Anderson Cooper (00:04):
Bob Dylan is not just a singing and songwriting legend, he's one of the most enigmatic and reclusive musicians of our time. Playing him in a movie based on his life would be a daunting task for any actor. But when Timothée Chalamet was offered the role, he was 23, and says he knew practically nothing about Dylan. A lot of people told him not to do it, but Chalamet likes a creative challenge.
(00:27)
The film, called A Complete Unknown, came out in December and received eight Oscar nominations, including Timothée Chalamet's second best actor nod. He's never met Bob Dylan, but because of the pandemic, strikes in Hollywood, and other film commitments, Chalamet ended up having about five years to study the man and his music determined, like Bob Dylan was at his age, to make it great.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
The story will continue in a moment.
Timothée Chalamet (00:58):
I give 170% in everything I'm doing. No but there. I'm giving it my all. Something like the Dylan project, these aren't watered-down experiences, I'm going Daniel Day-Lewis on all of them. I'm not saying in process but I'm saying in level of commitment. And I don't know, man, it sounds like I'm desperate saying that or something, but-
Anderson Cooper (01:17):
No, it sounds like you're a professional and you want it to be the best it can possibly be.
Timothée Chalamet (01:20):
Yeah, and increasingly I don't want to shy away from saying that.
MUSIC (01:24):
I stumbled on the side of 12 misty mountains …
Anderson Cooper (01:28):
Chalamet, who's 29 now, didn't just need to figure out how to sing like Dylan, he also learned how to play harmonica and guitar and about 40 Bob Dylan songs, far more than were originally called for in the script.
MUSIC (01:46):
It's a heartbreak, I'm going to fall. Thank you.
Anderson Cooper (01:51):
The movie set in the early 1960s follows Bob Dylan's rapid rise from obscurity to stardom, something Timothée Chalamet could relate to.
MUSIC (02:00):
I was young when I left home, I've been a rambling around.
Anderson Cooper (02:06):
Dylan was 19 when he arrived in New York from Minnesota, a complete unknown, he quickly became an icon in the world of folk music.
MUSIC (02:14):
How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man.
Anderson Cooper (02:23):
Poetic and political, his songs spoke to the times and a young generation demanding change.
MUSIC (02:31):
And the first one now will later be last for the times they are a-changin'.
Anderson Cooper (02:40):
Dylan got his start in New York at a nightclub called Cafe Wha in Greenwich Village.
Timothée Chalamet (02:45):
This was one of his jump points. This was really a place where you could just go play folk music in the sixties, early sixties. And I went during the movie, during the production, and it ain't the same.
Anderson Cooper (02:55):
What were they playing?
Timothée Chalamet (02:55):
Now it's Aerosmith covers and AC/DC and also worthy art.
Anderson Cooper (03:03):
But different.
Timothée Chalamet (03:03):
Very different.
Anderson Cooper (03:04):
When Chalamet started researching Dylan, he did what many millennials likely would, he looked him up on YouTube. He found this clip particularly insightful, Dylan performing on stage with Joan Baez, with whom he'd had a romantic relationship.
MUSIC (03:28):
But it ain't me, babe. No, no, no, it ain't me babe.
Timothée Chalamet (03:28):
What I love about the It Ain't Me performance is how playful it is and what a laugh he's having. He was the one, at least in the footnotes of history, that wasn't particularly let's say faithful with Joan, so I get it from his perspective that he's having such a laugh.
(03:43)
On YouTube now you can play things at 0.5 speed or 0.75 speed, and that was when I really slowed down because it's fascinating the way Bob observes her and how he refuses eye contact in that video.
Anderson Cooper (03:58):
This is Chalamet's version with Monica Barbaro playing Joan Baez.
MUSIC (04:03):
But it ain't me, babe. No, no, no, it ain't me babe. It ain't me you're looking for babe.
Anderson Cooper (04:14):
You weren't trying to imitate Bob.
Timothée Chalamet (04:16):
No, totally. That was the tension for me in doing a biopic on somebody so beloved and so well known was, all right, where does my heart and where does my soul fit into this? Can it fit into this? Particularly with someone who was so masked.
(04:28)
I put myself in another place, but I'm a stranger there.
Anderson Cooper (04:34):
To connect with what might be behind Dylan's mask, Chalamet disconnected from his own life for the two and a half months of filming.
MUSIC (04:41):
I ain't going to work on Maggie's farm.
Anderson Cooper (04:44):
Wouldn't use his cell phone or have visitors on set.
Timothée Chalamet (04:47):
I've never approached a character so intensely as Bob because I had such respect for the material and I knew I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I remember that I was lazy on a day where something went wrong.
MUSIC (05:01):
Now you don't talk so loud.
Anderson Cooper (05:01):
Chalamet pre-recorded all the Dylan songs he'd sing in the movie. They were supposed to be played back on set during filming.
