Timothée Chalamet Reacts to Getting Bob Dylan’s Validation: ‘Unreal’ (Exclusive)

Days after earning a Golden Globes nomination for his role as Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown,” Timothée Chalamet hit the red carpet for the L.A. premiere of the movie.

“Extra’s” Terri Seymour spoke with Chalamet, who reflected on Bob taking to social media to give his approval of the actor’s portrayal.

Calling it “unreal," Timothée added, “He's a man of few words. He's probably said fewer words publicly in his life than I've said in this interview alone, so to get some sort of… affirmation — deeply validating. And everything we do in life, we want our heroes to, should they even know about us, affirm us, so the fact that he did, it's more than I could ever ask for, and hopefully he doesn't delete it.”

Chalamet hasn’t spoken to Dylan and doesn’t plan to reach out. He explained, “I don't think so. He's a reclusive figure, he's a mysterious figure, and those that have had a career like Bob's that can remain elusive, good on them. We should… let them be.”

The 28-year-old was already nominated for a Golden Globe for the film, which isn’t even out yet!  He said, “It’s a good starting mark for the movie, but we want to get it out to the world… We want everyone to learn about this incredible artist and man, Bob Dylan, and all these artists, Joan Baez and Pete Seeger, in this incredible time of the 1960s… This was like the most fertile time in American cultural history… It was the greatest thing I ever went through, you know, so I hope, I hope people take the time to check out this movie.”

When asked if he expected he would end up learning 40 Bob Dylan songs for the role, Chalamet commented, “No, because I didn't know I was going to have five years to work on it, so I didn't know I was going to have the time, and it was just the gift that kept on giving and still gives. I still discover Bob Dylan's music to this day because there's so much. There's so much good Bob Dylan music.”

Timothée learned to play the guitar, harmonica, and piano. He admitted, “It was hard because once the movie ended, I didn't have the opportunity, you know, the reason to play the guitar, the harmonica, the piano. I was playing voraciously for five years nonstop. It was my pastime on other movies. So, right now I've fallen into a, you known, a down period of non-music playing but it's great, it's also great to just get the creative mind going.”

Chalamet said it was a "relief" that the movie is finally going to be seen. He commented, “I feel like I got something off my plate and just so proud of it. This is, like, one of those rare movies that it's about an incredible time, we all worked super hard and we had a great director, we had an appropriate budget, and then we brought it to life. There's no cynical commercial goal here.”

He also reflected on how hard it is to play an icon, let alone one is who is still living.

He pointed out, “That's why that post [from Dylan] on X was so validating, because he could have said the opposite and he'd be entitled to. If someone made a movie about your life, you could say, ‘Hey, don't do that.' But he was involved from the start, and this is one of my favorite artists ever. So, we're a humble asterisk on this man's legacy and an honor."

Timothée also dished on the mustache he’s sporting while filming “Marty Supreme” and whether we could see it at the Golden Globes, saying, “I don’t know. I'm basically finished with the project, but I'm not 100 percent finished with it."

He said of the look, "It's different! A couple years ago, I couldn't really grow it yet. This is like 60 percent." He added, "I'm having fun with it."