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Bob Dylan trusts Timothée Chalamet will be ‘completely believable’ as the singer in his biopic

Bob Dylan performs onstage in a dark jacket and button-up in Los Angeles in 2012
Bob Dylan endorsed “brilliant actor” Timothée Chalamet as the lead in the folk singer’s biopic, due in theaters later this month.
(Chris Pizzello / Associated Press)
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Bob Dylan has declared himself a Timothée Chalamet fan.

The “Like a Rolling Stone” singer, in an X post on Wednesday, endorsed the Oscar-nominated actor’s casting as lead in “A Complete Unknown.” The forthcoming biopic chronicles Dylan’s rise to fame in 1960s New York. The folk luminary’s stamp of approval comes weeks before the film’s Dec. 25 release.

The album, now available in Bootleg Series box-set form, marked the beginning of a third act in Dylan’s career that’s still playing out today.

“There’s a movie about me opening soon called A Complete Unknown (what a title!),” Dylan wrote in the post, in which he called Chalamet a “brilliant actor” who he trusts will “be completely believable as me. Or a younger me. Or some other me.”

He went on to encourage fans to read the book that inspired the James Mangold-directed film: Elijah Wald’s “Dylan Goes Electric,” published in 2015.

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It’s the first time the 10-time Grammy Award winner has spoken publicly about the film, which was announced in early 2020 and was initially titled “Going Electric.” However, during the making of “A Complete Unknown,” Dylan regularly sat down with Mangold to give notes on the script, Chalamet told Rolling Stone last month.

“Jim [Mangold] has an annotated Bob script lying around somewhere,” Chalamet told the outlet. “I’ll beg him to get my hands on it. He’ll never give it to me.”

Whether they want to sound like Elvis, Judy, Dylan, Springsteen or just a better version of themselves, celebrities turn to Eric Vetro for help. Here’s how he does it.

Monday night in New York City, Chalamet was among those lauded at the Gotham Awards, which honor independent films and are given out by the nonprofit Gotham Film & Media Institute. He received the Visionary Tribute for his work in the movie, which also stars Monica Barbaro (as Joan Baez), Elle Fanning (as Sylvie Russo) and Edward Norton (as Pete Seeger), among others.

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“I’m grateful to everyone who poured themselves into this project,” Chalamet said in his acceptance speech. “Getting to study and immerse myself in the world of Bob Dylan has been the greatest education a young artist could receive.”

Prior to the film’s wide release on Christmas Day, early-access screenings will be offered at select IMAX theaters beginning Dec. 18.

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