Timothée Chalamet left no stone unturned in his bid to transform into Bob Dylan for the biopic — even if that meant gaining over a stone in weight.
A Complete Unknown explores the Like A Rolling Stone hitmaker’s rise to fame in the 60s touching on controversies in his career and personal life.
Timothée, 29, was said to be in character almost the entire time he was filming the Oscar-nominated biopic, even styling red carpet looks in homage to the singer.
He has now revealed that he actually gained over 20 pounds to play a younger version of Bob, 83, as he was initially too thin.
‘I’ve turned over every stone. I did all the work, like you just described, physicality, behaviour-wise,’ he told NPR.
‘Something we haven’t really talked about, I also put on 20 pounds because, believe it or not, I was thinner than the guy.’
Timothée’s physique has been mentioned before when he has missed out on roles, as he told Zane Lowe for Apple Music 1 previously.
‘If I auditioned for The Maze Runner or Divergent, things of that variety that were popping when I was coming up, the feedback was always, “Oh, you don’t have the right body”.’
Instead, Timothée skipped the YA dystopian genre of the 2010s and landed roles in the likes of Call Me by Your Name (2017).
The Luca Guadagnino-directed film catapulted Timothée into the spotlight, with the then-21-year-old actor getting his first Oscar nomination.
He has now secured another best actor nod from the Academy for his turn in A Complete Unknown.
The film is also up for numerous other awards including best picture, best director, and best supporting categories for Edward Norton and Monica Barbaro.
Timothée even learned to play the harmonica, a signature part of Bob’s musical identity as he wanted to do a ‘great job’.
Considering the Blowin’ In The Wind hitmaker went through the entire script with a fine toothcomb, it’s no surprise Timothée wanted to impress.
He told the This Past Weekend podcast: ‘You’re never supposed to say you’re competitive but… there’s been a lot of music biopics and I wanted to do a great f****** job.
‘I love Bob Dylan, I love this artist. None of this is for granted.’
It seems this hard work has paid off as the reclusive legend praised A Complete Unknown, which Timothée called ‘deeply validating.’
The Wonka star told Extra: ‘He’s a man of few words. He’s probably said fewer words publicly in his life than I’ve said in this interview alone, so to get some sort of … affirmation – deeply validating.
‘And everything we do in life, we want our heroes to, should they even know about us, affirm us, so the fact that he did, it’s more than I could ever ask for, and hopefully he doesn’t delete it.’
A Complete Unknown is in cinemas now.
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