Timothée Chalamet Transforms into Bob Dylan on the Big Screen

Preparing for the Role

Chalamet explained that the photo and video clip shown by Colbert, who is 60 years old, depicted him on the set of Dune. "That's me on the set of Dune," he said. "That's Paul Atreides Dylan, right there." He had booked James Mangold's biopic about Dylan, who is 83 years old, before the COVID-19 pandemic and the Hollywood strikes delayed the project. "I started to think, 'Man, is there a hex on his project, on this material?'" he told Colbert.

Filming A Complete Unknown in the summer of 2023 brought a sense of relief. "I felt like I was getting something off my plate I've been working on for so long," he continued. Colbert pointed out that Chalamet had done two Dune movies in the interim, to which Chalamet replied, "In between, yeah."

Channeling Dylan's Spirit

The video clip showed the actor channeling Dylan by strumming along to "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry," the legendary singer-songwriter's 1965 hit. "With some Dune lyrical variations by me," quipped Chalamet. He also revealed that part of the reason he ended up singing live on the set was due to a costar. "I had Edward Norton as the devil on my shoulder, and he said, 'Listen man, you sound better live,'" he recalled.

The pre-records done in Los Angeles didn't feel true to Dylan's aesthetic. "The worst thing we could have done with a Bob Dylan biopic is sanitize it, make it sound clean. This was a man from iron ore country… You hear the coal country in his voice. I didn't want to be a New Yorker recording in Los Angeles, decimating that music. I wanted to honor that legacy," he added.

The Cast and Beyond

A Complete Unknown is co-written by Mangold and Jay Cocks and adapted from Elijah Wald's 2015 biography Dylan Goes Electric!. It costars Norton as Pete Seeger, Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash, Scoot McNairy as Woody Guthrie and more. The movie is set to be released in theaters on December 25th.

Among Chalamet's other upcoming projects is Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme, costarring Gwyneth Paltrow. This diverse range of projects showcases Chalamet's versatility and talent in the entertainment industry.