‘Wow, he’s in the middle of this beef.’ I was like, ‘Can you imagine if this is how I go out, with Kendrick?’,” the actor said about his irrational fear that the beef might turn violent and he might catch a stray.

“‘Actor Timothée Chalamet murdered’… that would be a crazy end of the Wikipedia,” Chalamet joked.

Watch Chalamet talk about his ride with Kendrick below.