Timothee Chalamet Spent Five Years Working on Bob Dylan Role

Actor Timothee Chalamet has revealed the details of the years of work he spent to play the role of Bob Dylan in the upcoming biopic A Complete Unknown.

The movie is set for release on Dec. 25, and covers the period leading up to Dylan’s controversial electric performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. It’s based on the 2015 book Dylan Goes Electric!, and Dylan himself advised on the script.

In a new interview with Apple Music 1 (video below) Chalamet said: “For the movie, I had to learn 13 [songs], let’s say… but in total, I could probably play 30.”

READ MORE: Here’s the Best Preview Yet of Timothee Chalamet’s Bob Dylan

He continued: “Tim Monich was a dialect coach… who I worked with for years on this. I worked with a harmonica coach for five years, and then worked with a woman named Polly Bennett, who’s a movement coach… [A]ctually we got more out of just working on the script together than anything physicality related.

“And then, for my own spirit-gathering – for lack of a better metaphor – I retraced Bob’s steps through Chicago and Madison, Wisconsin… I started in Hibbing, in Duluth. And I spent about a week where he is from in Minnesota.”

Timothee Chalamet’s ‘Weird’ Connection to Bob Dylan

Discussing the pressure he felt to deliver, the actor explained: “It was the most unique challenge I’ve taken on. But where my confidence came through is eventually doing all the music live.”

He reported that his own life experiences meant he could relate to some of Dylan’s own in a “weird” way. “Bob wanted to be a rock ’n’ roll star – Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Elvis Presley… Equally, I wanted to be a big movie actor.

He added: “I’m now deep in the church of Bob, and I feel like I get this opportunity to kinda be a bridge to this music.”

Watch Timothee Chalamet Discuss Bob Dylan

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