First-Look at Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan on Set of Upcoming Biopic, A Complete Unknown: See Photos

Timothee Chalamet is far from the first actor to step into the legendary Bob Dylan’s shoes. Still, the Dune star may give us our most complete on-screen portrayal in the upcoming biopic A Complete Unknown. Director James Mangold announced last April that Chalamet will “of course” do his own singing for the role. To prep for the project, the Oscar nominee hired the same “entire team” that helped transform his Dune: Part Two co-star, Austin Butler, into the King on Baz Luhrmann’s Oscar-nominated biopic Elvis (2022).

‘Dune’ Actor Channels Bob Dylan on Set

Eric Vetro, Chalamet’s vocal coach, has said the actor isn’t aiming to imitate Dylan. Instead, he is bringing the folk legend’s mannerisms and speech pattern into his own version of the music, so that viewers get “the essence of Bob Dylan.”

[RELATED: Timothée Chalamet Has Been Given Access to Top-Secret Bob Dylan Recordings for His Role in ‘A Complete Unknown’]

We know the 28-year-old is working hard to sound like Bob Dylan. Now we can see whether he looks like him. On Sunday (March 17) People magazine published photos of Chalamet channeling Dylan, 82, on set in New York City.

Chalamet embodied the “Blowin’ in the Wind” singer in a green jacket, an orange scarf and a paperboy hat. The worn guitar case in his hands gives the perfect retro touch.

More About ‘A Complete Unknown’

The biopic highlights a pivotal (and controversial) time in Dylan’s career when the songwriter decided to integrate a more rock-and-roll sound into his folksy image. Folk purists were appalled, but that didn’t stop Dylan from recording three albums that would come to define the 1960s. In the space of 15 months, the Minnesotan delivered Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde.

“The story of a young, 19-year-old Bob Dylan coming to New York with like two dollars in his pocket and becoming a worldwide sensation within three years—first being embraced into the family of folk music in New York and then, of course, kind of outrunning them at a certain point as his star rises so beyond belief,” Mangold, the film’s director, told Collider last year. “It’s such an interesting true story and about such an interesting moment in the American scene.”

Featured image by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images