Edward Norton has revealed Timothee Chalamet was "relentless" in his approach to play Bob Dylan in 'A Complete Unknown'.
The 55-year-old actor appears opposite the 'Dune' star, 28, in the upcoming biopic as folk singer Peter Seeger, and has now shared that Chalamet – who portrays Dylan – took playing the music icon very seriously, and shut off as many distractions as possible to fully immerse himself in the role.
Norton told Rolling Stone magazine: "He was relentless. No visitors, no friends, no reps, no nothing. [Chalamet 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. And I agreed totally — it was like, 'We cannot have a f****** audience for this.'
"We’ve got to believe to the greatest degree we can. And he was right to be that protective."
As well as the 'Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery' actor, Elle Fanning – who portrays the 'Like A Rolling Stone' hitmaker's fictional university love interest Sylvie Russo - also offered some insight into Chalamet's commitment to the picture.
The 26-year-old actress recalled listening to him perform some of Dylan's tracks for the flick – which is being directed by filmmaker James Mangold – and being blown away by his performance.
She recounted: "We were in an auditorium, and I was sitting amongst all these background artists. Jim would let Timmy come out and give the crowd a whole concert.
"He was singing 'Masters of War' and 'A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall', and I was like, 'Jesus.' All of us were kind of shaking, because it was so surreal hearing someone do that. So perfectly done, but it wasn’t a caricature.
"It was still Timmy, but it's Bob, and this kind of beautiful meld. That gave me chills."
'A Complete Unknown' follows a young Dylan in the 1960's as he travels to New York and ultimately changes the course of American music.
While Chalamet aimed to immerse himself in the world of the 'Blowin' In The Wind' singer, the actor didn’t want to go completely method, and credited his former co-stars Christian Bale and Oscar Isaac for helping him learn how to set the tone on set.
He explained: "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, particularly for something that’s really like a tightrope walk.
"It was something I would go to sleep panicked about a moment of discovery as the character — no matter how pretentious that sounds — because I was on my phone or because of any distraction.
"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 … God forbid I missed a step because I was being Timmy. I could be Timmy for the rest of my life!"
'A Complete Unknown' arrives to cinemas on 25 December 2024 in the U.S. and 17 January 2025 in the UK.
