Timothee Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro and Edward Norton talk about Bob Dylan biopic ‘A Complete Unknown’

Will Timothee Chalamet finally bag a Golden Globe trophy on January 5, 2025?

The 28-year-old thespian, who has already been nominated four times for a Golden Globe award (“Call Me By Your Name,” “Beautiful Boy,” “Wonka,” “A Complete Unknown”), still has to win a Globe.

Nominated this year for his portrayal of Bob Dylan in the musical biopic "A Complete Unkown" written, directed and produced by James Mangold, the movie is set in 1961 when an enigmatic 19-year-old Bob Dylan from Minnesota arrives with his guitar and his dream to make it in New York.

Others in the cast include Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, and Edward Norton as Pete Seeger.

Chalamet, Norton, Barbaro and others sang every song live on set and their performances were extensively used in the final film. Chalamet also learned to play over 30 Bob Dylan songs fluently and Norton and Barbaro trained for many months to learn the banjo and guitar for the film.

We were able to virtually interview filmmaker Mangold and cast members Chalamet, Fanning, Barbaro and Norton, and they talked about the challenges in making the movie, their journey while doing the film, and their experiences that make the project memorable to them.

James Mangold (Director, writer, producer)

James Mangold with Timothee Chalamet. Courtesy: Searchlight Pictures

Can you please tell us what inspired you to do a Bob Dylan movie?

I like making movies about artists, and I even think of my car movie, “Ford vs Ferrari,” as a movie about artists, about creation, about the fight to make something against the system or news that no one's seen before.

I made a movie 20 years ago about Johnny Cash, which was a great experience for me. So when I saw this book about Dylan's early years and going electric, and there was a team of people who had bought it and were interested in making a movie, I became very interested in helping adapt it and shaping it because it seemed, to me, a very simple way to make a movie not just about Bob Dylan, that's the subject in a specific way, but about genius, how we relate to brilliance, how we, as regular mortal non-genius people relate to genius and what it feels like to be a person who is blessed with a talent that even you might not understand.

You know, even Bob, when I spoke with him, would say he doesn't know where those songs came from. They just came. And the idea of this young man, a complete unknown, arriving in Manhattan with a few dollars in his pocket to meet a hero and within a year he has got a record deal at Columbia, and within two years he is a sensation. And the way that balance works.

I almost thought we were making Amadeus in the folk music world because as much as Amadeus is about Mozart, it's also much more about Salieri and the king and his wife and the other characters and how they are affected by the presence of someone who these “brilliances” come out of. I don't know if that's a word, “brilliances,” but I will make it one today.

Being talented and having a gift is also a burden in that it separates you from other people. I thought these were all interesting themes to make the movie about.

Talk about casting Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan and making him sing the songs. Why do you think he is the perfect actor to portray Bob Dylan?

He's one of the most gifted actors of his generation, first of all. I even thought that five years ago when we first started working on this together.

I also wanted someone who was truly young, who could embody this version of Dylan that we don't know, that before people were taking pictures and making documentaries, this man who would just, who is almost still a boy, and before he turns 23, has written 10 or 15 of the most important songs of the century.

To me, that's in and of itself, that's so interesting. And you add to that his unique character and his attitude.

If anything, I was not out to make him into an idol or to put him on a pedestal but just to better understand him. To understand him as a human being.

What does it feel like to be Bob Dylan? That's something you can't do in a documentary or a book. What does it feel like? What is it? What does it feel like to feel all these people screaming your name or wanting you, and you're not even sure what they want? All these things are very interesting to me.

Timothée Chalamet. Courtesy: Searchlight Pictures

Talk about choosing Monica Barbaro to portray Joan Baez. Did you talk to Joan about this movie?

I didn't, but Monica spoke to Joan. And Joan had read the parts of the script that related to her music or her character.

I knew I needed a character. I needed an actress with immense gravity, quiet power, and singing power, but that's a separate thing. But what I first needed more than anything was a young woman who could be a little intimidating to Bob.

I always felt this attraction between them, but also a little bit of competitive energy, like they are both peers and they are both speaking to the same ears and at the same time through their voices and guitars very differently.

