Timothée Chalamet gained 20 pounds to portray Bob Dylan in ‘A Complete Unknown’
While promoting his latest film A Complete Unknown, Timothée Chalamet revealed that he gained 20 pounds in order to play Bob Dylan in the biopic.
In a recent interview with NPR, the actor described his extensive transformation process for the role, saying, “I’ve turned over every stone. I did all the work, like you just described, physicality, behaviour-wise. Something we haven’t really talked about, I also put on 20 pounds because, believe it or not, I was thinner than the guy.”
Chalamet has previously discussed how he was criticised during his early career for his weight, being told that he was too skinny to play certain roles, saying to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe in November, “If I auditioned for The Maze Runner or Divergent, things of that variety that were popping when I was coming up, the feedback was always, ‘Oh, you don’t have the right body”.
Despite this feedback, the actor found his own niche in the industry and was later given leading roles in films like Lady Bird, Dune and Little Women, which went against the negative feedback he’d been given as a young actor.
The actor recently received his second Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Dylan. Chalamet was also previously nominated for his role as Elio in Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name in 2017. Both films that he starred in have been nominated for ‘Best Picture’, with A Complete Unknown and Dune: Part Two competing against each other in the prestigious category.
Chalamet also learned to play the guitar and perform Dylan’s songs for the film, which was helped by him having five years to prepare. He recently demonstrated his newfound skillset on Saturday Night Live by playing ‘Outlaw Blues’, ‘Three Angels’, and ‘New Morning’ as part of a medley.
In a three-star review of A Complete Unknown, Far Out wrote: “While there is nothing offensive about A Complete Unknown, this is perhaps its biggest crime. In my opinion, the worst thing a film can do is take no risks, and Mangold has played it ridiculously safe by using brilliant actors to lift up an otherwise pointless and average story about an artist who cared about nothing but his craft, with a sparse inner world and personal life that does not provide enough meat for a feature film.”
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