Timothée Chalamet sings live on set, says Bob Dylan 'had the balls' to defy expectations in new biopic clip
"A Complete Unknown" is set to hit theaters this Christmas.
Timothée Chalamet is going all the way to play Bob Dylan. In a new featurette clip for A Complete Unknown, the upcoming musical biopic of the legendary singer/songwriter, the star confirms that he performed classic songs like "The Times They Are A-Changin'" and "Like a Rolling Stone" live on set of the James Mangold-directed film.
"It was important for me to sing and play it on set because it was in the spirit of the movie to do it live," Chalamet, who learned how to play the songs on guitar and harmonica as well as singing them, said in the new clip.
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Dylan's long life and prolific music career has been covered on film before, such as in Todd Haynes' experimental biopic I'm Not There (which cast multiple actors to play different aspects of Dylan's persona) and Martin Scorsese's four-hour documentary No Direction Home. By contrast, A Complete Unknown appears to focus specifically on Dylan's controversial switch from acoustic to electric instrumentation, defying the '60s folk scene that had first made him popular.
"Bob wouldn't let himself be boxed in, which for me as a young artist, is the most inspiring," Chalamet said. "Many of the artists throughout American pop culture who had the balls to turn their back on what was expected of them, that started with Bob."
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Chalamet isn't the only movie star playing an iconic '60s musician in A Complete Unknown. The film also stars Edward Norton as folk singer Pete Seeger and Boyd Holbrook (who previously collaborated with Mangold on last year's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) as country legend Johnny Cash. Additionally, Elle Fanning plays Dylan's then-girlfriend Sylvie Russo, while Monica Barbaro portrays Dylan's fellow folk star Joan Baez.
"He was more blunt about things that were going on," Barbaro says of Dylan in the new clip.
A Complete Unknown is set to hit theaters on Christmas Day, Dec. 25. Watch the new featurette above.