Timothée Chalamet clearly worked hard transforming into the legendary Bob Dylan for Searchlight Pictures’ fully-authorized biopic, A Complete Unknown, which dropped its second trailer on Tuesday.
The 28-year-old Oscar nominee previously showed off his real singing chops performing A Hard Rain’s A‐Gonna Fall (1963) in the July teaser and, this time, he sang Girl from the North Country (1963) and Like A Rolling Stone (1965).
‘He worked his butt off,’ movement coach Polly Bennett confirmed via Instagram.
‘And I helped.’
Timothée reportedly enlisted the same exact team – including vocal coach Scott Flaherty and dialect coach Erik Singer – that his Dune co-star Austin Butler hired to play Elvis.
Timothée Chalamet clearly worked hard transforming into the legendary Bob Dylan for Searchlight Pictures’ fully-authorized biopic, A Complete Unknown, which dropped its second trailer on Tuesday
Chalamet – whose rap alter ego is Lil Timmy Tim – previously warmed his pipes in Paul King’s 2023 musical prequel Wonka and Woody Allen’s 2019 rom-com A Rainy Day in New York (which also starred Elle Fanning).
In the new preview, Bob juggles romances with fellow singer Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) and Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning), who’s a thinly-veiled version of the late artist Suze Rotolo.
‘You came here with nothing but a guitar. You never talk about your family, your past,’ Sylvie said.
Dylan replied: ‘People make up their past, Sylvie! They remember what they want, they forget the rest.’
In real life, the enigmatic 83-year-old split from Rotolo in 1964 after their abortion and his affair with Baez.
‘How about that Joan Baez, folks?’ Bob said onstage.
‘She’s pretty. Sings pretty. Maybe a little too pretty.’
However, in the next scene, Dylan blatantly insulted her work: ‘Your songs are like an oil painting at the dentist’s office.’
The 28-year-old Oscar nominee previously showed off his real singing chops performing A Hard Rain’s A‐Gonna Fall (1963) in the July teaser and, this time, he sang Girl from the North Country (1963) and Like A Rolling Stone (1965)
Movement coach Polly Bennett confirmed via Instagram: ‘He worked his butt off. And I helped’
Timothée reportedly enlisted the same exact team – including vocal coach Scott Flaherty and dialect coach Erik Singer – that his Dune co-star Austin Butler (R, pictured February 12) hired to play Elvis
In the new preview, Bob juggles romances with fellow singer Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) and Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning), who’s a thinly-veiled version of the late artist Suze Rotolo
‘You came here with nothing but a guitar. You never talk about your family, your past,’ Sylvie said
Dylan replied: ‘People make up their past, Sylvie! They remember what they want, they forget the rest’
In real life, the enigmatic 83-year-old (R, pictured in 1961) split from Rotolo (L) in 1964 after their abortion and his affair with Baez
‘How about that Joan Baez, folks?’ Bob said onstage. ‘She’s pretty. Sings pretty. Maybe a little too pretty’
However, in the next scene, Dylan blatantly insulted her work: ‘Your songs are like an oil painting at the dentist’s office’
‘You’re kind of an a**hole, Bob,’ Joan replied.
As soon as Dylan’s folk music career took off, he famously rebelled by going electric and indulged in alcohol and pills but Timothée’s portrayal is far too sober.
‘200 people in that room and each one wants me to be somebody else. They should just let me be,’ Bob lamented.
‘Let you be what?’ his bandmate asked.
Dylan replied: ‘Whatever it is they don’t want me to be.’
‘They just want me singing Blowin’ in the Wind for the rest of my goddamn life.’
James Mangold’s big-screen adaptation of Elijah Wald’s 2015 book Dylan Goes Electric! seemingly ends with his radically electric performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
It was at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival where Bob likely first crossed paths with Johnny Cash, and the pair share a moment during the A Complete Unknown trailer.
