: Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties.
I thought he was one of the greats, he says.
Just a brilliant poet, storyteller, an artist.
Edward Nortonand Timothée Chalamet in ‘A Complete Unknown’Macall Polay, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures
I had grown up with him as something my dad listened to, at first.
Still, Mangold cant quite place when it all started coming together.
Its all gradual, he says.
But chops isnt good enough.
We dont know these things.
An actor is gambling on the director.
Do you know the director is going to make a good movie?
Do you know if theyre going to show up for work every day?
And to I know if the same is going to be true for me?
If were being honest, no.
But what Ididknow is that he had all the ingredients and thirst to do something great.
We had a great relationship.
A huge part of the director-actor thing is to find a groove with each other, he continues.
Hes not an abused child.
Was Chalamets own enthusiasm based on a particular interest in Dylans music?
Not particularly, no, the actor says.
But, truthfully, I didnt know much about him beyond the songs in American culture.
Equally surprising is that Chalamet claims now that wasnt particularly daunted by the task of performing Dylans songs live.
It was such an involved process, he says.
It was five years in the making.
And caused a bit of a panic on set, but it was worth it.
But thats almost my job as an interpreter, as an actor, is to do it like that.
What would be the point of making preconceived decisions the night before?
To [record] a track and then verify that I was matching mematching me, matching Bob.
We dont really know where he ever landed on these causes, and I think he purposefully obscured that.
Because, soon after, he went on and madeHighway 61 RevisitedandBringing It All Back Home.
I dont have much to say.
Thats my sense of it, but thats just my interpretation.
This was always going to be a fable, he says.
This was not meant to be a Wikipedia fact-for-fact recreation of how it was.
Theres all the audiovisual material that exists of him that I could study.
Instead, he focused on the mystery.
I dont know if I should say much more than that, he says, somewhat mysteriously.
So, youre kind of left to follow your instincts and your passions and visualize those.
If you dont pick a high mountain, you dont get to climb high.
One thing goes with the other.
You have to be brave somehow.
I was mostly worried for Timmy.
The world has gotten much more harsh than it used to be.
But to function, you have to put that out of your mind and just try and believe.
Still, theres an idealist in me that believes if you try hard, people will recognize that.
And most people who are fair are going to recognize that when they see the movie.
Literally, right in this zone.
And a lot of those people covered Pete Seegers songs.
So, you would hear Where Have All the Flowers Gone or If I Had a Hammer.
When I moved to New York in my 20s, even then Pete Seeger held this [esteem]…
In New York circles, he was the great artist activist.
You knew him as the folk singer who cleaned up the Hudson River.
That was all a revelation to me.
It was really interesting to learn.
This music and these people were so iconic, and almost mythological to me.
Sometimes you feel its a little dangerous.
Why are we doing this?
When he articulated it that way, Norton continues, I realized: Its not a documentary.
Were not trying to imitate these people.
And why was that moment in Newport dramatic?
There are those people out there, 100%.
I was just a lover of his music.
He played Buckets of Rain all the time, and I didnt know who it was.
I was like, What is this song?
I really like it.
I would listen to it as I was going to work every day.
I had pictures of Bob Dylan.
My mom was one ofthosemoms.
Is it true she even doodled his name?
Yeah, in cursive, I wrote Bob Dylan right here on my hand.
Im sure I have some photos of me in school [with it].
My classmates were like, Whos that?
And I was like, You dontknow?
Youll have to use Google.
Sylvie is one of the few people in Dylans orbit that isnt consumed by a passion for music.
She doesnt sing and she doesnt play an instrument.
Shes purely there, and in this worldBobs worldand she s not looking for any gains.
Shes there out of a pureness of heart.
So why the name change?
And that always stood out to me.
She knew him as the young boy from Minnesota with the cap.
Theres a lot of importance there.
Key to finding the character was a book that Rotolo wrote in 2008, a memoir calledA Freewheelin Time.
That was what got me immersed into the 60s West Village, says Fanning.
She was an activist and really politically involved with civil rights.
And she was an artist in her own right.
She was a painter, very confident and sure of herself.
I mean, she was really his inspiration on so many songs, like Boots of Spanish Leather.
it’s possible for you to look it up.
A lot of those songs are about Suze.
She got him politically involved.
She was really his champion, she continues, until it became too much for her.
She didnt want a public life.
But theyre only helpful up until a point.
That stuff, it helps you and it serves a purpose.
Baez is played by Monica Barbaro, who was aware Baez and Dylan growing up.
But they werent on my Spotify Most Played or anything like that!
I didnt know them that well, and I didnt knownearlyenough about her.
Barbaro auditioned in 2020, but, of course, production was stymied.
It was a wild moment, she laughs.
They said, Maybe in a couple weeks, when things are back to normal, youll meet Jim.
And as we all know, thats not how that worked out.
They finally met in 2023; immediately afterwards she received an email headed, Joan is yours.
I just fell on the floor, she says.
I was so excited.
So, that was like, OK, Im ready to go, but I need to get ready.
As she recalls it, Mangold was quite specific about his approach to telling Dylans story.
You understand Mozart through all of the people that are around him.
Once again, Mangold did not want a straight rehash of material culled from books and other movies.
It didnt feel like it was overly predetermined, if that makes sense.
I had had her on a pedestal.
And so, I think my subconscious was telling me that it would be OK to speak to her.
So, I was a bundle of nerves for that as well.
Baez gave the actress her blessing in a way that felt both freeing and empowering.
She definitely gifted me that.
The word hero and protagonist are super different, he muses.
Id definitely choose protagonist over hero [in this case].
Complexity, contradictions, flaws, talents.
There is a loneliness in talent.
And does he feel any closer to the real Dylan, five years after the journey started?
The guy has made 55 records, all with original music on them, he says.
So enigmatic and secretive and guarded.
I wouldnt find it easy writing 55 records of personal music and observations about the world.
I think we need to get better at identifying what we expect from people.
The guy has let a pretty open life, really.
He just wont open everything the way some do.
But hes been sharing an awful lot.
He never has stopped sharing.
And its not going to come from someone whos lost in narcissism.
And how does that person become the one we know?
That was kind of what the movie tries to connect with, in whatever way we manage.
Looking backitself a very un-Dylan-esque thing to dohow does Chalamet feel about what they managed?
I dont know, he says.
I know I feel like I went through a thing.
Thats what Bob says at the end ofDont Look Back.
Hes leaving the Royal Albert Hall.
Thats how I feel.
A Complete Unknownis in theaters December 25th.
