Timothée Chalamet turned heads this week by arriving at the London premiere of A Complete Unknown on a Lime e-bike, but his eco-friendly red carpet entrance came with a surprising cost.
The Bafta-nominated actor revealed on the French talk show Quotidien that he was hit with a £65 fine for parking the bike in an unauthorised spot at BFI Southbank.
Speaking in French, Chalamet explained his decision to ditch the usual chauffeured car, saying: “There was a traffic jam”.
Unaware he had parked in a restricted area, the actor joked to host Yann Romain Barthès about the irony: “I got a £65 fine and actually it was horrible because it was actually kind of an advert for them”.
Chalamet wasn’t the only one to face a fine after his headline-making bike ride to the London premiere.
Photographer Aidan Zamiri, who accompanied the Hollywood star’s on his own Lime e-bike, also found himself penalised.
Chalamet posing on the red carpet for his Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown at BFI Southbank (Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images for)
On Instagram, Zamiri shared a clip of the two cruising across Westminster Bridge with the caption: “Favourite mode of transport.”
However, his ride was cut short when Lime terminated the trip, citing an unusually long idle time.
The disruption ended with Zamiri being slapped with a £2 fine for parking incorrectly.
« The idea is that I have no idea… there was a traffic jam and I actually wasn’t allowed to park there and I got a £65 fine and actually it’s horrible because it was an advert for them ! »#TimothéeChalamet at Quotidien today pic.twitter.com/fSXuaoVeNx
— Choupistick (@choupistick) January 15, 2025
Chalamet, who portrays the folk legend in the movie, chose an unconventional means of arrival on the red carpet for the Bob Dylan biopic before ending his ride on the hire bike using his mobile in front of paparazzi.
The 29-year-old, who walked the red carpet solo without girlfriend Kylie Jenner, wore a black suit with a blue patterned shirt.
He was joined by co-star Monica Barbaro, 34, who plays Joan Baez in the new movie, and Edward Norton, who plays Pete Seeger.
The film tells the story of Dylan’s early career from busking on the street to his famous performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
Inside the London screening, Chalamet noted that another of his co-stars, Elle Fanning, and the film’s director, James Mangold, were absent as they deal with the disaster, which has killed at least 25 people and forced thousands of people to flee their homes as winds scattering embers threatened the progress made so far on the infernos.
Addressing the LA wildfires, he told those in attendance at the screening: “Thank you everyone for being here, thanks for taking the time, we were supposed to be here with Elle (Fanning) and James Mangold, obviously y’know Jim and I think all of us who live in LA are affected by what’s going on over there so anybody and everybody’s thoughts [that] have come in from London or anywhere really, are deeply appreciated.
“Y’know Jim isn’t able to be here, if he sees this, when we get in touch with him, we’re thinking of him.
“Thank you and very grateful to all be in this safe space to enjoy this movie,” the Hollywood star concluded.
More than 200,000 LA residents have been forced to flee their homes, with 88,000 still under evacuation orders on Tuesday night as the wildfires continue a week on.