Timothée Chalamet is set to enter the awards race with his performance as iconic musician Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown.
The film’s story begins with Bob Dylan’s arrival in New York in 1961, and ends shortly after his history-making electric performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. The film stars Elle Fanning as Bob's girlfriend, Sylvie Russo (whom director James Mangold confirms is a renamed version of Dylan’s real-life then-girlfriend, Suze Rotolo), Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash and Edward Norton as folk legend Pete Seeger.
But this was not the cast Bob Dylan himself had in mind when it came to making a movie about his life.
Bob Dylan's Picks To Play Him In A Biopic Could Never Happen
In a 2012 interview with Interview Magazine, according to Far Out Magazine, the songwriter was asked to consider who could play him in a biopic. Bob Dylan listed Billy Dee Williams and Mickey Rooney as “a couple of actors I’d like to play me”.
At the time of the interview, Mickey Rooney was in his 90s and died two years later. Billy Dee Williams is best known for portraying Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars franchise. Fans suspect Bob may have been joking as both seem unlikely options when casting Bob Dylan in a biopic.
Bob's life was previously depicted in 2007's abstract biopic titled I'm Not There. When journalist Mikal Gilmore asked Bob whether he liked the abstract biopic about his life, he allegedly responded with: "Yeah, I thought it was all right."
How Timothée Chalamet Transformed Into Bob Dylan
Last year, Timothée Chalamet told GQ that he hired Austin Butler's “entire Elvis team” to help him nail the voice and mannerisms of Bob Dylan.
Timothée also revealed that before filming the biopic, he sought advice from Joel Coen, who had extensively researched Bob for 2013’s Inside Llewyn Davis, which was set in the folk music scene of the 1960s where the singer began his career. Bob also briefly appeared as a character performing in the film.
“[Coen] almost seemed weary of even talking about this stuff, it was so big and potent,” Timothée explained to GQ.
The Dune actor also revealed that he rented a cabin in Woodstock in July in preparation for the role. He went on to reveal the property had a wall devoted to the musician, specifically to the music the Nobel Prize-winning Bob Dylan released in the run-up to his time in Woodstock in the 1960s.
Director James Mangold revealed that Chalamet spent extra time, after Covid setbacks, working on his skills as a singer and musician.
"And Timmy was a partner in this. He very much wanted to. And the multiple years of preparation that we had on this movie because of false starts with Covid and stuff meant that Timmy really had a kind of incubation as a musician that was years in happening."
Does Timothée Chalamet Really Sing In Bob Dylan Biopic?
When the trailer dropped for the highly anticipated Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, audiences were shocked to learn that Timothée Chalamet was actually singing.
In an interview with Collider from the Spring of 2023, James Mangold confirmed that the Call Me By Your Name actor was singing for the movie rather than having Bob’s voice dubbed over. He revealed that Timothée took singing and guitar lessons to play the role of the iconic singer/songwriter.
In the trailer released on July 24, the Wonka actor sings a part of Bob Dylan’s "A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall" from his 1963 album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. James uses Timothée's live performances from the shoot as the music in the movie.
"Every one of these things comes with the fact that you can always fix it. You want everyone putting everything on the line every moment. But it’s not [like] if one of our actors hit a bad note, I don’t have an alternative take or the ability to replace that one beat. If Timmy’s brave enough to stand out there and make himself vulnerable, throwing himself at this, I should be brave enough to stand behind the camera and shoot."
Timothée, who attended Manhattan’s Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, also sang in 2019’s A Rainy Day in New York and Wonka.
Did Bob Dylan Work With Timothee Chalamet For 'A Complete Unknown'?
While Bob Dylan gave his blessing to the movie, it sounds like he was hands-off on the project. The singer is listed as an executive producer on A Complete Unknown.
James Mangold revealed that he spent time with Bob and that the pair had discussed the movie in depth. He gave his blessing to the filmmaker and the topics addressed in the film.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, James explained that he told Bob that his film was about a guy who was “choking to death in Minnesota” who left his friends and family behind to reinvent himself, make new friends, build a new family, become phenomenally successful, and then “starts to choke to death again — and runs away.” Reportedly, Bob smiled and declared “I like that.”
“I have a script that’s personally annotated by him and treasured by me. He loves movies. The first time I sat down with Bob, one of the first things he said to me was, ‘I love “Cop Land.”‘”
Jeff Rosen, Bob’s manager, made available and gave James access to letters that Johnny Cash and Bob wrote to one another during this period. These letters became hugely influential in the making of A Complete Unknown.
