Real Question: Does Laura Dern Think Timothée Chalamet Is Baby Yoda?

After the launch of Disney+ Star Wars series The Mandalorian introduced the world to the perfect angel that is the creature the internet keeps calling Baby Yoda, people everywhere couldn’t stop obsessing over (and creating brilliant memes of) the tiny green alien. One person who is apparently not so in the know is Laura Dern, who, when asked by Variety whether or not she had seen Baby Yoda yet, responded in a rather puzzling manner. 

“I think I saw him at a basketball game,” Dern told the outlet, before clarifying: “It was NBA.” 

The internet promptly attempted to decipher what, exactly, Dern meant by such a statement, and now it seems that Dern is having plenty of fun trolling all of us. Despite telling Variety that her basketball game statement was all she was going to say on the topic of the baby, she has since taken to Twitter to thank fans who believe she did see the Star Wars character while checking on some basketball. 

Now, Dern is again confusing fans. On Thursday, she posted a picture of herself and Little Women co-star Timothée Chalamet at a Celtics basketball game, along with the caption: “Caught a game to see if I could find him again. #BabyYoda.”

Obviously, this makes one wonder if Dern thought Chalamet was the baby this whole time? Did the Big Little Lies star just assume that her pal had a cute new, Gen Z nickname she was unaware of? After all, Chalamet is frequently seen courtside at NBA games, the very place Dern implies that the baby is a regular at. 

For the record, the baby is not the star of Call Me By Your Name, according to Jon Favreau’s interview with The Hollywood Reporter. 

“He's mostly a puppet,” explained the Mandalorian producer. “When [the character is computer generated], we try to make him obey the same physical laws that he would if he were a puppet. I think a lot of times CG makes itself too obvious where you don't create parameters creatively that allow the character to keep the same identity and charm...We'll learn more about him over the course of the season.”

In an ideal world, Chalamet cleared up the confusion when he and Dern hung out this week — and maybe, just maybe, showed her some priceless Baby Yoda memes. It’s time Dern learned the truth!