Timothée Chalamet's chameleonic talent has made him a Hollywood darling, but even the most respected names in the industry weren’t initially sold on his latest ambitious project. Oscar Isaac, Chalamet’s fellow Dune cast member, admitted he was skeptical when the young actor revealed he would be portraying music legend Bob Dylan in James Mangold's upcoming film A Complete Unknown. The hesitation wasn’t rooted in a lack of confidence in the Call Me By Your Name star’s acting chops but rather in the daunting challenge of embodying an icon as revered—and singular—as Dylan.
Per People, Isaac, who presented Chalamet and Mangold with the Visionary Tribute Award at the 2024 Gotham Awards, reminisced about the moment he first learned of the project while on the set of one of the best sci-fi movies of recent memory. The revelation happened in the Wonka performer’s trailer, where cast mates like Josh Brolin and Steven McKinley Henderson also heard the news. As the Ex Machina actor tells it:
He starts telling us about his next project he was working on. A movie with the wonderful director James Mangold about a young Bob Dylan coming to New York in 1961… And my first thought, 'It sounds like a really bad idea.' I mean, it's Dylan. It's the holy of holies for me. It just didn't sound right.
I mean, fair enough–taking on the role of such an iconic person would be a daunting, nearly herculean task. And, besides being a self-described Dylanologist, Isaac knows a thing or two about playing a folk singer roaming the scene in the 1960s, having played one in one of the best movies about a fake musician, Inside Llewyn Davis.
What followed, however, was a moment that turned Isaac’s skepticism into a kind of quiet reverence. The Moon Knight actor revealed that his young co-star pulled out a guitar in an effort to give his fellow actors a taste of what he was working on. Though the Star Wars veteran initially cringed at the sight, Chalamet began playing Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country.” Isaac continued:
Now, this is a song I know deeply, to my core… And Josh, Steven, and I, we’re not your average Timmy Chalamet groupies. We’re grizzled movie vets. We’ve seen some shit… I look over at a wide-smiling Steven, and he just says, 'Yeah, baby,' and the three of us just sat there watching this young man connect with something mysterious. And that is the nature of folk music. To quote the great Llewyn Davis, 'If it never gets old and it was never new, it's a folk song.'
If that doesn’t quail worried Dylan fans and Chalamet detractors alike, I’m not sure what will. If the Little Women actor can wow a room full of “grizzled” actors, I think he’s probably got this upcoming biopic in the bag. Based on his spot-on Dylan impression from the first trailer, I think it's almost certain the flick will pick up some Oscar nominations.
The Beautiful Boy actor’s preparation for the role of Dylan has been nothing short of meticulous. Reportedly, over five years, he’s honed his musical abilities, studied Dylan’s mannerisms, and immersed himself in the cultural backdrop of the 1960s. A Complete Unknown, which lands on the 2024 movie schedule on Dec. 25, chronicles Dylan’s early rise to fame, focusing on his arrival in New York and his groundbreaking decision to embrace electric guitar.
You’ll soon be able to see Timothée Chalamet and his pitch-perfect Bob Dylan impression in A Complete Unknown. Until then, you can catch up on him and Oscar Isaac sharing the screen in Dune, which is available to stream with a Max subscription.