Timothée Chalamet has no plans to release his own album despite ‘A Complete Unknown’ performance
In preparation for his much-anticipated role as Bob Dylan in the upcoming biopic A Complete Unknown, Timothée Chalamet has spent months learning to play the guitar and sing like the folk hero. Regardless of the aptitude in performing that this role has brought him, the Oscar-nominated actor has downplayed calls to release his own album.
Initially, when it was revealed that Chalamet would be performing and re-recording a plethora of Dylan classics using his own voice, audiences were torn. After all, Dylan possesses an incredibly unique and distinctive voice, one which is often imitated but rarely done well. However, the actor has reportedly worked tirelessly in order to pay faithful homage to the songwriter and, according to reports from the premiere this week, he has done a pretty commendable job.
According to Chalamet, it was fellow actor Edward Norton, who plays Pete Seeger in the film, who first encouraged him to perform Dylan’s songs himself. “He was always the devil in my ear telling me to do these songs live,” Chalamet told Variety. “We had these pre-records, but Edward was always sort of the counterweight to the 99 other voices that were saying not to.”
The film’s director, James Mangold, also attested that Chalamet’s musical journey has been a long process. “It’s not like this was a fast thing. This is six years of work for him to get to the place where he can own this music,” the filmmaker shared, explaining, “So the first time I heard him sing, he was good, but he wasn’t what he is in the movie yet.”
A Complete Unknown is not Mangold’s first flirt with the musical biopic. Back in 2005, he directed the fantastic Walk The Line, which told the tale of Johnny Cash. Johnny Cash also appears in Dylan’s biopic as something of an homage to that film. The story goes that Dylan and Cash became pen pals during the early part of the folk singer’s career and that Dylan kept all the letters that Cash sent to him.
In the film, Cash’s part is played by Boyd Holbrook, although he has not been on board from the very beginning. “Johnny Cash wasn’t originally in the script,” he shared. What’s more, Holbrook had doubts about the role due to the fact that he and Cash look very different. “I said to James, ‘I don’t look like Johnny Cash’ and he said, ‘Nobody looks like anybody. So whatever he saw in me, I trust him because he’s such a passionate guy,” the actor said.
On the performance of his co-star, Chalamet, Holbrook heaped praise onto his dedication to performing live: “He’s a real artist, and I think he’s got the biggest brass pair on him for playing all these songs live.” Nevertheless, Chalamet seems keen to keep that newly acquired musical skill a private affair, showing no willingness to release an album in his own right.
How has Timothée Chalamet prepared to play Bob Dylan?
A Complete Unknown has been in production for multiple years at this point, so Chalamet has had a lot of time to immerse himself in Dylan’s early period. The film itself focuses on the first four years of Dylan’s musical journey, culminating in the moment he switched to electric at the Newport Folk Festival, causing outrage among folk purists. In order to shed light on that period, Dylan himself has reportedly been giving notes and advice to the actor.
In fact, Chalamet has claimed to have been given a bank of unreleased Dylan material from that period in order to better understand the music and mindset of the songwriter at that time. Seemingly, this colossal amount of preparation has worked out, with Dylan himself praising Chalamet’s performance. Writing on X, the folk star shared, “Timmy’s a brilliant actor so I’m sure he’s going to be completely believable as me. Or a younger me. Or some other me.”
A Complete Unknown will be released in cinemas in the UK on January 17th and in the US on December 25th.
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