‘A Complete Unknown’ Trailer: Timothée Chalamet Sings Bob Dylan In Biopic Teaser

Chalamet’s singing in the trailer has divided fans.

Timothée Chalamet does his own singing while channeling Bob Dylan in the first trailer for A Complete Unknown, the upcoming movie about the legendary rocker by director James Mangold, the filmmaker behind Ford v. Ferrari, Logan and the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line.

Chalamet takes on Dylan’s 1960s classic “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” in the clip, which also features Monica Barbaro as singer Joan Baez, Elle Fanning as Dylan’s girlfriend Sylvie Russo (a fictionalized version of Suze Rotolo) and Edward Norton as folk pioneer Pete Seeger. Check out the film’s official synopsis below:

Set in the influential New York music scene of the early 60s, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN follows 19-year-old Minnesota musician Bob Dylan’s (Timothée Chalamet) meteoric rise as a folk singer to concert halls and the top of the charts–his songs and mystique becoming a worldwide sensation–culminating in his groundbreaking electric rock and roll performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.

The New York Post reports that Chalamet’s singing in the trailer has already received mixed reviews on social media, but Mangold maintains that the Dune and Willy Wonka actor nailed it as Dylan. Oscar-nominated Mangold told Rolling Stone that he thought Chalamet’s performance was “miraculous.” He added, “And there were also moments where it felt like something was getting channeled. I don’t mean in mimicry. I mean in feeling.” 

Mangold continued, “But there were also moments where Timmy would come up to me and go, ‘I think I lost Bob a little’ or I’d say, when that happens, ‘You’re losing him a little bit.’ And that was our code for drifting too much into yourself and not carrying some of those affectations and mannerisms that are part and parcel of being him.”

When the real Bob Dylan, 83, asked Mangold what the movie was about, Mangold recalled telling the rock legend, “It’s about a guy who’s choking to death in Minnesota, and leaves behind all his friends and family and reinvents himself in a brand-new place, makes new friends, builds a new family, becomes phenomenally successful, starts to choke to death again—and runs away.” 

Mangold told Rolling Stone that Dylan replied, “I like that.” 

Watch the first teaser trailer for A Complete Unknown, which has yet to receive a premiere date, below.