Timothée Chalamet has unique take on Bob Dylan's voice in new biopic, vocal coach says

Timothée Chalamet will show off his range — both in acting and singing — in his upcoming Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, says his vocal coach.

After working with perennially Elvis-voiced actor Austin Butler on the set of Dune: Part Two, the 27-year-old Oscar nominee told GQ he enlisted his peer's "entire Elvis team" for his "Dylan prep" — including vocal coach Eric Vetro and movement coach Polly Bennett — as he works to transform into the iconic singer-songwriter in James Mangold's film about his life.

"I just saw the way [Butler] committed to it all — and realized I needed to step it up," Chalamet said after working with Vetro on both his new Willy Wonka movie, Wonka, and the Dylan film.

"He does everything with such a playful air, but there's always that core of real seriousness where he is gonna nail it," Vetro said, adding that Chalamet's renditions of Dylan's songs will sound both familiar and fresh to audiences. "It's taking on all the characteristics of Dylan's voice and his mannerisms and his speech patterns, and bringing that into the music — so that when you hear Timothée do the music, what you're really getting is the essence of Bob Dylan. You're not getting an impersonation of him. It's breathing new life into that voice that we know so well."

Speaking about the project at an April Star Wars event in London, Mangold revealed that the film will follow Dylan beginning at age 19, just before he became a global sensation.

The movie will show Dylan "being embraced into the family of folk music in New York and then, of course, kind of outrunning them at a certain point as his star rises so beyond belief," he told Collider at the time. "It's such an interesting true story and about such an interesting moment in the American scene. Different characters from Woody Guthrie to Bob Dylan to Pete Seeger to Joan Baez — they all have a role to play in this movie."

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