If I get magically signed alongside Timothée Chalamet today, I’d be dancing like a doll to share the stage with him. But when Elle Fanning saw him on set? Let’s say her reaction was equal parts hilarious and understandable.
Timothée Chalamet could very well be the next name carved into Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. With a knack for picking roles that challenge his range and a commitment to his craft, he’s scaling the stardom ladder swiftly. However, when his co-star Elle Fanning met the 28-year-old heartthrob on the set of the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, her face fell faster than a dropped mic. Why? Because she dolled up and prepared to see the real legendary Bob Dylan instead.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Chalamet’s co-stars spilled the beans on how he fully embraced his inner chameleon to channel Bob Dylan, pulling out every peak method acting trick in the book. In fact, even the crew was so in on his plan that the call sheet referred to Chalamet as “Bob” instead of his real name. And that’s how Elle Fanning got caught in the web during pre-production, showing up for a meeting with director James Mangold and, well, ‘Bob.’
“I was thinking about all these things to say and ask. I was picking out my outfit. ‘I’m meeting Bob Dylan today!’”
So Fanning showed up to the meeting only to realize her starstruck moment wasn’t quite what she expected. It wasn’t the legendary singer-songwriter Bob Dylan in the flesh but Chalamet sitting across the table. “I’m probably the first person in life to be let down by having a rehearsal with Timothée Chalamet, right? Like, the first girl in history,” she wisecracked upon the hilarious realization.
But with Chalamet so immersed in his role, was it really that different meeting him instead of the real Bob Dylan? Another one of Chalamet’s co-stars in the film, Edward Norton revealed to Rolling Stone that Chalamet was “relentless” in ensuring he could remain fully immersed as Dylan, adding that he had “no visitors, no friends, no reps, no nothing” throughout filming.
Monica Barbaro, who plays Joan Baez in the film, also said that Chalamet usually stayed in his own world on sets “in a way that I think Bob often was as well.” In between takes, she recounted a day when she was talking to Chalamet about routine topics when Mangold noticed that Chalamet’s Dylan voice was beginning to falter. “And at that point I think we both were just like, ‘Nope, no more talking!’”
When Chalamet was asked about his method acting on set, he stated that it stemmed from his “desire” to go back to his beginnings as an actor when “people aren’t curious about how you go about your work, because they don’t know who you are yet.” He wanted to revisit his experience working on his breakthrough film Call Me by Your Name. But how did it all turn out for the film? We’ll get to see that on Dec. 25 in theaters.
