How does it feel to be on your own, with no direction home, a complete unknown? Timothée Chalamet knows and now we’re starting to see it as well, as the actor has been spotted in full Bob Dylan garb during the filming of A Complete Unknown. As the images show, Chalamet is decked out in blue jeans, a green jacket, a scarf, and a hat, lugging around an acoustic guitar in an old case. This definitely puts him in the early 1960s, undoubtedly the most defining time in Bob Dylan’s life (with due respect to his Christmas album…).
Of note, Chalamet is currently 28, which Dylan turned in 1969. Dylan already had one hell of an arc by that point, with two of his key moments as a performer, person and legend – going electric in 1965 and his 1966 motorcycle crash – occurring prior. While no official plot for A Complete Unknown has been revealed, it’s believed that there will indeed be some focus on the former event. With that, we will likely see a scene at the Newport Folk Festival, in which Dylan plugged in and shocked the crowd. The film will feature portrayals of friends/influences Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) and Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook). And who knows, maybe Elvis will turn up…
Speaking of the Man in Black, director James Mangold – who also directed 2005 Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line – had the following to say on the setting of A Complete Unknown: “It’s such an amazing time in American culture, and the story of Bob’s — a young, 19-year-old Bob Dylan coming to New York with two dollars in his pocket and becoming a worldwide sensation within three years…First being embraced into a family of folk music in New York and of course kind of outrunning him at a certain point as his star rises so beyond belief.” Walk the Line nabbed Joaquin Phoenix an Oscar nomination, so can A Complete Unknown do the same for Chalamet?
It had previously been reported that Chalamet would do his own singing in A Complete Unknown, although we hope it doesn’t sound like a parody since Dylan’s vocals are so distinct and easily mockable.
What did you think of the first look at Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan? Are you looking forward to A Complete Unknown?
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