How Timothée Chalamet learned to sound like Bob Dylan

One of the most suspenseful movie scenes of the year isn’t a stunt or plot twist. The young singer, fresh from Minnesota and visiting his idol Woody Guthrie in a dim New Jersey hospital room, pulls out a guitar and starts to strum and sing, “I’m out here a thousand miles from my home…" The rendition of “Song to Woody" is a moment of truth for the character, the actor and the audience, says director James Mangold. For “A Complete Unknown," Vetro also worked with actress Monica Barbaro, who plays Joan Baez as Dylan’s musical and romantic foil. “When someone does an impersonation of Dylan, what they’re often missing is the sincerity with which he sings those lyrics," Vetro says. At the end, Chalamet holds a note in the word “come" for about 10 seconds—twice as long as Dylan himself did on the song’s original recording.