Timothée Chalamet is gearing up to play Bob Dylan in the upcoming James Mangold-directed film A Complete Unknown, and he wants to make sure he nails the role.
In a new interview with GQ, he says in preparing for the part he’s been inspired by actor Austin Butler’s commitment to the role of Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, so much so that he’s hired the same people to help turn him into Dylan.
“I’ve basically been working with his entire Elvis team for my Dylan prep,” he says. “There’s a wonderful dialect coach named Tim Monich. Vocal coach named Eric Vetro. Movement coach named Polly Bennett.”
He adds of Butler, “I just saw the way he committed to it all, and realized I needed to step it up.”
Chalamet will be doing his own singing for the flick, but fans shouldn’t expect him to sound exactly like Dylan.
“It’s taking on all the characteristics of Dylan’s voice and his mannerisms and his speech patterns, and bringing that into the music – so that when you hear Timothée do the music, what you’re really getting is the essence of Bob Dylan,” Vetro tells the mag. “You’re not getting an impersonation of him. It’s breathing new life into that voice that we know so well.”
And while the project’s been in development for three years, Chalamet has yet to meet the iconic Rock & Roll Hall of Famer. “I didn’t want to three years ago, because I just didn’t want to for superstitious reasons,” he said. “Now I would love to.”
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
