Edward Norton Calls Timothée Chalamet “Relentless” Playing Bob Dylan In Biopic; Actor “Panicked” About “Losing Moment Of Discovery”

Timothée Chalamet immersed himself as Bob Dylan in the biopic A Complete Unknown, which his co-stars were supportive of.

In a new interview, co-star Edward Norton opened up about seeing Chalamet’s process into playing the singer-songwriter in the James Mangold-directed film.

“He was relentless,” Norton told Rolling Stone for their new issue with Chalamet on the cover. “No visitors, no friends, no reps, no nothing. ‘Nobody comes around us while we’re doing this.’ We’re trying to do the best we can with something that’s so totemic and sacrosanct to many people.”

Norton continued, “And I agreed totally — it was like, we cannot have a f***ing audience for this. We’ve got to believe to the greatest degree we can. And he was right to be that protective.”

Chalamet noted that he learned from Christian Bale in Hostiles and Oscar Isaac in Dune how they “guard their process” while working, which he applied in A Complete Unknown.

“When people aren’t curious about how you go about your work, because they don’t know who you are yet. Which is how the experience was for me on Call Me By Your Name,” he said.

Chalamet added, “It was something I would go to sleep panicked about: losing a moment of discovery as the character — no matter how pretentious that sounds — because I was on my phone or because of any distraction. I had three months of my life to play Bob Dylan, after five years of preparing to play him. So while I was in it, that was my eternal focus. He deserved that and then more.… God forbid I missed a step because I was being Timmy. I could be Timmy for the rest of my life!”

A Complete Unknown also stars Elle Fanning and Monica Barbara, among many others. The film is set to open in theaters on December 25.