A Complete Unknownis a biopic that follows Bob Dylan after he arrives in New York in 1961, throughout his rise to fame, up until the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. The musical performances in the film were recorded live, which brings an extra authenticity to it.
Timothée Chalamet stars as Bob Dylan, with Edward Norton taking on the role of folk singer Pete Seeger. Norton is a seasoned actor who is well known for his roles inFight Club,American History X, andPrimal Fear. He is also a long-time collaborator with Wes Anderson, always delivering incredible performances in his films.A Complete Unknowncomes to theaters on December 25.
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ScreenRantinterviewedEdward NortonaboutA Complete Unknown. He details his relationship with Timothée Chalamet off screen, revealing that the two felt like equal partners in this movie, rather than the mentorship relationship their characters have. Norton also talks about the 1965 Folk Festival scene, which is chaotic and integral to the movie, while also stating that he doesn’t want to tell audiences what his thoughts on it are.
Edward Norton & Timothée Chalamet “Share A Deep Admiration For Bob Dylan”
“He was a lot younger when we met, and I knew he admired me as an actor, but by the time we were working on this, I really felt kind of comrades in arms on it.”
ScreenRant: Pete really takes Bob under his wing at the beginning of this film. Did you feel that relationship with Timothée at all?
Edward Norton: Maybe. Timothée and I met a while ago, and we might have had some of that. He was a lot younger when we met, and I knew he admired me as an actor, but by the time we were working on this, I really felt kind of comrades in arms on it. We share a really deep admiration for Dylan and for that music and I knew he felt as invested as I felt in, I don’t want to say getting it right, but Timothée was really articulate that the thing that gave him a conviction, it was worth taking on, was precisely because there are a lot of people who don’t know it.
It’s like if you were only making this movie for Dylan aficionados, it’d be suicide. You know what I mean? In a way, you’d be setting yourself up, and I think it was almost stepping back and realizing that in truth there are many, many people of all generations who actually don’t know this music. They’ve heard the name Bob Dylan, but they don’t necessarily, they haven’t spent time immersed in it, and they may not know much about what a fertile, amazing time that was of artistry that was woven in very tightly with the social change and political movements at the time.
I think where I felt with Timothée was a real alliance in that this was worthwhile. This is actually really worthwhile and these people, not just because we happen to love their music, but that there’s something worth reconnecting people to what a fertile and propulsive kind of time that was. So in short, I felt like comrades with Timothée on this, not in any way more of a veteran than him or anything. I think we were really, really bonded in the mission.
Edward Norton Gives Credit To Director James Mangold For Allowing The Audience To Sit With The Emotion Of The Film
“I really liked that Jim Mangold’s got the wisdom as a filmmaker in some sense to lay that out there and not necessarily make a judgment on it.”
ScreenRant: During that chaotic 1965 Folk Festival sequence, what do you think is going through Pete’s head as he is stuck between the “past” and “future” of music?
Edward Norton: I think there are so many things at play. I don’t want to take away from an audience and their own interpretation of what went on. It’s funny, Timothée and I talked about this too, but if you look at the old films of Bob Dylan and people are saying to him, what does this song mean? And he’s 21 years old, and he goes, I don’t know what it means. What do you think it means? I wrote it, but that doesn’t mean anything. And you kind of just go, man, he was so savvy at making sure that people formed an active relationship with the stuff he wrote.
He never reduced it to only one thing. And I feel that way a little bit about the film itself. There’s a lot of ways to feel emotionally about the end of this. I think the most I would say is that I think, I think that it’s very possible that there are different forms of integrity, and I think that Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger admired each other enormously. And one may have had an inclination toward political integrity and the integrity of commitment to a movement. And one may have had a radical sense of integrity to his own artistic line.
And they don’t have to cancel each other out. They can coexist. Maybe they were in the same lane for a while, then they weren’t. I really liked that Jim Mangold’s got the wisdom as a filmmaker in some sense to lay that out there and not necessarily make a judgment on it. He really does leave it to you. He leaves you with, in this movie, I think he gives you the chance to sort of sit with the conflicting emotions at the end of it.
I think that’s very adult. I think you got to give credit to audience. I, as an audience, sometimes I want to be left alone. You know what I mean? I don’t want to be bludgeoned. I don’t want to be told too much. I want to exist in the messiness of it all. I want to let it all percolate in me. Sometimes it takes a very mature filmmaker, I think, to leave a lot in your lap unresolved.
More About A Complete Unknown (2024)
New York, 1961. Against the backdrop of a vibrant music scene and tumultuous cultural upheaval, an enigmatic 19-year-old from Minnesota arrives with his guitar and revolutionary talent, destined to change the course of American music. He forges intimate relationships with music icons of Greenwich Village on his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking and controversial performance that reverberates worldwide. Timothée Chalamet stars and sings as Bob Dylan in James Mangold’s A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, the electric true story behind the rise of one of the most iconic singer-songwriters in history.
A Complete Unknown
Cast
A Complete Unknown is a biographical movie that follows a young Bob Dylan as he integrates with New York and catches the eye of the folk singers in the area, eventually propelling him into stardom.
