Timothee Chalamet tried to replicate the cane drop stunt that Gene Wilder did, but fell short

Timothee Chalamet has revealed his attempt (alas, failed) to recreate one of the most iconic scenes from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory with Gene Wilder.

Here's What We Know

Chalamet, who in the new "Wonka" film embodies a young and naive version of the famous chocolatier, tried to replicate the famous cane fall as Wilder did in the 1971 adaptation of Roald Dahl's book, but it didn't work out for the actor.

The scene to which Chalamet refers depicts Wilder's Willy Wonka as the master chocolatier, limping, walks out of his factory to meet his guests. But before he can reach them, he falls forwards.... and then suddenly turns the fall into a somersault and gets to his feet, causing the crowd to cheer.

-"Maybe I shouldn't even say this because I don't feel like we failed, but failure is important but we tried in the sort of opening chocolate store sequence for Slugworth, Prodnose, and Fickelgruber, introduced the evil chocolatiers, we tried a bit to get that roll in. And it required like, we put a magnet on the bottom of the cane and then a magnet on the floor because he leaves it in place and then the role itself is nearly like, impossible to accomplish but actually getting the cane to stay… so we figured in the original they must have built a tiny hole in the ground or something for Gene Wilder but I don't know" Chalamet told BBC Radio 1.

In the original scene, the cane actually stays in place. This episode was very important to Wilder, as the actor explained back in 2004. He was the one who suggested the scene, which shows how much Wilder thought about the character. It's no surprise that Chalamet and the "Wonka" team wanted to pay tribute to this iconic scene.

Source: MovieWeb