How Timothée Chalamet Learned To Sound Like Bob Dylan

The actor worked with a major voice coach to the stars to transform into the legendary folk singer for A Complete Unknown,

- JOHN JURGENSEN

One of the most suspenseful movie scenes of the year isn't a stunt or plot twist.

It's the quiet moment when Timothée Chalamet first reveals if he can actually channel Bob Dylan.

It happens early in "A Complete Unknown," starring Chalamet as Dylan during his 1960s ascent. The young singer, fresh from Minnesota and visiting his idol Woody Guthrie in a dim New Jersey hospital room, pulls out a guitar and starts to strum and sing, "I'm out here a thousand miles from my home..." The rendition of "Song to Woody" is a moment of truth for the character, the actor and the audience, says director James Mangold. If it doesn't deliver, "the entire enterprise of the movie you have sat down to watch will collapse like a house of cards." Among the many music greats who've gotten the biopic treatment, Bob Dylan presents an especially tough multiple choice problem.

He's an artistic deity whose output made a real mark on history. He's also a living cartoon character with a rasp and patter that has inspired countless bad impressions. And he's a shapeshifter with many musical phases and a habit of tweaking his own mythology.

To zero in on the essence of Dylan-his music-Chalamet had help from a singing coach to the stars.

Eric Vetro is best known for training pop divas to achieve vocal pyrotechnics. With Chalamet, the job was to capture the stripped-down sincerity in one of the most unique voices in American music.

Of his now 29-year-old student, Vetro says, "He was really excited to be the one to be able to introduce this music and these lyrics to a new generation." Chalamet, who has said he knew little about Dylan before landing the part, got good enough with the material to do some 35 songs live on camera, including guitar and harmonica work, and for those on-set performances to make the final cut, the filmmakers say.