Timothée Chalamet came to Minnesota to study Bob Dylan and ‘loved, loved’ it

In “A Complete Unknown,” an obscure singer named Bob Dylan (played by Timothée Chalamet) arrives at a pivotal meeting at Columbia Records 55 minutes late. Which is exactly how late Chalamet arrived Thursday night at a meeting with Minnesota journalists.

Coincidence? Maybe. But, given how uncannily Chalamet channels the Minnesota music legend in the film, maybe not.

The Oscar-nominated actor said he flew here, just hours after completing a movie with Gwyneth Paltrow, because, “I love Minnesota and I find the people to be really nice and generous of spirit. I’m sure it’s not universal. I’m sure you have your fair share of [jerks]. I just think it’s lovely out here.”

The Thursday appearance — he met with reporters before a preview screening of “A Complete Unknown” at Minneapolis’ Main Cinema and answered questions afterward — was Chalamet’s third visit to Minnesota. He was here twice in 2023, researching the role in short visits to Minneapolis, Duluth and Hibbing.

Chalamet had some typical Minnesota experiences, such as spinning out on a patch of ice and marveling at the “strange” plethora of casinos. He also got a feel for Dylan, who’s the subject of the biopic and used his X account to show his support for “Timmy’s” portrayal.

“[The Minnesota visits] were just extremely informative and moving. Even on this trip right now, which was my idea, I just love it. As a 28-year-old New Yorker, I don’t think my path would have really brought me out here, ever. So the first time I got here I was like, Bob Dylan, being in this guy’s worldview,” said Chalamet.

The actor said he’d have felt “insecure” if he hadn’t visited the Nobel Prize-winning musician’s old haunts, including his childhood home and high school, to pick up the singer’s dialect and get “energetic information” about him.

“Obviously, in a two-day trip you don’t get the entire download of what growing up was like. It didn’t demystify it, either, but it helped me see that his home is a home,” said Chalamet, whose work includes the “Dune” films, “Wonka” and “Bones and All,” which is partly set in Minnesota but wasn’t shot here. “It wasn’t far from what I could relate to and it helped me find my way in, which is something I had to do.”

The actor — who first learned of Dylan because one of his dad’s friends had a poster of the singer in his home — said he spent five years immersing himself in the musician’s life and music. That immersion made the actor feel confident he could pull off his take on Dylan, buoyed by in-depth knowledge of all of his songs.

He was asked if any particular song helped him feel like he had captured Dylan (Chalamet does his own singing in “Complete Unknown,” which skips Dylan’s childhood, beginning when he arrived in New York in 1961).

“I don’t want to sound over-confident, but every song. I swear to god, because I lived with it for so long. And I feel like I’d be out of bounds answering that question because I don’t know if Minnesota had a hold of — if this is going to feel like Bob to an audience, but it really felt impactful to me when I was doing it,” said Chalamet, who identified “Outlaw Blues” as his favorite song but added, “They all were very special to me and to my heart. The lead-up to this was five years of practicing, messing it up.”

Chalamet also said his experiences helped since, like Dylan, he achieved fame without the years of struggle many artists encounter.

“It’s kind of fraught to make parallels with my career and put myself in the same boat as the legendary Bob Dylan but I can relate to him,” said Chalamet. “My career did take off when I was 20, 21, 22, and the kinds of rooms I was in, like the press conferences Bob was doing, I was younger than the intellectual pool or the circumstances in the rooms.”

Often noting that Dylan “didn’t like to be pinned down,” Chalamet also seemed to be speaking for himself. Which may be why the actor insisted on doing a press event in Dylan’s home state.

“What a pleasure and honor being here,” Chalamet said after the screening of the film, which opens in theaters Dec. 25. “I loved, loved coming here.”