Local fans of Timothée Chalamet were ecstatic after hearing that the celebrity actor made a surprise visit Thursday to Hibbing High School, alma mater of the Minnesota legend he will portray in an upcoming biopic.
Dylan fans thrilled by the prospect of actor Timothée Chalamet portraying the Minnesota legend
Chalamet, who visited Dylan haunts in Hibbing and Duluth, will play the singer in an upcoming biopic.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
January 26, 2024 at 5:26PM
According to customers and employees interviewed Friday at the Electric Fetus record shop in Minneapolis, Chalamet certainly looks the part of a young Bob Dylan. But replicating his distinctive singing voice — the actor reportedly intends to sing as Dylan rather than lip-sync to his music — could prove to be more of a challenge, they said.
Jim Novak, music buyer for Electric Fetus, said Chalamet, 28, can pass as Dylan if the movie doesn’t extend past the 1980s. “I totally think he can pull it off, especially young Dylan, and with minimal makeup,” Novak said.
As for his voice? “Anybody can get that nasally tone, but to make it really have the gravitas and the way he used it, is the hard part,” Novak said.
Chalamet, best known for starring roles in “Wonka” and “Dune,” paid a surprise visit Thursday to aspiring actors at Hibbing High School, where he stopped to research his upcoming role as the Duluth-born and Hibbing-bred Dylan in a film about the singer-songwriter’s early life.
After a guided tour, the actor visited the school’s drama department to talk shop, according to drama coach Megan Reynolds. The students were rehearsing for the school’s Friday production of “The Girl in the White Pinafore,” but had no idea Chalamet was watching.
After a big reveal, Chalamet “talked and geeked out about theater” for 45 minutes with the students, Reynolds said, in the same auditorium where Dylan performed as a high school student more than 60 years ago.
He fielded questions about working as an actor and asked the students questions as well. Some were clearly star-struck, she said.
“My students had a bit of a shell-shocked look for a second, and then some of them kind of shook their heads a moment, and then big smiles came over their faces,“ Reynolds said. “It was a really lovely moment, it was very sweet.”
“One of my students said, ‘I feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone right now,’” she said. She added that Chalamet “seemed genuinely enthused to be there.”
Many of the drama students ”want to continue in theater after high school, so they had a lot of questions about being a professional actor and being a movie actor ... and how you get from point A to point B,” said Reynolds’ husband, Jefferson Reynolds, who was there for Chalamet’s visit.
After the actor left, the student cast held one final dress rehearsal. It was “the best my students had ever performed,” Megan Reynolds said.
Chalamet also was reported to have stopped in Duluth, where he had black drip coffee and a breakfast sandwich at Duluth Coffee Co., according to a tweet from a USA Today reporter.
The upcoming biopic, “A Complete Unknown,” follows Dylan in his early years as a musician and will be directed by James Mangold. It’s set to begin production in New York this year, according to Deadline.
Electric Fetus customer Henry Ramos said Friday that he would prefer Chalamet use dubbed-over tracks rather than sing himself.
“I never understood why they would have them sing when they have the actual recording,” said Ramos.
But Patrick Barry, another customer, said he respected Chalamet for taking on the musical challenge.
“Regardless of the outcome, I appreciate the effort and the art of that,” Barry said.
Dylan, for his part, seems OK with it. He’s an executive producer on the project.
Staff writer Casey Darnell contributed to this story.
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