« A Complete Unknown » actor Timothée Chalamet, also known for « Marty Supreme, » « Dune, » « Wonka, » and « Call Me By Your Name, » says he grew up wary of acting and explains how he ended up making movies.
This is an updated version of a story first published on Feb. 15, 2025. The original video can be viewed here.
We begin with Timothée Chalamet, who earned his third Oscar nomination this past week, this one for his role in the film « Marty Supreme. » But it was his portrayal of Bob Dylan in « A |Complete Unknown » that caught our attention last February.
Bob Dylan is not just a singing and songwriting legend, he is one of the most enigmatic and reclusive musicians of our time. Playing him in a movie based on his life would be a daunting task for any actor, but when Timothée Chalamet was offered the role, he was 23 and says he knew practically nothing about Dylan. A lot of people told him not to do it, but Chalamet likes a creative challenge. He says he’s never met Bob Dylan, but because of the pandemic, strikes in Hollywood, and other film commitments, Chalamet ended up having about five years to study the man and his music. Determined, like Bob Dylan was at his age, to make it great.
Timothée Chalamet: I give 170% in everything I’m doing, no, « But », there. I’m giving it my all. Something like the Dylan project, these aren’t watered-down experiences. I’m going Daniel Day-Lewis (laugh) on all of them. I’m not saying in process, but I’m saying a level of commitment. And I don’t know, man, it sounds like I’m desperate, saying that or something, but–
Anderson Cooper: No. It sounds like you’re a professional and you want it to be the best it can possibly be.
Timothée Chalamet: Yeah. And– and– and increasingly, I– I– I don’t want to shy away from saying that.
Chalamet, who’s 30 now, didn’t just need to figure out how to sing like Dylan, he also learned how to play harmonica and guitar and about 40 Bob Dylan songs – far more than were originally called for in the script. The movie, set in the early 1960s, follows Bob Dylan’s rapid rise from obscurity to stardom, something Timothée Chalamet could relate to.
Dylan was 19 when he arrived in New York from Minnesota. A complete unknown, he quickly became an icon in the world of folk music. Poetic and political, his songs spoke to the times and a young generation demanding change.
Dylan got his start in New York at a nightclub called Cafe Wha? in Greenwich Village.
Timothée Chalamet: This was one of his, you know, jump points. This was, like, really a place where you could just go play folk music in the ’60s, early ’60s. And, I went during the movie, during the production, and it ain’t the same.
Anderson Cooper: What were they playing?
Timothée Chalamet: Now it’s Aerosmith covers, (laugh) and, and AC/DC, and, also worthy art, but–
Anderson Cooper: But different.
Timothée Chalamet: –Very different.
When Chalamet started researching Dylan, he did what many millennials likely would – he looked him up on YouTube.
He found this clip particularly insightful, Dylan performing on stage with Joan Baez, with whom he had a romantic relationship.
Timothée Chalamet: What I love about the « It Ain’t Me » performance is how playful it is and what a laugh he’s having. He was the one, at least in the footnotes of history, that wasn’t particularly– let’s say faithful (laugh) with Joan. So I get it from his perspective that he’s havin’ such a laugh. On YouTube now you could play things at 0.5 speed or 0.75 speed. And that was when I really slowed down, ’cause it’s fascinating the way Bob observes her and how he refuses eye contact in that video.
This is Chalamet’s version, with Monica Barbaro playing Joan Baez.
Anderson Cooper: You weren’t trying to imitate Bob Dylan.
Timothée Chalamet: No, totally that was the tension, for me, in doing a biopic on somebody so beloved and so well known was, all right — where does my heart and where does my soul fit into this? Can it fit into this, particularly with someone who was so masked.
To connect with what might be behind Dylan’s mask, Chalamet disconnected from his own life for the two-and-a-half months of filming.
He wouldn’t use his cellphone or have visitors on set.
Timothée Chalamet: I’ve never approached a character so intensely as Bob, ’cause I have such respect for the material. And I knew I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I– if I remembered that I was lazy on a day where something went wrong.
