Timothée Chalamet Was Inspired by Austin Butler’s Elvis to ‘Step It Up’ When Playing Bob Dylan

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Timothée Chalamet Was Inspired by Austin Butler’s Elvis to ‘Step It Up’ When Playing Bob Dylan

After watching Austin Butler in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis Presley biopic, Timothée Chalamet was inspired to “step it up” when portraying Bob Dylan in a new movie.

Speaking with GQ Magazine, Chalamet said he’s been rigorously working with the crew who helped prepare Butler to play Elvis in order to transform into Bob Dylan in the upcoming A Complete Unknown biopic.

“You asked me what I’ve been doing in LA this year? I’ve basically been working with [Butler’s] entire Elvis team for my Dylan prep,” Chalamet said. “There’s a wonderful dialect coach named Tim Monich. Vocal coach named Eric Vetro. Movement coach named Polly Bennett. I just saw the way he committed to it all, and realized I needed to step it up.”

What do we know about the Bob Dylan Biopic, A Complete Unknown?

A Complete Unknown is directed by Logan’s James Mangold. The project was initially announced in 2020; however, the COVID-19 pandemic, Mangold’s commitment to directing Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and the ongoing Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strike have delayed the film’s production.

Mangold previously told Collider about the movie, “It’s such an amazing time in American culture and the story of Bob, a young 19-year-old Bob Dylan coming to New York with $2 in his pocket and becoming a worldwide sensation within three years first being embraced and kind of into the family of folk music in New York. And then of course, kind of out running them at a certain point as his star rises. It’s so beyond belief, it’s such an interesting true story and about such an interesting moment in America, the American scene, different characters from Woody Guthrie to Bob Dylan, to Pete Seeger, to Joan Baez. All have a role to play in this movie.”

Elvis is currently streaming on Prime Video and Max. Butler and Chalamet, meanwhile, are both starring in Dune: Part Two, which releases on March 15, 2024.