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Timothée Chalamet has transformed into Bob Dylan for the forthcoming biopic, A Complete Unknown.
The 28-year-old, known for Dune and Little Women, stars as the music legend in James Mangold’s new film, based on Elijah Wald’s 2015 book Dylan Goes Electric! about the controversy surrounding Dylan’s switch to electrically amplified instrumentation in 1965.
In the first teaser trailer for the film, released on Wednesday (July 24), Chalamet is seen singing Dylan’s 1962 track “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.”
“I wanna tell you a little story. A few months back, my friend Woody Guthrie and I, we met a young man,” Edward Norton – as the late Pete Seeger – tells a crowd. “He dropped in on us out of nowhere and he played us a song. In that moment, we got a feeling we were getting a glimpse of the future.”
Dressed in a brown suede jacket and sporting Dylan’s signature curly hairstyle, Chalamet’s Dylan begins strumming a guitar before launching into the song’s intro: “Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?/ And where have you been, my darling young one?”
As he sings, scenes flash of him walking around New York City, making eye contact with an early fictional love interest Sylvie Russo (played by Elle Fanning) – roughly based on Dylan’s early girlfriend Suze Rotolo – and later kissing Monica Barbaro as famed singer Joan Baez, Dylan’s ex-girlfriend.
Following the release of the trailer, fans have flocked to social media to heap praise on Chalamet’s portrayal of Dylan.
“He sounds just like him!” one person tweeted, with a second agreeing: “We’re in for a treat, Chalamet sounds just like Dylan.”
“Peak Timothée Chalamet,” a third claimed. Even those unsure about the casting commended Chalamet’s vocals.
“Better than expected, has some early 00s Walk the Line vibes,” one person said, referencing the 2005 biopic about the rise of country star Johnny Cash.
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Another predicted that Chalamet will receive an Oscar nomintion for the part, with someone else asking: “Is there anything Timothée Chalamet can’t do?”
Chalamet’s casting as Dylan was first announced in 2020. At the time, it was reported that the Dune actor was taking guitar lessons in preparation for the role, with Mangold also confirming that Chalamet will do his own singing in the film.
In a previous interview with GQ, Chalamet revealed that before filming, he sought advice from Joel Coen, one half of the directing duo known as the Coen Brothers.
Chalamet said he was invited over for dinner at Coen’s house, where he was able to question the director about his extensive research on Dylan for 2013’s Inside Llewyn Davis, which was set in the folk music scene of the 1960s where the singer began his career. Dylan 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,” Chalamet explained. He went on to recall how Coen had argued that the sheer quantity of work Dylan produced during the early years of his career is what made him so singular.
A Complete Unknown is scheduled for a theatrical release in December; an exact date is yet to be announced.
