As the theatrical release of new Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown approaches, Timothée Chalamet on Thursday stopped by The Late Show With Stephen Colbert to talk about playing Bob, singing live in the film, and more.

“This is a movie I’m absolutely the proudest of in my career,” the Academy Award-nominated actor said with earnest excitement before host Stephen Colbert had a chance to ask a question. … It’s as much a movie about Bob Dylan’s early life from ’61 to ’65 as it is about the United States at that time, Greenwich Village at that time, a sort of fraught political environment.”

He went on to explain that he was “not very educated” about Bob Dylan before landing the lead role in A Complete Unknown. “A friend of my dad’s was a Dylanologist, he had a striking portrait of Dylan on his wall [when I was] growing up and knew little about him. I got approached with the material and I YouTubed Bob Dylan and before his music even popped up there were these press conferences that popped up from 1965 where he’s so confrontational … and he’s so elusive and mysterious,” he said, contrasting Dylan’s approach with his own puppy-like enthusiasm.

Related: Closing The Cosmic Circle With Bob Dylan In Asheville [Review]

Chalamet also spoke about the five-year process he underwent to absorb and learn to play Dylan’s music (thanks to various pandemic- and strike-related production delays), practicing his Bob on the set of the two Dune films he made in the interim, and playing live to camera throughout the film.

“This is all live to camera [rather than pre-recorded tracks] which was sort of ignorant and foolish because there was the fear from the music production side of the movie that if you play in different tempos for different takes they won’t be able to cut between them, and you might not just sound good. It’s a director’s worst nightmare to confront the ego of the actor and say, ‘Hey, man, you’re just not sounding good.’ But I had co-star Edward Norton [who plays Pete Seeger] as the devil on my shoulder, and he said, ‘Listen, you sound better live. And something kind of clicked in my voice.

“Obviously when you’re playing, it does something to your voice, and something had clicked. You know, the pre-records we did in Los Angeles at a studio in Burbank … The worst thing we could have done with a Bob Dylan biopic is sanitize it, make it sound clean. This was a man from iron ore country. … You hear the coal country in his voice. So I didn’t wanna be the New Yorker recording in Los Angeles decimating that music. I wanted to honor that legacy. Truly, man, this an American hero, and American great, one of the fantastic artists of our time. This movie’s a humble bridge. It’s a gateway to hopefully anybody who’s not a fan to discover it.”

Colbert agreed: “That’s one of the best things about the movie. … You do Dylan so well that it makes you want to go listen to more Dylan. Watch the full interview below.

Timothée Chalamet Talks Starring In Bob Dylan Biopic A Complete Unknown – The Late Show With Stephen Colbert – 12/12/24

A Complete Unknown is due to open in theaters on December 18th. The film has received rave reviews in early showings. Even Bob Dylan himself has weighed in on the new film on his strangely active X account, praising Chalamet’s acting skills even as it seemed he hadn’t yet seen the movie. Get a peak at Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan in the official trailer for A Complete Unknown below.

A Complete Unknown (Bob Dylan Biopic) – Official Trailer