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In “A Perfect Stranger”, Timothée Chalamet plays Bob Dylan. The latter had some recommendations for director James Mangold.
CINEMA – How to make the real out of the fake. Bob Dylan will be embodied by Timothée Chalamet In A complete stranger by James Mangold, a biopic which will be released in theaters in January 2025. The singer met the director on numerous occasions and was fully involved in the project, even if it meant taking largesse from reality.
“Jim (James Mangold) has a script annotated by Bob (Dylan) lying around somewhere”confided Timothée Chalamet to the magazine Rolling Stone. According to Edward Norton, who plays musician Pete Seeger in the biopic, the music legend even took the liberty of including a story created from scratch for the film.
The director initially refused this proposal fearing the reaction of the public, before the singer reiterated his request. “What do you care what other people think?” »he asked her. James Mangold eventually incorporated this invention into his story, according to Edward Norton, who did not wish to reveal which story it was.
Elle Fanning, who plays Bob Dylan’s love interest Sylvie Russo (inspired by Suze Rotolo), also revealed that the singer added a line during another scene where her character and Timothée Chalamet argue.
According to Edward Norton, James Mangold took creative liberties himself. “Jim didn’t want to make yet another documentary. What interested him was almost to make a fable.” explains the actor. In addition to advice from Bob Dylan, he also took inspiration from the biographical book Dylan Goes Electric! by folk guitarist and music historian Elijah Wald.
Timothée Chalamet transformed for the role
In this same article from Rolling StonesEdward Norton talks about how Timothée Chalamet immersed himself in his character. “No visitors, no friends, no agents, nothing. No one was to be around him while we were filming this. We did our best not to damage an image that is sacred to many people”he explains.
For his part, the interpreter of Paul Atréides in the saga Dune ensures that you are completely “consecrated” to a role he prepared for five years. “For three months of my life I was Bob Dylan,” he assures. “He deserved that. I would have been disgusted to miss a side of Bob by being Timmy (Timothée). I would have the rest of my life to be Timmy.”concludes the actor.
Before A complete strangerthe director had released Walk the Line (2005), about the life of Johnny Cash, and Le Mans 66 (2019), an adaptation of the novel Go Like Hell (2010) by AJ Baime on the epic story of Ken Miles and Carroll Shelby in the Ford team.
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