Timothée Chalamet (05:08):
But it always sounded too clean, the recording equipment's too clean now, the guitars are too good. Bob Dylan was drinking two bottles of red wine a day, sometimes smoking 30 packs of cigarettes.
Anderson Cooper (05:16):
Did you drink two bottles of wine and smoke 30 packs to sound like him?
Timothée Chalamet (05:19):
The smoking I did, the wine I held back on more.
Anderson Cooper (05:23):
So Chalamet decided he wanted to try and sing and play live instead. This scene was the first time he did it. Dylan's just arrived in New York and visits his terminally ill hero, folk music legend Woody Guthrie played by Scoot McNairy. Edward Norton is Pete Seeger. On his first take, director James Mangold knew Chalamet nailed it.
MUSIC (05:45):
Hey, hey Woody Guthrie, I wrote you a song.
James Mangold (05:50):
There's a moment in that scene right at the last stanza where he holds a note.
MUSIC (05:55):
Here's to the hearts in the hands of the men, it comes.
James Mangold (06:06):
That would never have happened if we used the playback track.
Anderson Cooper (06:09):
Was that in the song originally? Because I mean there was-
James Mangold (06:12):
No, no.
MUSIC (06:12):
That does and are gone with the wind.
James Mangold (06:20):
He just did it. What I see Timmy executing in the scene is the growth of confidence within the song. So by the end of the song, not only is he finishing it looking right at Woody, but he's also holding it, which is like what a grand diva would do in the spotlight. You can't tell someone to do that. I'm not even sure Timmy completely plans it intellectually, that is that kind of talent.
Anderson Cooper (06:51):
Did you know you were going to do that? Was that a planned thing?
Timothée Chalamet (06:54):
No, and it would be disingenuous to the way I like to act or my approach to stuff.
Anderson Cooper (06:59):
You don't have any clue why you did it, you just did it?
Timothée Chalamet (07:01):
No, it just happened, yeah, truly.
MUSIC (07:08):
Come on, give it to me.
Anderson Cooper (07:08):
That may be true or it may not. Like Dylan, Chalamet is reluctant to talk about how he does what he does. If there's magic in acting, Timothée Chalamet doesn't want to give it all away.
(07:21)
What's the concern about revealing the magic?
Timothée Chalamet (07:24):
It's nobody's business how I go about these things. It's within the law and-
Anderson Cooper (07:28):
It's within the law.
Timothée Chalamet (07:30):
Yeah. And otherwise it might not be as interesting as people think. Or it could be a lot more interesting than people think. It might be more interesting than what I'm doing.
(07:37)
She's our friend, I'm her friend.
Anderson Cooper (07:39):
What Chalamet's done in nearly two dozen films has been plenty interesting. In the Dune series, he transformed himself from the privileged son of a duke into a menacing messiah.
Timothée Chalamet (07:49):
I am Paul Muad'Dib Atreides, Duke of Arrakis.
(07:53)
It's no use Jo.
Jo (07:54):
Please don't.
Timothée Chalamet (07:55):
Jo, we've got to have it out.
Jo (07:55):
No.
Timothée Chalamet (07:56):
I have loved you ever since I've known you, Jo …
Anderson Cooper (07:58):
He's played Laurie in Little Women and a love-struck teenager in Call Me by Your Name.
Timothée Chalamet (08:04):
Ah, where did you learn to do that?
MUSIC (08:05):
I got nothing to offer but my chocolate.
Anderson Cooper (08:09):
He took a risk reinventing Willy Wonka.
MUSIC (08:12):
This is your home, a world of your own.
Anderson Cooper (08:19):
And his shape-shifted between an adult drug addict and a reluctant King Henry V.
(08:24)
So you basically grew up in the theater district?
Timothée Chalamet (08:27):
Yes, this is …
Anderson Cooper (08:27):
As a child, Chalamet didn't dream of becoming an actor, though he was surrounded by them. He lived in this rent-subsidized apartment complex in Manhattan full of artists.
Timothée Chalamet (08:37):
Oh, Izzy, how you doing?
Izzy (08:41):
What are you doing here? What's going on, man?
Timothée Chalamet (08:41):
Doing a little interview, baby.
Izzy (08:42):
Good to see you.
Timothée Chalamet (08:42):
How you doing?
Anderson Cooper (08:42):
Growing up in this building certainly seems to have made an impression.
Timothée Chalamet (08:46):
This building truthfully made me scared of acting because it's a tough lifestyle and a lot of people aren't doing fantastically.
Anderson Cooper (08:55):
It's a hard way to make a living. You would think growing up here, it would encourage you to be an actor, but it actually-
Timothée Chalamet (09:00):
No, it actually terrified me of becoming an actor.
Anderson Cooper (09:03):
Wow.
(09:03)
His mom, Nicole Flender, was a dancer, and works with the Actors' Equity Association. His sister, Pauline Chalamet is an actress. And Timmy, as his friends and family call him, booked occasional acting jobs as a child. Though he told us he really wanted to be a professional soccer player.
