Timothée Chalamet steps into the boots of a young Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, a biographical drama that dives headfirst into the chaotic buildup to Dylan’s infamous electric rebellion. The two-time Oscar champ’s performance is lighting up screens—and tongues—especially since he insisted on belting out the tunes himself. Recently, Chalamet spilled the beans on the one Dylan song that left him a sobbing wreck after nailing it live.
Dylan’s Ode to a Dying Legend
The film kicks off with a scrappy Bob Dylan (born Robert Zimmerman, but who cares about that guy?) barreling toward New York City to kneel at the bedside of his idol, Woody Guthrie (played by a haunting Scoot McNairy). Dylan’s obsession with the folk icon sparked years earlier, when he swiped Guthrie’s autobiography off a college buddy and devoured it like scripture. That was it—college got the boot, and Dylan hauled off to NYC, chasing a wild dream strummed on borrowed strings.
“A Complete Unknown” is brilliantly performed, dazzlingly directed, a remarkable accomplishment.
unexpectedly moving, especially in scenes with ailing, infirm Woody Guthrie & folk singer hero Pete Seeger–young Bob Dylan begins by paying homage to his heroes, then moves defiantly…— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) December 27, 2024
Their meeting? Straight out of a fever dream. Dylan tracked Guthrie down to Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in New Jersey, where the folk hero—barely pushing 50—was rotting away, his body hijacked by Huntington’s disease. With Guthrie’s muscles betraying him, Dylan unloaded a set of the man’s own songs before pulling out his ace: “Song For Woody.” Built on the bones of Guthrie’s “1913 Massacre,” Dylan’s lyrics hit like a freight train: I’m a-singin’ you this song, but I can’t sing enough / ‘Cause there’s not many men that done the things that you’ve done. Pure reverence, raw as hell.
Why Chalamet Broke Down
Chalamet had spent six grueling months pre-recording vocals for the flick, only to ditch the tapes and go live when the cameras rolled. First scene up? “Song to Woody”—a track he calls one of Dylan’s all-time killers. “You couldn’t fake it with playback,” he told Apple Music. “It’s this gut-punch moment in a hospital room, just me, Woody Guthrie, and Pete Seeger staring holes through me.”
He flubbed the guitar here and there—nerves, maybe—but patched it up later. Still, the weight of it all hit him like a brick. “I went home and wept that night,” Chalamet admitted, brushing off any whiff of melodrama. “Not to oversell it, but I’d been carrying that song for years. It’s personal—something I get deep in my bones.”
