Timothée Chalamet bulked up to play the folk legend Bob Dylan in the upcoming A Complete Unknown.
During a chat with NPR’s Alisa Chang, Chalamet talked about deliberately gaining weight for the role, since he was actually “thinner” than Dylan.
“He’s one of the great American artists of our time, so I’m sure some of your listeners could speak to it better than I could,” Chalamet said. “That said, I’ve, like I said, I’ve turned over every stone. I did all the work, like you just described, physicality, behavior-wise. But something we haven’t really talked about, I also put on 20 pounds because…”
He added, “…Believe it or not, I was thinner than the guy, you know?”
Chalamet’s no stranger to changing his body for roles – he dropped 18 pounds to play struggling addict Nic Sheff in 2018’s Beautiful Boy, going beyond his original 15-pound target.
“It’s just very hyper-concentrated portions of nutrients,” Chalamet explained to Emma Stone in a 2018 Actors on Actors chat. “Did you see Snowpiercer? It’s like the protein goo.”
Seems like Chalamet’s really getting into the Dylan spirit – he even performed some of the folk legend’s tunes during his recent Saturday Night Live hosting stint.
At the New York premiere of A Complete Unknown, Chalamet rocked a blond look that paid homage to Dylan. His whole outfit was actually copying Dylan’s style from the 2003 Sundance Film Festival premiere of the Western flick Masked and Anonymous.
