Timothée Chalamet doesn’t want too much credit for the huge physical change he went through for his new film, Beautiful Boy. He shed 20 pounds from his already-slim frame to play Nic Sheff in the throes of his methamphetamine addiction, and Chalamet was committed, as he said, to getting Sheff’s story right. But “I never want to say that losing 20 pounds for the film or getting into the headspace would be what the experience of an addict would be, because that’s not fair,” Chalamet said.

In Beautiful Boy, which is Chalamet’s first major release since his massive breakout performance in Call Me by Your Name, the 22-year-old Oscar nominee stars opposite Steve Carell, who plays Nic’s father, David. Chalamet insists he’s still a “fan first and foremost,” and having grown up watching Carell in Bruce Almighty and later The Office, he got a particular thrill of working with both Carell and Amy Ryan—or, as he puts it, “Michael and Holly on The Office.” In this conversation with Vanity Fair’s executive West Coast editor, Krista Smith, you can watch him expertly rattle off the Instagram memes that prove The Office’s staying power with younger generations, himself included.

Several times in their in-depth conversation, Chalamet refers to what’s happened “after March,” a.k.a. the Oscars, when the yearlong press tour for Call Me by Your Name ended and he returned, he thought, to normal life. “I think all of us, my parents and family included, were anticipating an off-switch of sorts,” he said about the post-Oscars period. “I was like, oh it didn’t turn off now. So that’s been interesting. I don’t want to sound cheesy, but I just had a lot of gratitude for all of this.”

“All of this” will soon include Little Women, a new adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott novel that will reunite Chalamet with his Lady Bird director, Greta Gerwig, and star Saoirse Ronan. “It’s a no-brainer,” Chalamet, who will play Theodore "Laurie" Laurence, said. “I told Greta I would do anything she would do.” But it’s when Chalamet gets talking about his co-stars that his excitement really comes out. “To see Meryl—” he pauses for a brief moment to hyperventilate—“Meryl Streep and Saoirse Ronan and Florence Pugh and Emma Watson, I’m excited to see them all go to work.”