When Timothée Chalamet was cast as Bob Dylan in the James Mangold biopic “A Complete Unknown,” he didn’t want to do anything halfway. The actor recently told Apple Music that he went on a “spirit-gathering” road trip inspired by Dylan’s early years as a musician, traveling from his hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota, to Duluth, then on to Chicago and Madison, Wisconsin. He enlisted a movement coach to help him imitate Dylan’s posture, movements, and stride, as well as a vocal coach to capture the folk icon’s nasally drawl.
Perhaps most vitally, Chalamet went full-bore into the music, learning to perform 13 Dylan songs for the film. This involved playing them not only on piano and guitar, but simultaneously on harmonica—a skill he learned over five years of intensive lessons with Rob Paparozzi. The professional harmonica player helped Chalamet become not only proficient at the instrument, but also a Dylan mimic.
“Dylan’s harmonica playing was all over the place,” Paparozzi tells us. “It wasn’t that he was good or bad. It was perfect for his songs, but it was quirky, because harmonica is a very personal sound. It gets its tone from your throat and your nose; it’s almost like talking. He never played it twice the same way, so to teach Timmy or any actor to do that is a challenge.”
As a seasoned touring musician and occasional Broadway player in shows like “Big River” and “The Will Rogers Follies,” Paparozzi knows his way around the tin sandwich. That’s largely thanks to Dylan, whose music inspired Paparozzi’s older brother to buy the harmonica that he eventually took and made his own. “A Complete Unknown” marks the first time he’s coached an actor for the screen, but he’s been helping noted players master other styles and riffs for years.
“Timmy wanted to play the songs the way Dylan did, in the same key and positions,” Paparozzi recalls. “He didn’t just want to fudge it and say, ‘This looks like I’m playing it.’ He said, ‘Whether I’m really playing it or not in the scene—and in some of the scenes I might be, because I’m working really hard—I want to be exactly where I’m supposed to be, and I want to be able to play the riffs.’ ”
The 2025 Academy Awards: Full List of Nominees Achieving that is harder than it looks; simultaneously playing harmonica and guitar is a bit like rubbing your stomach and patting your head at the same time. Paparozzi says it’s similar to learning piano, which starts with mastering one hand at a time. When it came to teaching Dylan’s style, the musician made sure Chalamet was good enough at the harmonica that he could play it from muscle memory; then, he slowly integrated the guitar and piano.
It’s much easier to learn harmonica today than it used to be. The instrument has always been affordable; he says that when Dylan first picked it up, you could buy one for around $2. But now, anyone with a computer can find countless YouTube instructional videos covering everything from basic skills to specific songs to specialized techniques. The instrument comes in all 12 keys; Paparozzi suggests starting out with a diatonic harmonica in C. That’s the model, he explains, that German immigrants first introduced to the United States in the 1850s. Civil War soldiers took it into battle, and formerly enslaved people used it to play an early version of the blues.
Credit: Macall Polay/Searchlight Pictures
“The cool thing about the harmonica is that it becomes a part of you,” Paparozzi says. “It’s a very personal sound because of your voice and how your mouth is shaped. Every harmonica player is going to sound different [depending on] their tone and the way they’re holding and cupping it.”
Get good enough, and you’ll not only be a hit at parties; you could also pick up a few professional gigs, since fewer and fewer people play the instrument these days. It’s a solid, unique skill for actors to have on their résumé, especially if you’re someone who wants to fully embody a role like Chalamet did for “A Complete Unknown.”
“Timmy really just got into the music so deeply,” Paparozzi recalls. “He loved what he was hearing with Bob’s music, and he really became a great student. And it was fun to teach him, because he didn’t want to learn the harmonica just as an actor; he wanted to learn it as a musician.”
This story originally appeared in the Jan. 23 issue of Backstage Magazine.
Rob Paparozzi Credit: John Posada