On Thursday night, if you somehow haven’t already heard, actor Timothée Chalamet made an appearance at The Main Cinema in Minneapolis for a screening of his upcoming Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown. I say “if you somehow haven’t” because every news outlet in town—and a few from out of town, hello Forbes—was there, participating in a sort of sweetly awkward fireside chat hosted in a stone-walled room in the cinema’s Saint Anthony Main complex.
(“They made this nice and Bob-like,” a chuckling Chalamet said as he approached the bulky leather armchair from which he’d spend the next 20 minutes fielding questions.)
So what did we learn from the press appearance? Well, for one, no one was there to see the mayor; a PR person’s announcement that Jacob Frey was on site for anyone who wanted to grab a photo failed to mobilize a single person already seated and waiting for the famous actor. For another, we local writers really want to know how Minnesota informed/inspired/influenced Chalamet’s performance in the flick.
Here are a few more fun facts from Timmy’s (as Dylan himself adorably referred to him) quick pre-screening Q&A:
1. Chalamet really likes Minnesota.
This was the New York-based actor’s third visit to the state, following two info-gathering trips last year as he prepared for the role. Those preparatory visits to Hibbing and Duluth impacted his performance in many “unspoken ways,” he said, and he’s had his fair share of Minnesota moments during them, including spinning out on the ice in a rented pickup truck. “I mean it sincerely: I loved it here, and I love Minnesota, and I find the people to be really generous, and nice, and generous of spirit,” he said. (Though he noted he’s sure we have our “fair share of assholes, too.”)
2. Filmmakers honored the enigma.
Dylan is famously, well, choose your adjective here: mystical, unusual, mysterious, private, enigmatic, dodgy, and always… let’s say… creative with the facts related to his own biography. “We didn’t try to demystify the enigma,” Chalamet said when asked about how you interpret such a peculiar man on film.
In some ways, he said, that almost made it easier. Since so much of Dylan’s life is unknown to the public, the filmmakers didn’t have to hit specific plot beats or stick to a predictable structure, which was freeing for him and for director James Mangold. But Chalamet added that it’s tricky to interpret the motives and emotions of a man who’s still kickin’, especially when the Dylan who’s with us today is probably a lot different than the Dylan of the ’60s. As Chalamet responded to a question about Dylan’s relationship with Minnesota: “There’s the Bob I play in the movie, and then there’s a real guy who’s alive and well, so I really can’t speak for him. God forbid he deletes that tweet.”
3. We got some info about the upcoming Josh Safdie film Marty Supreme.
An interesting question—and one I wish he’d had more time to answer—came from WCCO’s Charlie Oakes, who wanted to know what it was like navigating the character transition from Bob Dylan to Marty Supreme, whom Chalamet will portray in the Safdie flick Marty Supreme. (He joked that he’d just wrapped up work on that project “like, 12 hours ago.”) So far, very little is out there about the sports drama inspired by real-life pro table tennis player Marty Reisman. Here’s what he had to say:
“I had a moment the day I wrapped Dylan where I went to the Elara production office, which is the Safdie production office, and you know, I had only been listening to Bob music for a year straight. I switched my playlist to the Marty Supreme thing, and I was walking through the Diamond District, and I did have this out-of-body experience like, ‘Woah, I’m leaving Greenwich Village and I’m entering this sort of New York underworld … I woke up in Minnesota the day after I finished Marty, so—I don’t want to give too much away about that movie—but it’s like, I finished this, let’s just say really crazy thing, and I woke up back in safe Minnesota, home of Bob Dylan.”
4. No, like, he really likes Minnesota.
On the drive to the theater, my photographer Jenna and I laughed at photos of Chalamet palling around with U of M students and wondered whether he was truly happy to be in Minnesota or just a very good actor. We got our answer during the Q&A: “Even on this trip right now, which… it was my idea, it wasn’t the studio’s idea,” Chalamet said, explaining how his previous visits informed his work on the film.
5. Yeet Skrrt.
One less reverent area reporter couldn’t help themselves; they had to bring up Chalamet’s rap career, and wondered whether “Yeet Skrrt” had any bearing on the role. A polite Chalamet laughed, and after responding, “That was the main inspiration,” gave credit to the living music legend: “My musical, prodigious talent is about one gazillionth of Bob’s.”
A Complete Unknown hits theaters on December 25.
