Bob Dylan ‘fanatic’ Elle Fanning on ‘A Complete Unknown’ and being the ‘lens into the life of the circus people’
At just 26, Elle Fanning has Bob Dylan bona fides that belie her age. She was first introduced to Dylan’s music by Cameron Crowe on the set of “We Bought a Zoo,” and, at 13, became obsessed with all things Dylan.
“I was kind of this fanatic,” Fanning tells Gold Derby of her early exposure to the folk legend. “I would write ‘Bob Dylan’ in cursive on my hand every day in junior high.”
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So while it’s not like Fanning manifested her participation in “A Complete Unknown,” James Mangold’s new film about Dylan with Timothée Chalamet in the lead role, few young actresses are better suited for the project. “When I heard that Timmy was doing this, I was like, ‘There is no one better for this part.’ And then when Jim said there was a part for me in it, I was obviously extremely excited,” she says.
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Based on “Dylan Goes Electric” by Elijah Wald and co-written by Mangold and Jay Cocks, “A Complete Unknown” is a biopic in miniature: the film focuses on Dylan’s rise from a young teenager just arriving in New York in 1961 to becoming a global superstar who changed the face of music by the time he infamously went electric on stage at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. Fanning plays Sylvie Russo in the film, a character very largely based on Dylan’s girlfriend during that time, Suze Rotolo.
“Bob talked to Jim a lot about the script, and the one thing he wanted was Suze’s name to be changed in the script because he felt like she wasn’t a public figure. She always wanted to remain a private person. I really held that in my heart, the gravity of Bob’s choice, because they had stayed close until she passed away in 2011,” Fanning says. “It was a very special relationship for him, so I felt a real responsibility to kind of capture that essence of their young adulthood and time together and essence of her as best as I could.”
But unlike Chalamet as Dylan or costars Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez and Edward Norton as Pete Seeger – all of whom sing live in the film – Fanning had to approach Sylvie without the benefit of getting to show her emotions through song. “My job was different in the film, in that way, and showing emotion and vulnerability not through music,” she says.
One way Fanning accomplished that goal was by working with Mangold to make sure Sylvie had her own agenda and agency wherever possible.
“Suze, in real life, was the one who pushed him to sing his own songs and not just the same folk songs. She was very politically active in the civil rights movement,” Fanning notes. “And Bob wasn’t actually so up on the politics of the time until he met Suze. So she was a guiding light for him in that time.”
The character also helps guide the audience through the story. “In the movie, she is the one that he always keeps coming back to until the final scene that we have together, where we officially kind of have to part ways,” Fanning says. “And in a lot of ways, she is the audience’s lens into the life of the circus people, as you could say, because she is not a performer herself. And so she’s in this world out of pure love and admiration for Bob. She doesn’t have anything to gain from this world, and so she is there out of the pureness of her heart until she can’t take it anymore. So I think that’s kind of the bubbling pot throughout the relationship. She’s trying to keep the lid on, trying to keep it together, until she realizes it’s not right for herself, and it’s also going to hold him back.”
Fanning worked with Chalamet on “A Rainy Day in New York” and she considers him a friend in real life. But even she was taken aback by his dedication to the performance.
“He’s so brilliant, and I would catch myself getting emotional just hearing him singing live and being surrounded by all this music. It really brings a vulnerability out in you,” she says. “Timmy was our leader, and he’s at the helm of the movie. It doesn’t work, and it falls apart if he doesn’t deliver. And he was never a caricature – it was always his own version of Bob Dylan. And I could even see little parts of himself in there that were just so beautiful and really touching.”
Fanning has been praised for her work in the film and is among several contenders for Oscar recognition this year in the Best Supporting Actress category (alongside her costar Barbaro). But of the early precursors that have been announced so far, Fanning can stake claim to one: A win from the National Board of Review for Best Supporting Actress. For the longtime performer, who started acting as a child, the recognition was something special
“I’ve been doing this since I was young. So those things mean a lot,” she says. “I just had a great time celebrating with my family after it was announced, and I got a lot of emails and texts. And to especially get it for a film like this – this was a very special filming experience. It was a long time in the making.”
“A Complete Unknown” is now playing in select theaters and goes wide on Christmas Day.
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