Timothée Chalamet’s portrayal as Bob Dylan in the biopic, A Complete Unknown, is set to hit theaters on December 25. And while Timmy, no doubt hopes all who watch the film see his commitment to the role, he’s just received a rave review from the one person whose opinion matters most — Bob Dylan himself.
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The film, which hasn’t even hit theaters yet, already has the folk music legend praising the young actor, calling him both “brilliant” and “completely believable.”
Publicly acknowledging the upcoming James Mangold directed biopic about his early years in New York for the first time with a post on X, Dylan wrote, “There’s a movie about me opening soon called A Complete Unknown (what a title!). Timothee Chalamet is starring in the lead role. Timmy’s a brilliant actor so I’m sure he’s going to be completely believable as me. Or a younger me. Or some other me.”
“The film’s taken from Elijah Wald’s Dylan Goes Electric – a book that came out in 2015,” he continued. “It’s a fantastic retelling of events from the early ‘60s that led up to the fiasco at Newport. After you’ve seen the movie read the book.”
Replying to Bob’s comments a day later, with a few, yet precisely expressive words, Chalamet wrote, “Floored, I am so grateful, Thank you Bob.”
Chalamet has said, that in the years since learning he’d be taking on the role, he committed himself to honing his portrayal of the legend. Learning how to play 13 Dylan classics for the film, working with a movement coach, taking a “spirit-gathering” road trip to the Minnesota native’s early stomping grounds, as well as working with a harmonica coach for five years to nail the singer’s signature style.
During an interview with Collider earlier this year, Mangold, the films director, confirmed that Chalamet would do his own singing in the film that follows a young Dylan as he arrives in New York in the early 1960s.
“It’s such an amazing time in American culture,” the director also said at the time. “The story of a young, 19-year-old Bob Dylan coming to New York with, like, $2 in his pocket and becoming a worldwide sensation within three years — first being embraced into the family of folk music in New York and then, of course, kind of outrunning them at a certain point as his star rises so beyond belief.”
Also starring Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, Elle Fanning as early Dylan girlfriend Sylvie Russo and Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash, the film concludes at the revolutionary moment Dylan straps on an electric guitar at Newport Folk Festival in 1965, for his performance of “Like a Rolling Stone.”
Check out Bob’s rave review above and the film’s official trailer below.