“It would be good if a figure like Bob Dylan emerged today”

After London, where he made a strong impression by arriving at the premiere of his film on a shared bike Lime to escape traffic jams, Timothée Chalamet stopped off in Paris to promote A complete stranger . In this youthful portrait, signed James Mangold which will be released in French cinemas on January 29, he disappears in the guise of a young Bob Dylan who comes to shake up folk music becoming his muse before turning towards other horizons in the New York of the Sixties. To talk about this transformation which took up six years of his life and for which he learned the guitar, the harmonica and singing, the 29-year-old Franco-American actor, idol of Generation Z, gave Thursday at the Bristol, a press conference. He was surrounded by his director and his partners Edward Norton, who plays his mentor Pete Seeger, and Monica Barbaro, who plays Joan Baez.

Anxious to express himself in the language of Molière, Timothée Chalamet, who still sports the little mustache from his film Martydid not make the task easy in a cheerful and disjointed Franglais. He would undoubtedly have been more comfortable developing and qualifying his remarks in English. “Sorry, I’ve been searching for words since yesterday. Generally, it takes me one or two weeks in France to find them”he regretted.

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“The role of Bob Dylan is the one that had the most impact on me in my entire career”confided, in the preamble, the one who played the hero of DunePaul Atréides, and Willy Wonka. “There were 10,000 reasons that attracted me to this project. I was offered it at the very beginning of my career in 2018 just after Call Me By Your Name. I was sent a lot of research material. I listened to his music but it was his interviews that convinced me. I was struck by his mysterious attitude and his love of confrontation. There was a real character who never really answered questions or with something weird that made no sense!”.

“The role of Bob Dylan is the one that had the most impact on me in my entire career”

Timothée Chalamet

A parallel with the New Wave

“I then understood that his music had traveled extensively in France and Japan. I grew up listening to iTunes: rap, hip-hop, pop, in 2008-2009. With this film and thanks to Bob Dylan, I opened myself up to other artists from the Sixties: the Beatles, the Rolling Stones. Including lesser-known songs from their repertoire”noted the actor, who felt a particular pressure to perform Bob Dylan’s most emblematic songs, such as Like A Rolling Stone. “I felt more trapped even though there is a certain freedom in playing folk standards, alone with your guitar.”.

Timothée Chalamet also drew a parallel between the vitality of music in the United States and the new cinematographic wave in France “who also sought to change artistic attitudes”. “For young people aged 25 to 18 who did not have this education, this culture was really a way of understanding the world. This is still true in our time when it is even more difficult to bring everyone together in the same room and open up to the world”he pleaded.

He salutes James Mangold’s desire for authenticity. The filmmaker insisted to his actors: “The focus ofA Perfect Stranger is about interpersonal relationships between young people who do not understand the shock wave released by their nails on the strings of a guitar and how popular culture can also be a business.. “We completely immersed ourselves in the art of living of the 60sassures Timothée Chalamet. We put our phones aside!”.

“In the 1960s, this kind of music and artists, like Bob Dylan or Joan Baez, thought that art could change a political aspect or a cultural attitude”

Timothée Chalamet

If Bob Dylan was very involved in the script of the film and had long conversations with James Mangold. He has not met his alter ego. “I would have likedadmits Timothée Chalamet. I still want it badly. But my respect for Bob Dylan is even greater than this desire. I understand that he is someone mysterious. Bob Dylan may not be the type to respond to the public and make new friends at 83!”.

Asked by AFP four days before Donald Trump’s inauguration to find out if he had plunged with nostalgia into the 1960s, where many artists were committed to civil rights, Timothée Chalamet made the comparison with his own generation. “In the 1960s, this kind of music and artists, like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez or (author) James Baldwin had no precedent. They believed that art could change a political aspect or a cultural attitude.he continued. “Today there is a stronger cynicism. For the young American, French and also global generation, the obstacles are perhaps more intense than in the 1960s, environmental or political obstacles.. And to conclude: “It would be nice for a figure like Dylan to jump (arise, Editor’s note) but, there too, there is cynicism… If someone releases an ethical, optimistic song, we will think that there is a “corporate” kind of side, that he is doing it in his own interest”.

With 53 million in revenue at the American box office, A complete stranger is one of the biggest successes of the Searchlight studio and seems well on its way to the race for the Oscars, which will announce their nominations on Thursday January 23. Timothée Chalamet could receive his second nomination for the best actor statuette. If he wins, he will be the youngest winner in the category. While he will be thirty years old next December, Timothée Chalamet confided that he has let go of a lot of his youthful fears and apprehensions. “Life is too strange for that.”

A Perfect Stranger will be released in France on Wednesday January 29.