Los Angeles, Dec 5 (IANS): Hollywood star Timothee Chalamet, who plays confectioner Willy Wonka, joked that he needed "a lot of auto-tune" in 'Wonka', the 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' prequel.

"I try. It is a lot of auto-tune… No, I'm kidding!" he joked about his singing when speaking to Extra at the world premiere of the movie in London.

And of the dancing, he added, "I loved it… My mom is a dance teacher and my grandmother was a dancer, my sister is a dancer, so I was always sort of around it but it's a big difference between being around it and having to do it... It was a great learning experience."

Chalamet recalled how quickly he was "charmed" by the script for the origin story and insisted it is a valid addition to Roald Dahl's original tale, reports aceshowbiz.com.

He said: "I thought it was very clever, and I know people can be kind of cynical about Hollywood remakes and there's a fine line between it feeling warranted, but within three pages of reading the script I was so charmed by what Paul (King) had come up with for Willy's origin story and a snapshot of how Willy was before success, before becoming the man that wants to give away the chocolate factory, before being the man that has a chocolate factory."

The 'Dune' actor needed to learn how to "live and love the tone" of the film by going back to his younger years as it was much less "serious" than a lot of his recent work.

He told People magazine: "I realised everything I've worked on (has had a) grounded seriousness to it, and here I had to loosen up and play, kind of like I did in high school, but I hadn't done in 10 years or something. So, that was the learning curve. But once it was in full swing, then it felt like we were cookin'."