Oscar-nominated star Timothee Chalamet said as a young actor he was advised by an agent to “put on weight” if he wanted to land blockbuster film roles.
The 28-year-old, who has taken on the starring roles in Wonka and the Dune film franchise, will next be seen playing influential folk singer Bob Dylan in a biopic titled A Complete Unknown – set for release on Christmas Day.
Chalamet said he found parallels with Dylan’s journey to stardom.
“If I auditioned for The Maze Runner or Divergent, things of that variety that were popping when I was coming up, the feedback was always, ‘Oh, you don’t have the right body’,” Chalamet told Apple Music’s The Zane Lowe Show.
“I had an agent that called me and said, ‘You got to put on weight’, basically, not aggressively… And then, I found my way into these very personalised movies or something, for (Dylan), it was folk music. He couldn’t keep a rock and roll band because they would all get hired by other kids that had more money, literally, in Minnesota.
“So for me, it was finding a very personal style movie Call Me By Your Name or Beautiful Boy or Lady Bird or Little Women, Miss Stevens, Hot Summer Nights.
“Those were smaller budget, but very… I don’t know how else to put it… personable movies that started in this theatre space. This is where I found my rhythm, my confidence, my flow, whatever you want to call it.”
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The biopic follows Dylan’s early days as a musician in New York City, culminating in his famed performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
Chalamet said he prerecorded a number of tracks for the film, but championed using his own voice because he thought the recordings felt “too clean” for the film.
The actor said he became emotional after filming an intimate scene in a hospital room with the actors playing Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger where he performed “one of my favourite Bob Dylan songs ever” titled Song To Woody.
“I went home and I wept that night, not to be dramatic, but it’s a song I’d been living with for years and something I could relate to deeply,” he said.
“And I also felt like it was the most dignified work I’d ever done.
“And dignity might be a weird word there, but it felt like so dignified and humble, we’re just bringing life to a thing that happened 67 years ago.”
Chalamet said he worked with a harmonica coach for five years for the role, before retracing Dylan’s steps through different states as well as spending “about a week where he is from in Minnesota”.
