Watch Timothée Chalamet Sing as Bob Dylan in First ‘A Complete Unknown’ Trailer
Written by djfrosty on July 24, 2024
The first trailer for A Complete Unknown arrived Wednesday (July 24), giving fans their first substantial glimpse at Timothée Chalamet‘s physical and vocal transformation into Bob Dylan while telling the story of the iconic folk singer-songwriter’s rise to fame — as well as the controversial moment he switched to an electric guitar at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
The reel opens with Chalamet — sporting a gruff tan jacket, his dark curly hair teased in true Dylan style — performing the living legend’s early hit “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” on a small stage, following an introduction from Edward Norton’s Pete Seeger. “Oh where have you been, my blue-eyed son?” he croons, mimicking Dylan’s instantly recognizable warble and Minnesota accent.
As he sings, the two-minute teaser cuts to shots of Chalamet walking the streets of 1960s New York City, romancing Elle Fanning’s Sylvie Russo — a character inspired by Dylan’s past girlfriend artist Suze Rotolo, who famously appeared alongside him on the cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan — and falling for Monica Barbaro’s Joan Baez. All the while, his stages and crowds get bigger and bigger.
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Fans only get to hear the Dune star speak as Dylan once in the trailer, when the video cuts back to him working on “A Hard Rain” before his life changed forever. “That’s all I got so far,” he grunts.
The trailer comes just four months after fans first spotted Chalamet filming as Dylan in New York. Last year, director James Mangold confirmed that the actor would do his own singing for the flick, which hits theaters this December. To prepare, the Wonka star says he sifted through 12 hours’ worth of unreleased Dylan songs, sent to him by the musician’s longtime manager and A Complete Unknown producer Jeff Rosen.
Also starring Boyd Holbrook, Dan Fogler, Norbert Leo Butz and Scoot McNairy, the biographical drama was inspired by Elijah Wald’s 2015 book Dylan Goes Electric. Mangold revealed last year that the “Blowin’ in the Wind” artist personally gave feedback on the script.
Watch the first trailer for A Complete Unknown starring Timothée Chalamet above.