Timothée Chalamet stars as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, but his job didn’t end at acting: he also took on Dylan’s most iconic music and sang Dylan’s songs with his own voice. Entertainment Weekly released a featurette in November in which the film’s producer Fred Berger confirms he not only sings, he plays his own instruments in the biopic.
“There are 40 songs in the movie that he performs,” Berger said, per Entertainment Weekly. “On guitar, on harmonica, and singing live take after take after take.”
Chalamet then says in the featurette, “It was important for me to sing and play live. Because if I can actually do it, why should there be an element of artifice here? And I’m proud that we took that leap.”
All of the songs were prerecorded by Chalamet, but several takes that made it into the movie were sung live, depending on the scene, according to Variety. Director James Mangold has coached actors through live singing before, directing Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash in Walk the Line.
Mangold shared that it took five years to get the film made due to COVID-19 and union strikes, but he said it ultimately helped the production. Chalamet was able to spend more time on those skills. In an interview with ScreenRant, A Complete Unknown director of photography Phedon Papamichael agreed that Chalamet exceeded expectations after having time to study.
“Of course, we prerecorded the songs, and initially for many logistical and technical reasons, that was kind of the plan to have Timothée’s voice, but go with playback of his prerecords,” said Papamaichael. “But, as he embodied that character, even during production, he practiced, as you probably know, for a long time. The movie was delayed several times. He had five years to work on it and he became quite an accomplished guitar player, harmonica player, learned piano. It’s very intimidating to portray Bob Dylan.”
He added, “Timothée, in front of our eyes, he transformed into this person and he kept saying, let me do it live. Let me do live. Can I do a live one? Let me do it, and we were like, yeah, sure, go for it. And we were in awe every time, every take.”
But there are challenges to filming live singing; it can often make things more complicated. Mangold stated that “some of the sound and music direction people were like, ‘It’s not a good idea.’”
Chalamet and Mangold, however, were both excited to attempt it.
“And he was phenomenal. Not only that, he proved the brilliance of the method,” Mangold shared. “There’s this moment where he finishes that song and he holds a note and just keeps hitting the low string on the guitar over and over again, and he’s just his eyes are kind of boring into Woody, and he’s just holding this note, and it gave him chills.”
He added, “I remember sitting there eight feet from him as he did it, and I remember thinking, ‘Holy shit.’ That could not have happened if there was an earwig in his ear.”
He still wasn’t sure if they could continue, but: “We just kept doubling down until we made our way through the whole movie.”
Sound mixer Tod Maitland placed multiple mics in each live-singing scene and then melded them together into successful soundscapes. He had to get creative with the mic, because of how Chalamet held the guitar.
Maitland told Variety, “I talked to Timmy early on, and I said, ‘The only way that we’re going to be able to do this is if I can wire you and your hair,’ and the microphone would then come off of his forehead and go right down past his mouth, right to the guitar…The idea was to get a little bit different sound in each different venue by using practical microphones from the period. That helped create a nice tapestry of sounds. But Timmy went 100 percent live. It was pretty amazing.”
Supervising music editor Ted Caplan shared that concert scenes were done all at once, rather than in multiple takes. They just shot right through.
“I think it gave it a special live real magic,” said Caplan. “You can see Timmy is so into it and in the mindset of it.”
Deadline shared the extensive list of songs that appear in A Complete Unknown, noting where Chalamet is singing.