Complete Unknown
Timothée Chalamet plays Bob Dylan in the upcoming biopic Complete Unknown, which just dropped a first-look trailer.
The role is undoubtedly a challenge. The last time a Dylan biopic was committed to screen, six actors took on the role (Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Ben Whishaw).
After prepping for three years to play Bob Dylan, Chalamet discussed the challenge of playing the prolific genre-defining songwriter:
"As an actor, you sort of live at a dining room table in your head, and you have about 30 personalities at the table, and you're trying to attend to them, without going crazy."
Plan B producer Dede Gardner put it:
"His ability is just prismatic—in a way that it would, by definition, take him years for all the sides to show."
It remains to be seen whether Chalamet's portrayal of Dylan fits into the canon of great biopics or the frenzy of recent (mixed-quality) biopic releases.
In the past few years, we have seen film interpretations of Elvis and Priscilla Presley (two in fact), Bob Marley and Amy Winehouse, with others in the pipeline like Tom Holland's Fred Astaire project and the often salacious rumored and now announced Michael about Michael Jackson.
Hollywood leans into minting new “semi-undiscovered” talent to embody those musicians that were larger-than-life.