Oscars 2025: Timothée Chalamet Learning How To Play Guitar Like Bob Dylan Was Way More Super Secretive Than I Would Have Guessed

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In the past, Timothée Chalamet mastered rhyming, guitar playing, and speaking similarly to Bob Dylan for his movie debut “A Complete Unknown“. This skillful portrayal has been drawing attention during awards season, even earning him a 2025 Oscars nomination. However, I didn’t anticipate that his preparation to play like Bob Dylan before filming was kept much more under wraps than I had imagined.

The details we’re sharing are provided by Larry Saltzman, a freelance guitarist and session musician who unexpectedly landed the prestigious role of instructing Timothèe Chalamet in playing music. However, he admitted to Rolling Stone that he wasn’t fully aware of what he was getting into when he agreed. Before the film started production and eventually hit theaters, he was asked to sign a confidentiality agreement.

They never revealed the person’s identity to me. Since there are confidentiality agreements in place, they don’t want anyone leaking information about it. You get my drift, I’m not on Facebook and I don’t share such details. After several phone conversations, they finally disclosed that it was Timothée Chalamet. Honestly, I wasn’t familiar with him before this revelation. They mentioned it was Bob Dylan’s music.

Back in the day, I was perfectly fine sharing that amount of info, confiding to the media that my older sis was an ardent Bob Dylan fan since the get-go. It was his tunes, after all, that filled our home with a hip, older sibling vibe as I grew up.

Initially, it wasn’t clear who was teaching Chalamet classic songs such as “The Times They Are A-Changin'” and “Hard Rain”, or when, where, or why this was happening. However, Mr. Saltzman began developing a method to simplify these songs for the young actor. To put it simply, the whole situation seems quite intriguing, but in the end, it proved beneficial as it resulted in James Mangold’s movie being successfully released.

The organization within my Dropbox folder dedicated to Timothée/Dylan’s music is mind-boggling. For each track, I kept an MP3 file, along with a helpful software called Transcribe that allowed me to slow down the audio and scrutinize specific parts. Each song was accompanied by a Read Me document containing relevant YouTube videos and lyrics with chords, similar to traditional folk arrangements. Sprinkled throughout were bits of inspiring words. Each song had its unique set of materials.

In a unique approach, the music instructor categorized Dylan songs based on their perceived complexity. Together with Mr. Chalamet, they commenced their journey starting with “Masters of War,” a song featuring only a few chords, and the difficulty level escalated from there. Later, the actor would interpret 40 of Bob Dylan’s iconic tunes in “A Complete Unknown“, providing fans an insight into Dylan’s early career to his renowned electric performance at the Newport Folk Festival. Remarkably, he accomplished this feat without ever personally encountering Dylan.

The overall feedback for the movie “A Complete Unknown” has been positive, and there are numerous discussion threads among fans praising Timothée Chalamet’s acting in it. What stands out is that fans can’t seem to agree on which Bob Dylan song Chalamet portrays best in the film. It’s quite remarkable when you consider how accurately he captured so many aspects of Dylan’s performances across various songs, showcasing the dedication and effort put into these pieces.

In the movie, Rami Malek’s musical performances, along with others, have been remarkably impactful. However, it’s common in music biopics for actors to lip sync or learn a few songs to convincingly portray a performance. But in this case, Timmy takes center stage as he did in real life. He recently won a SAG Award for his role and was clear about his ambitions for Hollywood fame: ‘I aspire to be one of the greats.’

No one could accuse him of not putting the work in.

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2025-03-02 17:28