Summary
Timothée Chalamet is playing legendary folk artist Bob Dylan in the upcoming biopicA Complete Unknown– but does the actor really sing and play guitar in the new movie?A Complete Unknownis being directed by James Mangold, marking his second biopic of an iconic musician after his acclaimed Johnny Cash movieWalk the Line. Mangold has co-written the screenplay with Jay Cocks, who previously worked on the Martin Scorsese filmsSilence,Gangs of New York, andThe Age of Innocence, based on the 2015 bookDylan Goes Electric!by Elijah Wald.
Searchlight Pictures has just droppedthe first trailer forA Complete Unknown, which debuts Chalamet’s portrayal of Dylan. The trailer also features Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, and Edward Norton as Pete Seeger (who were all previously seen in leaked set photos), as well as a couple of Dylan songs on the soundtrack. The trailer features a live performance of the classic Dylan track “A Hard Rain’s A‐Gonna Fall,” but is it really Chalamet singing or was the singing voice dubbed in?
Timothée Chalamet Sings & Plays Guitar In The Bob Dylan Biopic, A Complete Unknown
Chalamet trained with Austin Butler’s Elvis team
Yes, Chalamet is really singing and playing guitar inA Complete Unknown. In an interview withGQ,Chalamet revealed that he’d been working with the same team who trained hisDune: Part Twoco-star Austin Butler to play Elvis Presleyin Baz Luhrmann’s sensationalized biopicElvis. Chalamet has worked with a dialect coach named Tim Monich to get the accent right, a vocal coach named Eric Vetro to get the singing voice right, and a movement coach named Polly Bennett to get the body language right.
Chalamet was inspired by Butler’s commitment to the role of Elvis and wanted to emulate that commitment with his turn as Dylan. Hopefully, after all is said and done, Chalamet will be able to go back to his regular speaking voice and won’t still sound like Dylan when he does interviews and attends awards shows. While his impression of Dylan’s singing voice is spot-on,it is possible to tell that it’s Chalamet with the distinctive deep cadence of his voice.
Timothée Chalamet Already Proved He Could Sing In Wonka
This isn’t Chalamet’s first musical role
A Complete Unknownisn’t the first movie to feature Chalamet’s musical talents; he did plenty of singing in last year’s hit fantasy comedyWonka. From “A Hatful of Dreams” to “For a Moment” to various reprisals of “You’ve Never Had Chocolate Like This,” Chalamet sang a bunch ofsongs inWonka– and proved he has an impressive singing voice. UnlikeWonka,A Complete Unknownrequires Chalamet to emulate a very specific singing voice (and based on the trailer, it seems like he’s nailed it).
A Complete Unknown
Cast
A Complete Unknown is a biographical movie that follows a young Bob Dylan as he integrates with New York and catches the eye of the folk singers in the area, eventually propelling him into stardom.