She has a perfect voice and is beautiful. He's more of an oddball and has an imperfect voice, but he writes all his songs, and she doesn't write so many.

So, they have talents in slightly different areas that make each of them put each of them a little off balance. I needed an actress with power, quiet power, and dignity. I thought Timmy could bounce off of it in a wonderful way.

Timothee Chalamet (Bob Dylan)

Courtesy: Searchlight Pictures

Can you talk about how you got the essence of Bob Dylan and what were the challenges that you faced?

I try to sink into the material as much as possible. The great thing about playing a real-life person, a real-life artist, is there's a clear finite amount of material to sink your teeth into.

In the case of Bob Dylan, a lot of fabulous music from the early ‘60s but also great documentary footage, great interviews, and tons of biographies about him.

I went to his birthplace in Duluth and Hibbing, Minnesota. Retraced the steps to New York through Madison, Wisconsin, and Chicago. Listened to the music and played it for five years.

Were you a Bob Dylan fan before you did this movie?

No, it was a friend of my dad's who had a portrait of Bob Dylan on his wall growing up. I knew his name; he was one of the icons of 1960s cultures in America, but that was the extent of it.

Was there a point in the movie where you thought that Bob Dylan surprised you?

Well, this is the character of Bob Dylan, so it's interpretive. This isn't exactly how it happened. So, I don't have a good answer for you there.

This movie started with Bob Dylan as a 19-year-old. How was Timothée Chalamet when he was 19 years old?

I wasn't writing songs like “Song to Woody,” and “Let Me Die in My Footsteps.” I wasn't a gifted lyricist like Bob Dylan, blessed by God to write these words.

How was it working with Elle Fanning and Monica Barbaro?

Fantastic. They're both excellent in the movie. I think they're just so powerful in different ways.

As Joan Baez, Monica plays more of a wily navigator who's super gifted in her own right, being on the cover of Time magazine.

And Elle Fanning does an extraordinary job. Elle is amazing in everything she does. I'm blown away by her in this movie. She's remarkably present as an actress, super generous, and very talented. She brings life to what is the “normal” person role in this movie, the non-musician. In many ways, she's the emotional center of the movie.

If you had a chance to talk to Bob Dylan, what questions would you ask him?

I would say thank you for your life's work, independent of the movie. Thank you for everything you've given us. Thanks for giving it your all.

Elle Fanning (Sylvie Russo/Suze Rotolo)

Elle Fanning with Timothée Chalamet in 'A Complete Unknown.' Courtesy: Searchlight Pictures

Suze Rotolo is not just an artist and a political activist; she was also the muse of Bob Dylan. What did you discover when researching her and how did you capture her essence?

Gosh, she was such a beautiful woman. I mean obviously, Suze Rotolo is who Sylvie's based off of. Bob Dylan himself wanted her name changed personally because he felt like she didn't want public life. That was not her destiny, and she's since passed, and they remained friends up until then.

I haven't met Bob Dylan but hearing that little anecdote really moved me. It was always in the back of my mind, on set every day, how much that relationship means to him and how special it is. I wanted to bring that essence of first love and that electricity, which makes it all the more heartbreaking when it doesn't work out in the end.

There's a lot of inner life in Sylvie. She's quite vulnerable and a lot is said that's unspoken through her eyes and listening to the music.

Timothee and I wanted to make that relationship real and the arc real because she's the last person who knew him before he became famous. So, that scene has to pay off at the end.

How was it working with Timothee in this movie about your favorite artist?

Oh my gosh, it was incredible. I feel like I manifested this part because when I was a little girl, I would write Bob Dylan on my hand every day in junior high. It's so nuts. I feel like I'm so happy I'm a part of it, but especially to watch, to witness Timothee do what he has done in this part, it's truly astounding.

He sings all the songs live and plays the guitar, but it's so much more than that. It's about how he embodied Bob Dylan, but not in a caricature way.

I was so proud watching him and very moved every day on set, honestly. I'm a Bob Dylan fan so I was going to be critiquing him, but he just blew my mind.

It was nice that we had a friendship before, especially for the relationship in the film. It adds the safeness and comfort that's different from any other relationship he has in the movie.

What were some of the memorable scenes you had?

