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Chalamet had five years to prepare for the role

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The movie opens in theaters on Christmas Day

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Filming was delayed by pandemic, actors' strike

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Bob Dylan provided script input

By Lisa Richwine

LOS ANGELES, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Timothee Chalamet

likened his journey to playing music legend Bob Dylan to an

athletic feat. It turned into a marathon that stretched longer

than the actor had expected.

Chalamet signed up to play Dylan in 2019. Then came a global

pandemic and labor strikes in Hollywood, forcing two extended

delays to filming.

"A Complete Unknown," the movie about Dylan's quick rise to

stardom in the early 1960s, will finally be released in theaters

on Wednesday, Christmas Day, by Walt Disney's ( DIS )

Searchlight Pictures.

The disruptions gave the "Dune" actor more time to work out

how to translate the towering figure to the big screen. Chalamet

learned to play guitar and harmonica and worked with a vocal

coach to evolve from his smooth "Wonka" singing to Dylan's

distinctive, nasal voice.

"It was the most I've ever taken on," Chalamet said in an

interview, comparing the preparation to "the climbing of a steep

hill."

"A Complete Unknown" chronicles Dylan's arrival in New York

in 1961 at age 19, his rapid ascent in folk music circles with

songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind," and his divisive turn to

electric rock music in 1965. The movie's title is taken from a

line in the Dylan hit "Like a Rolling Stone."

Chalamet said he immersed himself in whatever video he could

find of Dylan in the early '60s, a time of political and social

upheaval in the United States.

"There's a finite amount of material available, especially

in this period," Chalamet said. "At some point you can turn

every page over. Not to say that I have, but if I haven't I've

come damn close to it."

In the summer of 2023, Chalamet said, "I felt like I hit a

runner's high" in the preparation.

"I felt like my muscles were strong and I was well prepared,

and that every day was sort of just chipping away slowly at this

bigger thing," he said.

Just as Chalamet was ready, Hollywood actors went on strike,

and he worried that funding or casting might fall apart. The

final go-ahead to start filming came in March 2024.

DYLAN WEIGHS IN

The real-life Dylan provided input on the script to director

James Mangold but never met or spoke with Chalamet, though he

recently described the star as "a brilliant actor."

"I'm sure he's going to be completely believable as me. Or a

younger me. Or some other me," Dylan wrote on social media

platform X.

Chalamet's performance has earned praise from critics and

predictions that he could garner his second Oscar nomination. He

and co-star Edward Norton were nominated for Golden Globes.

Other co-stars include Elle Fanning, who plays girlfriend

Suze Rotolo who appeared on the cover of the album "The

Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" but goes by the name Sylvie Russo in the

film.

Monica Barbaro portrays singer Joan Baez, who had already

landed on the cover of Time magazine when her career intersected

with Dylan's. At the time, Baez was trying to figure out how to

use her platform as an activist.

"Bob came in and was kind of a mess of a boy, but also an

absolute poet and brilliant lyricist, and was putting words to

all of these things that she felt," Barbaro said. "On top of his

charisma, I think, she just was sort of magnetized to him."

Norton plays Pete Seeger, a banjo player and prominent

singer of protest music who mentored Dylan.

"I think a lot of people have lost sight of who these people

actually were and what they did and what they sounded like,"

Norton said. "If we can get some people tuning in again, that's

probably worth the whole enterprise."

Chalamet agreed.

Dylan is "one of these names that is iconic to my

generation," the 28-year-old said. "You know the name, but

because he's such an elusive figure and a reclusive figure ... a

lot of people my age don't know the music."

"This felt like an opportunity to be a bridge in some

way and bring life to this amazing period," he added.