How the ‘A Complete Unknown’ Cast Transcends Imitation

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Photo Source: Courtesy Searchlight Pictures

As we prepare for the 31st Screen Actors Guild Awards, Backstage is breaking down this year’s film and television ensemble nominees for your consideration. 

Main cast: Monica Barbaro, Norbert Leo Butz, Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Dan Fogler, Will Harrison, Eriko Hatsune, Boyd Holbrook, Scoot McNairy, Big Bill Morganfield, Edward Norton
Casting by: Yesi Ramirez
Directed by: James Mangold
Written by: James Mangold and Jay Cocks
Distributed by: Searchlight Pictures

There are moments in director James Mangold’s Bob Dylan biopic when you forget that the actors are recreating the past. 

Take one early scene: A young Dylan, played by Timothée Chalamet, has blown into New York from Minnesota. He journeys to the hospital bed of his idol, Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy). In a shadowy, sterile room, Dylan plays a tune for Guthrie and Pete Seeger (Edward Norton), another giant of folk music.

The moment doesn’t feel like pop culture cosplay. The three performers create something new and magically alive, just like Dylan did with his music. The ensemble of “A Complete Unknown” casts many such spells. 

Dylan is one of the most iconic figures in pop culture—that hair, that voice, that inscrutability! It would be a mountainous task for any actor to find their way into his skin without succumbing to impersonation. But Chalamet doesn’t disappear into the role, exactly; he channels the singer’s essence to invent a compelling new persona, just like Dylan always did. 

The actor’s characterization is raspy and droll, but never a caricature. He gives Dylan a watchful stoicism that transforms by degrees. First, he’s preternaturally confident as a Midwestern nobody with a guitar. Then, he’s arrogant and disengaged when he reaches superstar status. 

The closest thing to mimicry in Chalamet’s performance are those vocals. Willy Wonka who? The actor shows careful observation in recreating classics like “Mr. Tambourine Man,” allowing the audience to get lost in the music.

Speaking of uncanny vocal performances, costar Monica Barbaro flawlessly evokes the diamond-clear tone of Joan Baez. She also captures the folk queen’s bracing bluntness, especially in scenes shared with Chalamet. Every time Barbaro appears, she makes Baez a bolt of righteous lightning, sent to put her lover/rival in his place. She makes a smile look like a threat.

Elle Fanning

As another woman in Dylan’s life, Elle Fanning is ethereal as ever. She plays Sylvie Russo, a fictionalized version of Dylan’s former girlfriend Suze Rotolo. Where Chalamet’s Dylan is guarded and distant, Fanning’s Sylvie exudes affection and engagement with life. The actor also gets some of the best close-ups. She dares the camera to look away when Sylvie, watching Dylan perform with Baez at the Newport Folk Festival, wordlessly realizes that his heart isn’t hers to know.

Norton also provides a contrast to Chalamet. If Dylan is an enigma, then Seeger is the opposite: earnest and entirely knowable. He approaches the neophyte Dylan with an almost paternal generosity, then crumples when his protégé outgrows him and goes electric. Norton’s gentle work coaxes humanity out of music mythology. 

McNairy is nothing short of a technician as Guthrie. By the time the audience meets the icon, he’s lost much of his speech and mobility from Huntington’s disease. But McNairy doesn’t need dialogue; his sensitive, physically engaged performance burns with emotion to spare.

As Johnny Cash, Boyd Holbrook has a challenge similar to Chalamet’s task, but with less screen time. His interpretation of the Man in Black bursts into the film like a benevolent bronco. Holbrook nails the outlaw vibe; and, more importantly, he sparks off of Chalamet with easy camaraderie. 

The story of “A Complete Unknown” was well-documented. This ensemble made it feel like a discovery.

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