Timothée Chalamet detailed how far he went to transform and portray himself as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. The 29-year-old actor had to put in the work to change his physicality which led to an Oscar nomination.
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Timothée Chalamet Gained Weight To Portray Bob Dylan
During the January 20th interview with NPR on All Things Considered, Chalamet revealed how he gained some extra weight to portray the 83-year-old American singer-songwriter properly. "I've turned over every stone," he said. "I did all the work, like you just described, physicality, behavior-wise. But something we haven't really talked about, I also put on 20 pounds."
Chalamet then described himself as "thinner than the guy."
"Thinner than Bob," director James Mangold added.
Ailsa Chang, the interviewer, laughed at the reveal. "You had to fatten up to become Bob Dylan. That's hilarious."
Chalamet had earlier explained how transforming into Bob Dylan turned into a five-year process. Specifically, a "process of osmosis," as he described it.
Chang reiterated to fans listening that the actor had to "learn how to sing like Dylan, talk like Dylan, play guitar like Dylan, play harmonica like him, walk and move like him." In order to envelop this, Chalamet decided to alter his weight.
The interviewer then asked what was the hardest part of the transformation. Although Chalamet didn't outright say it, his answer eventually led to him revealing his weight gain. It truly must have been a tough part of the overall process in order to feel, sing, and act like Dylan.
Chalamet already looked quite similar to the American singer, but mimicking his singing voice also took some work. "[I] just sort of watered down and crystallized and made sing-songy where it was raw," he explained. "You know, Bob Dylan had a very bad case of bronchitis in his early 20s that helped make his voice sound the way it is. You hear the iron ore in his voice."
Not only did Chalamet religiously listen to Dylan's recordings, but he also saw him live on stage at least twice. The actor described it as "super educational" to see his energy from a distance.
