The first trailer forA Complete Unknownis here.James Mangold’s long-awaitedBob Dylanbiopic is set to tell a crucial piece of American music history as the young musician rises to stardom and eventually becomes one of the greatest artists of his time. More than looking great, thetrailer also sounds spectacular, too. Dylan is played byTimothée Chalamet, and, when he starts singing “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” it sounds exactly like Dylan.It’s so good that people are curious about whether it’s really Chalamet doing his own singing, or if Dylan’s voice is being used over it. It has even left the most die-hard Dylan fans (or Dylanologists, as they call themselves) feeling excited about the movie. So is it really Chalamet singing? Or is it just the result of “movie magic”?
A Complete Unknown
Timothée Chalamet Is Doing His Own Singing in ‘A Complete Unknown’
It’s hard to find anyone who wasn’t surprised to hear the singing in theA Complete Unknowntrailer. Not because people doubted Timothée Chalamet’s singing abilities or voice; we’ve seen it before multiple times, from that crazy “Statistics” sketch to more objective artistic singing inWonka. Instead,it was surprising to see such a great replication of Bob Dylan’s iconic voice and style. Chalamet has a striking voice himself, both deep and smooth at the same time, like a young man who isn’t finished growing up yet. (Complimentary.)
Chalamet sounds nearly identical to Bob Dylan atthat particular time in his career. He has the same nasal voice, stretches all the same notes Dylan would…And, yet, there is still a hint of Timothée’s own voice underneath it all. Those who aren’t familiar with his voice may have a hard time finding it, but, if you know who it is that’s singing, it’s perfectly recognizable. The way he sings the S sound in “my blue-eyed son” and other lines in “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” stretching it a little longer, for example, is all Chalamet.
Timothée Chalamet Walks Into the Night in New ‘A Complete Unknown’ Image
“I’ve walked and I crawled on six crooked highways.”
The tone itself, once compared to the studio version of the same song and live performances of that time, is different, as Chalamet’s voice is naturally deeper than Dylan’s. That’s where the adapting part of the act comes in —the voice in the movie still needs to sound more like Dylan’s than Chalamet’s, and the actor absolutely nails it. This is not the first time Timothée Chalamet has surprised people with his voice. InDune: Part Two, for example, he projects it in a menacing way when using the Voice and giving his speech to the Fremen. InWonka, he creates a musical identity that updates a classic beloved character. Now, inA Complete Unknown, he molds it and adapts it to Bob Dylan without making it sound like an impersonation, which is more than many biopics have bothered to do recently.
Bob Dylan’s Voice and Singing Style Is a Crucial Part of His Persona
Hearing Timothée Chalamet doing his own singing inA Complete Unknownand nailing it is a relief, as Bob Dylan is a rather complex character and artist. Some people may even think that Dylan isn’t that great of a singer (yours truly, for example, firmly believes that his songs usually sound better in other people’s voices). His voice is very nasal, and in most songs, he doesn’t appear to add a lot of range to it. Still,it’s undeniable that his singing waspart of his mystiquein the early 1960s, something that truly made him stand out among the many artists that crowded Greenwich Village back then.
Dylan has hadmany different phasesin his career, and, in the early 1960s, as he was about to become a phenomenon, he had a unique aura. A young man singing about a world that attempted to resist an inevitable wave of change, and the role that people were going to play in this, was almost prophetic. He was already an excellent lyricist by then, andall his songs have narratives of their own, contributing to his image of a lone troubadour. His singing, then, wasn’t even supposed to be good, in a certain way. It wasn’t supposed to be impressive or technically perfect, but, instead, it was to build this idea of Dylan as more than a singer, something closer to a storyteller.
This makes Timothée Chalamet’s singing all the more impressive becauseit helps him establish the character of Bob Dylan beyond the image that people have of him. Without having seen the complete movie, it’s hard to tell how well (if at all) Chalamet accomplishes this goal, but, in a recentRolling Stoneinterview, James Mangold confirms that the goal was exactly that: “Timmy really carries this character from a 19-year-old boy telling tales of working on the carnival into this person that we recognize as an icon.” If this is anything to go by, he seems to have done a pretty solid job.
One of the things about Bob Dylan’s singing is that it’s highly imitable. It’s easy to impersonate Dylan for comedic purposes, and he really does have some cartoony mannerisms, butturning him intothe subject of a biopicis something else entirely. It requires a more artistic touch, the secret to it being balancing the idea that people have about his public persona, the truth the story is trying to tell, and the artistic touch that’s unique to his interpreter. When those three factors successfully come together, the actor’s performance becomes invaluable and elevates the whole movie.
In recent years, many biopics have tried to achieve this, to varying degrees of success.Rocketman, for example, imbues all the musical numbers with a sort of irresistible emotional weight, and that’s because ofTaron Eggerton’s impassioned performance. He knows the meaning behindElton John’s songs as well as what emotions the scenes are supposed to convey. As a result,Rocketmanis more than a biopic; it’s a story about burnout and mental health told through the character of Elton John, thanks to the script and Eggerton’s performance. Elton John’s voice is unique, butthe movie isn’t about his voice per se, but rather about the impact his songs had on his journey, so the actor’s performance needs to be more intense than technical, and Eggerton nails this balance.
InElvis,Austin Butlerperforms the songs himself, although his take onElvis Presleyseems more sketchy because of his approach. People often associate Elvis with his voice, but,for a biopic to work, the character behind the singinghas to be biggerthan his mannerisms, and, while powerful, Butler’s performance is still more concerned with emulating Elvis rather than building him up as a character; so much so,he continued to do it even after the movie was already out. Of course, there are cases in which this is simply impossible. For example,Rami Malekwould never be able to sing likeFreddie MercuryinBohemian Rhapsody(no one would), so voiceover was definitely the way to go. But Malek compensated for this by emulating Mercury’s expression and body language, so we barely pay any attention to it. Still, that movie has so many faults that it sometimes feels like a trap, forcing Malek to impersonate Mercury rather than build his own version of the character.
For better or worse, Timothée Chalamet’s performance as Bob Dylan inA Complete Unknownwill undoubtedly be remembered with the aforementioned ones, but it doesn’t look like it will be because of any issues with his acting.His singing in the trailer is a sample of how committed he is to the role, as well aswhat James Mangold has in mindabout how to portray Dylan. Hopefully, we get to hear other classic Dylan songs in Timothée’s voice, too, because, if they are all as good as his rendition of “A Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” they will all be very good.
