Timothée Chalamet ‘Panicked’ About Authentically Portraying Bob Dylan in ‘A Complete Unknown’
Samantha Bergeson
Timothée Chalamet wanted to do Bob Dylan justice in biopic “A Complete Unknown.”
The feature, which marks Chalamet’s transformation into the iconic folk singer, is directed by “Walk the Line” helmer James Mangold, and charts Dylan’s (Chalamet) rise to fame in the early 1960s. Chalamet sings onscreen alongside an ensemble cast including Monica Barbaro, Elle Fanning, Edward Norton, Boyd Holbrook, and Scoot McNairy.
Chalamet told Rolling Stone that it was imperative to maintain a certain sense of selflessness and become, well, unknown to himself during the production of “A Complete Unknown.”
“It was something I would go to sleep panicked about, losing a moment of discovery as the character — no matter how pretentious that sounds — because I was on my phone or because of any distraction,” Chalamet said. “I had three months of my life to play Bob Dylan, after five years of preparing to play him. So while I was in it, that was my eternal focus. He deserved that and then more.”
He added about fully immersing himself into the role, “God forbid I missed a step because I was being Timmy. I could be Timmy for the rest of my life!”
Chalamet also pointed to his past co-stars Christian Bale and Oscar Isaac for inspiring his approach to playing Dylan.
“The great actors I’ve worked with, Christian Bale on ‘Hostiles’ or Oscar Isaac on ‘Dune,’ were able to do that, and guard their process,” Chalamet said, “particularly for something that’s really like a tightrope walk.”
The actor continued that it helps on set “when people aren’t curious about how you go about your work, because they don’t know who you are yet, which is how the experience was for me on ‘Call Me By Your Name.’”
Chalamet’s “A Complete Unknown” co-star Norton, who portrays Pete Seeger in the film, explained how Chalamet was “relentless” in his vision and keeping a closed set.
“No visitors, no friends, no reps, no nothing,” Norton said, “‘Nobody comes around us while we’re doing this.’ We’re trying to do the best we can with something that’s so totemic and sacrosanct to many people.”
Norton added, “And I agreed totally — it was like, we cannot have a fucking audience for this. We’ve got to believe to the greatest degree we can. And he was right to be that protective.”
