Timothée Chalamet reveals he’s never met Bob Dylan: “He’s super reclusive”

(Credits: Searchlight Pictures)
Timothée Chalamet has revealed that despite his upcoming appearance in the Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, he has yet to meet Dylan.
The forthcoming film follows Chalamet as Dylan as he makes his way in the New York music scene after moving from Minnesota as a 19-year-old in 1961 and the unlikely road ahead that awaits him after he unexpectedly becomes a huge star.
While appearing on Theo Von’s podcast This Past Weekend, Chalamet discussed how he got into character for the role and tried to get a better understanding of Dylan’s musical upbringing. He spoke about visiting Café Wha, one of the spots Dylan used to perform in, and being disappointed by the fact that it now mainly features cover bands playing bad renditions of Aerosmith songs.
Von asked if, while doing research, he had ever met Dylan, to which Chalamet said no. “I never got the chance to meet him. He’s super reclusive, yeah, he’s elusive,” he said, “I don’t know if he’ll ever see the movie.”
The only thing close to Chalamet’s interaction with Bob Dylan is a post that Dylan uploaded to social media discussing the movie and the source material that inspired it. “He has an X post that he did like three days ago,” said Chalamet.
The post reads: “There’s a movie about me opening soon called A Complete Unknown (what a title!). Timothee Chalamet is starring in the lead role. 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.”
Dylan also wrote briefly about the book that inspired the film and confirmed fans should give it a read once they’ve seen the picture. “The film’s taken from Elijah Wald’s Dylan Goes Electric,” he said, “A book that came out in 2015. It’s a fantastic retelling of events from the early ‘60s that led up to the fiasco at Newport. After you’ve seen the movie read the book.”
Von asked Chalamet if he had ever spoken to Dylan over the phone or online, and again, Chalamet confirmed that he hadn’t. “No, nothing,” he said, “I never got the chance to talk to him.”
Has Bob Dylan contributed to ‘A Complete Unknown’?
James Mangold, who is responsible for directing the movie, did get the chance to speak to Dylan before getting to work. He spoke briefly about the encounter on the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast. “It’s really interesting, y’know Bob, one of the early things, the first time that I sat down with him, and it was such an interesting question because he said, ‘What’s this movie about, Jim?’”
Mangold said, “I didn’t have an answer, but what sprang out of me was, ‘It’s about a guy who is choking to death in Minnesota and leaves behind all his friends and family, reinvents himself in a brand new place, makes new friends, builds a new family, becomes phenomenally successful, starts to choke to death again and runs away,” he continued, “He smiled, and said, ‘I like that’. Essentially, that’s what I’m telling because you need a north star.”
A Complete Unknown is set for release on December 25th in the United States and January 17th, 2025, in the United Kingdom.
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