(09:20)
This is him on Law & Order when he was 12.
Timothée Chalamet (09:23):
Could you please not tell mom and dad about us playing Xbox?
Anderson Cooper (09:26):
But his father, Marc Chalamet, a French journalist, wasn't exactly pushing him to act.
Timothée Chalamet (09:30):
My dad, I think he very, very, very correctly, rightfully was wary growing up. It's no place for a child, it really isn't. The cameras and people going, "Hey, do the thing where we recognize you as cute in your own head." I think my dad was more just like, "Be normal>"
Anderson Cooper (09:47):
These days that's easier said than done.
Speaker 9 (09:50):
Huge Bob Dylan fan, that was amazing.
Timothée Chalamet (09:51):
I appreciate it, man.
Anderson Cooper (09:53):
When we went to get a slice of pizza, he told us a turning point in his life was getting into LaGuardia High School, a famously competitive public school for the performing arts.
Timothée Chalamet (10:02):
It's a school that champions the arts. So there I doubled down. I was not a distracted kid as a teenager, like maybe to a fault, I wasn't partying. I don't say that to come off straight-laced like, to a fault I was very-
Anderson Cooper (10:15):
Focused.
Timothée Chalamet (10:17):
Focused and driven.
Anderson Cooper (10:19):
He was cast as the lead in school musicals.
MUSIC (10:21):
I'm the bravest individual I have ever met.
Anderson Cooper (10:28):
And developed routines for LaGuardia's talent show as a rapper named Lil Timmy Tim.
MUSIC (10:32):
Timmy Tim, Lil Timmy Tim. Chop.
Timothée Chalamet (10:37):
It's humiliating, but I'll show you guys.
Anderson Cooper (10:39):
He took us to the practice room in his building's basement where he'd rehearse.
(10:43)
How old were you there?
Timothée Chalamet (10:44):
Here, I'm 15, but I look like I'm seven. These are two good friends of mine, Sheree and Desiree. They're the only people in the world that did this talent show act with me. I probably asked 35 people.
Anderson Cooper (10:55):
He did go to college, Columbia University for a year and then some classes at New York University. But he dropped out wanting to focus on acting full time.
Timothée Chalamet (11:05):
Listen, man, I was struggling, I was struggling, I was struggling with identity and I was struggling with your sense of self-respect, your sense of drive or where you want to be pales in comparison to where you are.
Anderson Cooper (11:23):
Call Me By Your Name changed everything. He was 21 when it came out. Around the same age Bob Dylan was when his career started to take off. Chalamet became the youngest person nominated for an Academy Award for best actor in nearly 80 years. We thought he'd relate to something Bob Dylan said about the meaning of destiny to Ed Bradley in a rare interview on 60 Minutes more than 20 years ago.
Bob Dylan (11:48):
It's a feeling you have that you know something about yourself nobody else does. The picture you have in your mind of what you're about will come true. That's kind of a thing you kind of have to keep to your own self because it's a fragile feeling. And you put it out there somebody will kill it. So it's best to keep that all inside.
Timothée Chalamet (12:12):
Man, wow.
Anderson Cooper (12:14):
You watched this interview a lot?
Timothée Chalamet (12:15):
Yeah, probably a thousand times, yeah. I always love what he said about self-destiny being fragile.
Anderson Cooper (12:20):
You believe that too, that if-
Timothée Chalamet (12:22):
I believe that, especially early on in life, in your career when you're in your early twenties or late teens, and if you can find a way to keep it quiet, but also have a lot of confidence, it's the best path.
Anderson Cooper (12:32):
It's interesting to me that you still haven't met Bob Dylan.
Timothée Chalamet (12:34):
Nope, no.
Anderson Cooper (12:36):
Is that weird to you?
Timothée Chalamet (12:37):
I mean, it's not, he doesn't seem like he wants to be bothered by, not me, but by everyone in the last 60, 70 years.
Anderson Cooper (12:44):
What would you say to him?
Timothée Chalamet (12:44):
I would say thank you, I would just say thank you. You know what, that's (beep). I'm going to take that back. I wouldn't, honestly, I would honestly just be like, I would play it super cool because I feel like he's probably used to so much hyperbole and praise. Maybe I would try to out-
Anderson Cooper (13:02):
Out cool him?
Timothée Chalamet (13:02):
Out Bob him, not cool, but out Bob.
Anderson Cooper (13:03):
Out Bob him.
Timothée Chalamet (13:04):
Yeah. Just like strangely not bring anything up around-
Anderson Cooper (13:09):
Not even mention that you did the movie.
Timothée Chalamet (13:10):
Yeah. Maybe just talk about-
Anderson Cooper (13:12):
The weather.
Timothée Chalamet (13:12):
… the weather and what his favorite sandwich is or something like that. Yeah.
Speaker 10 (13:21):
When I watch Timothée …
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Timothée Chalamet's high school drama teacher at 60minutesovertime.com.