The Wonka cast and crew had a steady supply of chocolate on the set of the upcoming Timothée Chalamet-starring Warner Bros. prequel.
In an interview with People magazine, director Paul King discussed the “great deal” of chocolate that was consumed on set, joking that he was one of the taste testers and hopes to lose some of the 50 pounds he gained during production ahead of the movie’s December release.
“We had this incredible chocolatier,” he told the publication. “She made these incredible concoctions, and we would taste them.”
The Paddington helmer noted that the sweets tasted even better than they needed to. “Obviously, actors are good at pretending things,” he added, “but the miracle was they tasted every bit as good as they looked.”
The chocolatier, who King didn’t name, also helped the cast and crew with one particular scene that involves Chalamet’s Willy Wonka and his friend Noodle, played by Calah Lane, in a massive tub of chocolate.
“We actually made an enormous vat of hot chocolate — not scalding, just warm hot chocolate for them to immerse themselves in,” King said. “So there was there a lot of chocolate around.”
In a conversation with Rolling Stone that published earlier in the week, the filmmaker also explained that Chalamet was his only choice to play Wonka. The Dune actor didn’t even have to audition for the role. King just wanted to make sure that his star could handle the musical aspects.
“It was a straight offer because he’s great, and he was the only person in my mind who could do it,” the director told the magazine. “But because he’s Timothée Chalamet and his life is so absurd, his high school musical performances are on YouTube and have hundreds of thousands of views. So I knew from stanning for Timmy Chalamet that he could sing and dance really well.”
Despite being fairly certain that the Call Me By Your Name star could do it, he admitted he was still blown away by just how talented the actor was.
“When I spoke to him he was quite keen,” King said. “He’d done tap dancing in high school, and he was like, ‘I’d quite like to show people I can do that.’”