As soon as Dylan’s folk music career took off, he famously rebelled by going electric and indulged in alcohol and pills but Timothée’s portrayal is far too sober
‘200 people in that room and each one wants me to be somebody else. They should just let me be,’ Bob lamented. ‘They just want me singing Blowin’ in the Wind for the rest of my goddamn life’
James Mangold’s big-screen adaptation of Elijah Wald’s 2015 book Dylan Goes Electric! seemingly ends with his radically electric performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival
It was at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival where Bob likely first crossed paths with Johnny Cash, and the pair share a moment during the A Complete Unknown trailer
‘I’m not sure they wanna hear what I wanna play, Johnny,’ Dylan said
That’s when Johnny – played by Boyd Holbrook – whispered: ‘I wanna hear it’
Cash added: ‘Make some noise, BD’
In the comments of Searchlight Pictures’ YouTube page, user @Longleke noted: ‘Johnny Cash is revealed at the end of this trailer like he’s a goddamn MCU cameo’
‘I’m not sure they wanna hear what I wanna play, Johnny,’ Dylan said.
That’s when Johnny – played by Boyd Holbrook – whispered: ‘I wanna hear it.’
‘Make some noise, BD.’
In the comments of Searchlight Pictures’ YouTube page, user @Longleke noted: ‘Johnny Cash is revealed at the end of this trailer like he’s a goddamn MCU cameo.’
But the 60-year-old filmmaker – who directed Joaquin Phoenix in his 2005 Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line – previously stated he doesn’t ‘do multiverses.’
‘But beyond that, Johnny Cash was like, 30. I love Joaquin, but he’s not 30, or whatever Johnny was at this moment,’ James told Rolling Stone in July.
‘They’re both young people in that moment in life. It’s weird that I’ve even worked in the world of IP entertainment, because I don’t like multi-movie universe-building. I think it’s the enemy of storytelling. The death of storytelling. It’s more interesting to people the way the Legos connect than the way the story works in front of us.
‘For me, the goal becomes, always, “What is unique about this film, and these characters?” Not making you think about some other movie or some Easter egg or something else, which is all an intellectual act, not an emotional act. You want the movie to work on an emotional level.’
But the 60-year-old filmmaker (R) – who directed Joaquin Phoenix (L) in his 2005 Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line – previously stated he doesn’t ‘do multiverses’
James told Rolling Stone in July: ‘But beyond that, Johnny Cash was like, 30. I love Joaquin, but he’s not 30, or whatever Johnny was at this moment. They’re both young people in that moment in life. It’s weird that I’ve even worked in the world of IP entertainment, because I don’t like multi-movie universe-building. I think it’s the enemy of storytelling. The death of storytelling’
Mangold (M, pictured on April 29) gushed of Chalamet: ‘Timmy really carries this character from a 19-year-old boy telling tales of working on the carnival into this person that we recognize as an icon’
Edward Norton, Nick Offerman, Dan Fogler, and Joe Tippett also star in A Complete Unknown – which hits US theaters December 25 and UK theaters January 17, 2025
Two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett (M) previously nailed young electric-era Bob Dylan aka Jude Quinn in Todd Haynes’ critically-acclaimed 2007 experimental drama, I’m Not There
However, A Complete Unknown was executive produced by Bob (pictured September 23) himself
Mangold gushed of Chalamet: ‘Timmy really carries this character from a 19-year-old boy telling tales of working on the carnival into this person that we recognize as an icon.’
Edward Norton, Nick Offerman, Dan Fogler, and Joe Tippett also star in A Complete Unknown – which hits US theaters December 25 and UK theaters January 17, 2025.
Two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett previously nailed young electric-era Bob Dylan aka Jude Quinn in Todd Haynes’ critically-acclaimed 2007 experimental drama, I’m Not There.
However, A Complete Unknown was executive produced by Bob himself.
Dylan (born Robert Zimmerman) will next bring his Rough and Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour to Germany’s Messehalle in Erfurt on Tuesday night.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is truly a national treasure having received 10 Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a Pulitzer Prize special citation, and the Nobel Prize in literature.
