A complete stranger tells the story of a young Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) after he moves to New York in 1961 and quickly makes a name for himself on the folk music circuit. When he meets Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning), they are attracted to each other. However, it is not a perfect relationship. As the musical performances were all recorded live, the film is taken to a new level, truly solidifying itself as one of the best of the year.
A complete stranger is winning lots of awards, and with good reason. Timothée Chalamet is a leading contender for Best Actor this year because of his performance as Dylan. If he were to win, he would set the record for the youngest actor to take home gold in this category. A complete stranger hits theaters on December 25th.
SscreenRant interviewed Timothée Chalamet and Elle Fanning about A complete stranger. Chalamet explains why he felt it was so important to record the musical performances live, rather than "lip-syncing" to pre-recorded tracks. Fanning recalls the scene she considers the most important to get right, for the sake of her character, Sylvie.
Timothée Chalamet felt it was important to record live musical performances
“I thought there was an element of blasphemy there, because why make a film about Bob Dylan to sanitize him?”
ScreenRant: When speaking with the sound team, they said you pushed for live recordings of the musical performances. Can you talk about the authenticity that the film brings and why you wanted to make it?
Timothée Chalamet: Yeah, we had six months to do these pre-recordings in Los Angeles to get the pre-existing versions of the songs that typically lip sync, for lack of a better description, when you shoot a movie. And the truth is that it was much more fun to do it live. In some ways, maybe it was reckless, but the first song we did was a song called Song to Woody, which we shot in a hospital, and it's a very intimate scene.
It was almost impossible to lip sync, so we tried it, and without being too effusive, I don't know if I'm getting it right, it went really well and gave me the ammunition or the fuel that I needed with Jim, and sometimes, in contrast to Jim, hey, we should actually do it live. It's something that every actor started doing in this, and it's folk music, you know? If you're playing someone in a musical biopic where the choreography was iconic in a sense, of course you have to match it, but the rawness of folk music, the rawness of recordings, sometimes the rawness of Alan Lomax recordings That's what gives you this courage.
Some of the pre-recordings we would do if I warmed up with a vocal coach sounded really clean. I might, as a humble member of the Church of Bob now, think there was an element of blasphemy there, because why make a movie about Bob Dylan to sanitize him? Not that we could capture the real courage of the young man in the early '60s, mid-'60s, but we might as well do our best.
And doing it live, it's something that Edward Norton has always been the devil or angel in my ear, where do you go, hey, I know they're giving you a hard time singing live, but keep doing it, because you sound so much better live. .
Elle Fanning recalls how she feels the fence scene was the most important to get right
“It’s a great metaphor for where they are in their lives. Sometimes you read a scene and think, okay, I know this is the most important one for me.
ScreenRant: I cried with you during that scene where Sylive is leaving Bob. Can you talk about that moment, and maybe if you brought anything from your personal life into it?
Elle Fanning: Probably. I love this scene, reading this scene. It almost feels like, in a lot of ways, the way Bob and Sylvie are written in this movie feels like an old Hollywood romantic love story, the push and the pull. So, I love watching the old movie on our date, and like Now, Voyager, the Bette Davis movie, comes back at the end with that scene.
I call it the fence scene, because of how Jim shot it, but it's a great metaphor for where they are in their lives. Sometimes you read a scene and think, okay, I know this is the most important one for me. They're all important, but this just stands out. It's like you have to get the reward for it. But I think that scene went well, it was great.
Timothée Chalamet: Elle is fantastic in this scene. And that's not the one I read, like she just said, maybe you read it from Sylvie's perspective, like, that one. I am not. I always imagined that Bob was really emotionally withdrawn in some ways.
Actually, I don't want to define too much. But when I was with Elle and she was taking it to this point, it definitely touched someone's heart. How could I not? She looks so fantastic in that scene. In the entire film.
About A Complete Stranger (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 forms intimate relationships with Greenwich Village musical icons in his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking and controversial performance that reverberates around the world. 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 history's most iconic singer-songwriters.
Be sure to check out our others A complete stranger interviews:
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Edward Norton
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Monica Barbaro
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Costume Designer Arianne Phillips
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Director of Photography Phedon Papamichael
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Ted Caplan, Tod Maitland, Paul Massey and Donald Sylvester
A complete stranger hits theaters on December 25th.