After the first trailer for the movie A Complete Unknown debuted on July 24, 2024, fans were treated to the first extended look at Timothée Chalamet’s transformation into musical legend Bob Dylan, including a glimpse at the character’s singing.
The close to 2-minute-long teaser sees Edward Norton’s character Pete Seeger introduce a young Bob Dylan to a small audience, where he proceeds to perform one of his early classics A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.
Yes, Timothée Chalamet sang all of Dylan’s classics in the film, as revealed by the director, James Mangold, in an interview with Collider. Timothée later reconfirmed this and added that in order to prepare for the role, he shifted consistently through a never-heard-before 12-hour playlist of unreleased songs by the artist, recorded between 1959 and 1964, thanks to the film’s producer, Jeff Rosen.
In order to prepare for A Complete Unknown, the actor began taking guitar lessons, dating all the way back to July 2020, when the film was known as Going Electric. He was spotted carrying an acoustic Gibson guitar to his early rehearsals by his fans.
In October 2023, Chalamet also revealed in an interview with GQ that he had started working with the same team that prepared his Dune: Part Two co-star Austin Butler for his role as Elvis Presley in the eponymous 2022 biopic. His training included dialect coaching to nail Dylan’s accent, movement coaching, and vocal coaching to add authenticity to his mannerisms and singing.
The biopic, based on the 2015 book Dylan Goes Electric!, follows the star as he rises from humble beginnings to fame, his struggles, and the controversial decision he eventually made to switch to electrically amplified instruments.
For Mangold, the main appeal of the film is getting to witness a time period when opportunity was everywhere and even a poor boy like 19-year-old Bob Dylan, with just two dollars to his name, could become a worldwide sensation within three years.
The film also stars Boyd Holbrook, Norbert Leo Butz, Scoot McNairy, and Dan Folger. Chalamet also doubles as producer, and Bob Dylan himself is participating as an executive producer.
Viewers reacted with excitement, with many pointing to Mangold’s resume as a source of reassurance after his handling of Johnny Cash’s biopic Walk the Line, which he wrote and directed back in 2005.
Others also praised Chalamet’s performance, noting that he appears to have grasped Bob Dylan’s mannerisms perfectly.
A Complete Unknown does not have an official release date yet, but it’s expected to hit cinemas in December 2024.