Oh god, there's a lot. I love the final scene. I call it the fence scene because the fence is such a metaphor for that final goodbye. I love that it was shot through the fence and the call back to the scene with the cigarette with the now Voyager Betty Davis movie.

The way Jim shot it felt like an iconic breakup love scene. It felt very romantic and authentic, and it read like that on the page, so I was hoping that we could pull it off. I was nervous. I was like it's okay, this is a big deal, we have to hit it home. I love watching that scene.

Monica Barbaro (Joan Baez)

Courtesy: Searchlight Pictures

I saw Joan Baez’s performance one night and I saw how she was such a fierce and warm-spirited woman she is. So, talk about how you captured her essence.

The first steps with her were to try and start the technical part of this, which was to get her voice and guitar. I didn't have any experience in those things, and I approached that with a level of fear and perfectionism.

But as I became more proficient, it became very clear. And the more I learned about her as a person, it became clear that I had to allow for a certain confidence to come in.

She had stage fright bouts for sure, but she was supremely confident in her voice. And she sang beautiful interpretations of these folk songs at the time.

Her arrangements were so specific and wonderful. So, for me, as I started to release myself from some of that perfectionism, I felt a little bit more connected to her essence.

It helps to read her memoirs and to try to process the way she thinks.

There was a New Yorker article where she talked about her illustrations. She said that the more perfect you try to be, the more you rob a piece of art from what makes it interesting and from its humanity.

So, I was like, okay, I'm going to take that as a bit of allowance to not get into mimicry, and instead embrace the essence of her and let the technical work do what it needs to do; the vibrato, the fingerpicking and all of that. Let that be there and keep working on that. But also embrace who she was underneath or attempt to.

How was it working with Timothée Chalamet in this movie? And what were some of your memorable scenes with him?

It was incredible. I've always been an admirer of his work.

At our first meeting, we had heard recordings of each other in the studio because you do a lot of pre-recordings, and I was so impressed with the work that he was doing.

Our first meeting was a music rehearsal similar to Bob and Joan’s meeting, where they met in the music space.

Once our musical proficiency was there, I had a wonderful experience getting to hear myself play songs.

The idea that I could make something with my hands that sounds like a complete song was awesome. Then, to hear the two of our siloed preparations coming together and harmonizing together and hearing the beautiful accompaniment of our two guitars together was, for me, a career. That day, I went home buzzing and felt so excited that we were getting to do this movie together.

So, you sang and played the guitar in the movie, but how was that experience? How did you prepare for it?

Well, luckily, I had a lot of phenomenal coaching and just tried to focus on the more iconic parts of her voice and her playing style. It was really from scratch, I wasn't a singer, I didn't play guitar. So, I zoned in on Joan just trying to sound as close to her as possible. Hours and months of blood, sweat, and tears. But very much worth it. I feel so grateful that I can play guitar now.

Edward Norton (Pete Seeger)

Courtesy: Searchlight Pictures

Pete was a legendary folk singer and social activist. How did you capture his essence?

I don't know if I did or if I didn't. Jim Mangold is a very wise director. He's never there scrutinizing whether you're doing a good imitation of a person. He encourages you to throw away the burden of the historical profile of these people and their fame and just deal with them as though they're made-up characters. His approach is very liberating. He encouraged us to let go of history and deal with the universality of friendship, mentorship, alliance, all of it. I think that that's helpful.

We're very lucky today how easy it is to access old footage of people. There are so many interviews with Pete Seeger. A lot of what I was able to find would have been so much more difficult to find 20 years ago.

It's remarkable how much you can access about a person through the online treasure troves of old clips. Even Pete Seeger's small folk show from public television. I know Bruce Springsteen, and he knew Pete Seeger well, and he had never seen those old folk shows that we recreated. I sent him clips of it. It's incredible what you can access these days.

So, how was it working with Timothée in this movie? Were there any memorable scenes with him?

It was all memorable. I loved all of it. I loved the depth of his commitment and seriousness. Every dimension of it was great.

We had one duet, one song we sang together, and I loved doing that. That was a magical scene. I wish the film could have been longer so that we could play out that whole song, because it was really special.

— LA, GMA Integrated News