Is Timothée Chalamet really singing and playing in new Bob Dylan biopic?

9 January 2025, 12:14

A Complete Unknown – Bob Dylan biopic official trailer

Timothée Chalamet spent five years training to sing and play like Bob Dylan, the harmonica-wielding American folk-rock icon, for new biopic ‘A Complete Unknown’.

Movies about best-selling musicians are an increasingly guaranteed hit formula in Hollywood – and a major new release this month sees Timothée Chalamet embody one of the all-time great singer songwriters.

The 28-year-old actor, who has already shown his musical chops in Call Me By Your Name and Wonka, has had rave reviews for his portrayal of a young Bob Dylan as a young folk artist, arriving in New York City in the early 1960s.

Dylan, who in 2016 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, is widely recognised for revolutionising folk music by introducing amplified rock instrumentation and addressing sociopolitical themes through poetry and song.

It was always going to require extensive coaching for Chalamet to replicate Dylan’s nasal speaking and singing voice, now an iconic sound of ‘60s music. We explore the musical training he had for A Complete Unknown, and whether the actor really sings live in all the scenes…

Read more: Can Timothée Chalamet really play piano?

Watch behind-the-scenes featurette of A Complete Unknown

Is Timothée Chalamet really singing in ‘A Complete Unknown’?

That really is Timothée Chalamet’s voice we hear, as Bob Dylan.

The actor spent five years preparing for A Complete Unknown, working with a team of coaches who helped the actor hone Dylan’s distinct voice, musicianship and dialect.

Chalamet and director James Mangold had agreed to make the film five years ago, with projects like Dune: Part Two and the actors’ strike unexpectedly giving Chalamet more prep time.

In the end, the 28-year-old sang more than 40 songs for the biopic – not only singing them all, but performing them live on camera. Chalamet had originally pre-recorded the vocals, but Mangold ditched them after hearing him sing one scene live. The director told an audience in Beverly Hills that he and others got “chills” on set during Timothée’s live performances, according to Variety.

“It was important for me to sing and play live. Because if I can actually do it, why should there be an element of artifice here? And I’m proud that we took that leap,” Chalamet said in a SearchLight Pictures featurette released ahead of the premiere.

Each song was filmed from start to end, although in the movie we generally just see clips from each song.

Tod Maitland, sound mixer on the film, told Variety that Chalamet’s biggest challenge was nailing Dylan’s vocal stylings between different performances. “Bob’s a mutterer, and Timmy gave his best mutter, so it was pulling that out,” Maitland said. “He would go from there to that twangy, tough voice that could shrill your eardrums. But there were, like four different voices inside of Timmy capturing all those and giving them all character was a whole other dimension.”

Is he really playing guitar and other instruments?

Timothée Chalamet also plays guitar and other instruments during the film.

Executive music producer Nick Baxter told the Gibson Gazette that he helped teach Dylan’s signature guitar style to Chalamet.

“Dylan’s guitar playing is so unique; it’s sort of messy and violent but also incredibly technically advanced, too. He’s a great player. When you hear some of these early recordings, you can tell he’d been playing guitar all the time, for many years. The technique is there, the playing is there, but there’s a rawness to it. If you don’t capture that, it sounds wrong immediately,” he said.

Chalamet also plays harmonica in the film, receiving coaching from Rob Paparozzi according to the New York Post.

Is Timothée Chalamet a trained singer and musician?

Timothée Chalamet grew up having piano lessons, but stopped playing in his early teens before reprising his musical flair for Call Me By Your Name (2017), in which he plays both piano and guitar.

For the 2017 coming-of-age film, Chalamet learned just enough guitar to be able to pluck out a simple Bach melody.

For A Complete Unknown, the actor powered up his six-string prowess to deliver a convincing performance as Dylan on his journey from folk singer to rock n’ roll star. The film’s executive music producer, Nick Baxter, praised Chalamet for managing to capture Dylan in music and soul.

“It has to feel real, like a live show,” Baxter said. “And a lot of Bob’s performances are improvised, so for Tim to be up there and make every performance his own is incredible.”