The Infamous Timothée Chalamet Reading Dune Subway Photo

*I took it

I was riding the subway back to Brooklyn from a therapy session on the Upper West Side. I only noticed about halfway through the ride that sitting in front of me was Timothée Chalamet reading a book. Not just any book though- he was reading DUNE and I knew he was about to star in the film.

I think we were the only ones on the subway both reading books so it felt like there was some tension (at least for me!).

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I felt the compulsion to take a photo and document the star of DUNE reading DUNE. I don’t know what this says about me but I didn’t think twice about it.

And of course my stupid phone was on *loud* mode and made the sound a phone makes when taking a photo. I was mortified. My phone is always on vibrate but unfortunately, not this time. He looked up and made the face you see in the photo.

My stomach dropped. I felt guilty and embarrassed. I still feel a little guilty. No ones trying to take my photo surreptitiously but I definitely wouldn’t want them to if they did.

Anyways, so we got off at the same stop and I asked if he was enjoying the book. 

He said “yeah a lot.”

I awkwardly responded yeah its a really great book. It sounded like I was on a first date.

We went our separate ways and I waited 3 years until the film came out to post the photo on Twitter.

It immediately blew up and was retweeted thousands of times with tons of people commenting that they were shocked and happy that they now have proof that he actually read the book.

The photo was everywhere after that.

I eventually saw the film. Loved it and quickly forgot about the photo until..

*DUNE 2*. And the photo resurfaces.

And now people are saying this photo is part of “cinema history” etc. etc. And maybe it is.. like the photo of David Lynch sitting on the side of Hollywood Blvd with a cow but at the end of the day, all this really was was - a fan in the right place at the right time.

*DUNE & Warner Brothers- if you happen to read this, I would love some Dune merch for all the free promotion from this photo or at the very least one of those worm cups and some movie tickets.