‘A Complete Unknown’ Team on Timothee Chalamet Singing as Bob Dylan

Timothée Chalamet is gaining main reward — and a Golden Globe nomination — for his efficiency as a younger Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, a metamorphosis that the movie’s crew recollects seeing firsthand.

At the Los Angeles premiere on Tuesday, director James Mangold instructed The Hollywood Reporter that he knew Chalamet was the appropriate option to play the enduring musician “earlier than he even agreed to do it,” as “he has performing chops bar none, he’s acquired the youth, he’s acquired the look, he’s acquired the cool, and I assumed he might sing, however he shocked me how rattling good he’s.”

Producer Peter Jaysen echoed the sentiment in regards to the actor’s musical capacity. He remembered recording the scenes of Dylan enjoying hit track “Like a Rolling Stone” earlier than Chalamet arrived to set. “We had a band that was recording it, and we had been watching Dylan on screens with the unique remoted tracks that he recorded ‘Like a Rolling Stone,’ singing with our band,” he recalled. “Then Timmy got here in and sang and [Mangold and music producer Nick Baxter] had us shut our eyes, they usually began switching between Bob Dylan and Timothée Chalamet; we couldn’t inform the distinction. That’s once we knew that we had one thing particular.”

A Complete Unknown follows the 1961 to 1965 time interval of Dylan’s profession as he arrives on the folks music scene and rapidly shakes it up, with appearances by Pete Seeger (performed by Edward Norton), Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) and Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook).

“We needed extra of Bob, extra of Pete, extra of Joan than you possibly can match into the film,” Norton instructed reporters on the carpet, as Chalamet added, “We had been like a menace to Jim as a result of we had been all the time making an attempt to sneak stuff in and honor these superb artists.”

Dylan himself was concerned within the script course of, assembly with Mangold a number of occasions to make modifications. “He was tremendous plainspoken and tremendous sincere about these occasions and people days and his reminiscences of them,” Mangold stated of their collaboration. “He learn the script front-to-back and marked all of it up, instructed me, ‘Oh I by no means sang that verse that approach’ and form of corrected little issues: ‘This particular person all the time referred to as me Bobby, not Bob.’ He was throughout it.”

Dylan wasn’t concerned within the capturing course of, nevertheless, as Mangold added, “In a approach, he allow us to run free. He noticed the map I used to be following and simply let me experience it.”

Barbaro — who has her personal transformation into Baez after not having performed guitar or sung previous to the movie — additionally had an interplay with a legend when she had a telephone name with the musician she portrayed. “I felt so fortunate that she was prepared to offer me that point, and it was simply very gracious of her. I like her, and I like her, and I absolutely hung up the telephone and simply began sobbing,” the actress remembered.

Barbaro additionally referred to as singing with Chalamet “the most effective issues I’ve ever gotten to do in my entire profession. His voice is gorgeous as is. Wonka got here out whereas we had been filming, I used to be like ‘Oh wow, he can actually sing.’ And then to listen to his model of Bob was mind-blowing.”

A Complete Unknown hits theaters on Dec. 25.