Timothée Chalamet Will ‘Never’ Release His Own Album Despite Spending Six Years Learning to Play the Guitar and Sing Like Bob Dylan for ‘A Complete Unknown’
Timothée Chalamet may be earning rave reviews for his guitar-playing and singing as Bob Dylan in James Mangold’s “A Complete Unknown,” but the Oscar nominee insists he’s not itching to release an album of his own. “Never,” he told me, laughing, at the film’s premiere Tuesday at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
Chalamet credited co-star Edward Norton for pushing him to sing live during filming. “He was always the devil in my ear telling me to do these songs live,” he said. “We had these pre-records, but Edward was always sort of the counterweight to the 99 other voices that were saying not to.”
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Monica Barbaro, who plays Joan Baez, recalled singing for the first time with Chalamet during rehearsals. “It was also the first time we met,” she said. “I had sung along with his recordings in the studio, but being in real time, in real life harmonizing and listening to our guitars, it was magical. It was my favorite thing about getting to do this.”
Barbaro didn’t play the guitar nor was she a trained singer before the movie. Like, Chalamet, she has no plans to release an album following her award-winning turn as Baez. “I can play, and I love to and I continue to do it,” she said. “For now, it’s a very private hobby…but I’ve been writing on my own, and I love it. It’s a very nice relationship to have with an instrument.”
Directed by James Mangold, “A Complete Unknown” traces Dylan’s life for the first four years of his career. In addition to Chalamet and Barbaro, the cast includes Elle Fanning (who uncharacteristically skipped most press interviews at the premiere), Boyd Holbrook, Scoot McNairy, Dan Folger, Norbert Leo Butz, P.J. Byrne, Nick Pupo and more. Costumes are by Oscar nominee Arianna Phillips.
Producer Fred Berger recalled the first time Chalamet sang for him about six years ago. “I had just landed in New York at about 1 a.m. and I ran into Timmy at the Bowery Hotel. He was like, ‘Dude, I’ve been practicing, come to my room,’” Berger said. “He just started playing and it was that moment where you’re like, ‘We have something.’ It was chills.”
Mangold also remembered Chalamet’s progression. “You’re talking about over six years,” the director said. “Sometimes I went, ‘Oh shit.’ Sometimes I went, ‘Oh my God.’ And about three days into shooting the movie, he popped and what he let loose with blew my mind. It’s not like this was a fast thing. This is six years of work for him to get to the place where he can own this music. So the first time I heard him sing, he was good, but he wasn’t what he is in the movie yet.”
Holbrook plays Johnny Cash, but says he originally auditioned for other roles. “Johnny Cash wasn’t originally in the script,” the actor said. “It was only after [Mangold] got to know Bob and learn that he and Johnny were pen pals and that Bob kept all the letters. He didn’t know this when he did ‘Walk the Line’ because Johnny didn’t have the letters.
“But I said to James, ‘I don’t look like Johnny Cash’ and he said, ‘Nobody looks like anybody,’” Holbrook continued. “So whatever he saw in me, I trust him because he’s such a passionate guy.”
Holbrook added about Chalamet, “He’s a real artist and I think he’s got the biggest brass pair on him for playing all these songs live.”
“A Complete Unknown,” from Searchlight Pictures, is in theaters Dec. 25.
See more phots from the “A Complete Unknown” premiere below.
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