Timothée Chalamet: Becoming Bob Dylan | Apple Music

00:51:06
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6RGcPQuzog

Résumé

TLDRIn this introspective dialogue, Timothy Chalamet reflects on his profound journey in portraying Bob Dylan. He describes how immersing himself in Dylan's music, especially the live rendition of 'Ballad of a Thin Man,' gave him insights into the enigmatic icon. Chalamet discusses the transformative nature of his acting approach, emphasizing the importance of capturing the spirit rather than the exact mimicry of Dylan. He also shares his connection to the theatrical space that shaped his acting skills. Chalamet's role as Dylan allows him to bridge his own artistic growth with Dylan's genius, creating a unique interpretation that honors the musician's indelible impact on culture. Through exploring Dylan's life and era, Chalamet embarks on a personal journey that reshapes his artistic vision.

A retenir

  • 🎵 Timothy Chalamet is deeply inspired by Bob Dylan.
  • 🎭 The theater played a critical role in Chalamet's development.
  • 🕰️ Exploring Dylan's era offered insights into cultural change.
  • 🎤 Capturing Dylan’s spirit was more important than imitation.
  • 🎥 Chalamet views his role as Bob Dylan as momentous.
  • 🎶 Music is central to Chalamet’s interpretation of Dylan.
  • 📍 Dylan's influence helped refine Chalamet's acting approach.
  • 🌍 The project connected historical context to modern culture.
  • ✊ Embracing artistic challenges is core to Chalamet's craft.
  • 🔄 Chalamet's understanding of Dylan reshaped his artistic vision.

Chronologie

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    Ho qala ka thabo ea tlhaho ka 'Ballad of a Thin Man', tlhaloso e phelang e 'Scorsese doc', ho kena 'Bob Dylan's world'. Mohale o bonahala a tataisoa ke boiphihlelo boo a bo fumaneng ka ho sebetsa le 'Bob'.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:00

    Molao o mong le o mong o etselitsoe ho utloisisa bohloko boo 'Bob Dylan' a bo fetileng. James o hopola hore o hloka mokhoa oa bophelo bo botle le qalo e ncha, 'the guiding light' e kentseng morao.

  • 00:10:00 - 00:15:00

    Sebaka sa Manhattan Theatre Club se emela 'legacy' ea moo moetsi enoa a tsoang teng. Ho qala ka 'theatre career', ho ba le kholiseho ho fanoeng ke bopaki ba moetsi.

  • 00:15:00 - 00:20:00

    Ho etella pele ka maikutlo a bopaki ba 'Timothee Chalamet' e le 'Bob Dylan'. Keresimesi e akaretsa 'pops culture' empa e hloka ho bōptjoa ho fihlela 'the perfect balance'.

  • 00:20:00 - 00:25:00

    Mahlakore a mabeli a Timothee Chalamet e le moetsi oa filimi le sebapali se seholo. Koranta e etsa hore ho be le kholiseho bakeng sa ho utloisisa litemoso tsa mofuta.

  • 00:25:00 - 00:30:00

    Molao o laolang khatiso, ho ithuta lintlha tsa mantlha tsa ho etsa 'music biopic' ka boemo bo phahameng bo sa tloaelehang. 'Live performance' e bonahala e le tsona tse bohlokoa ka ho fetisisa.

  • 00:30:00 - 00:35:00

    Mohale a ka sebelisanoang le liketsahalo tsa 'Bob Dylan' ka mahlakore a mabeli a botšepehi le mahlahahlaha a sechaba se tebileng. Litsela tsa 'Bob' tsa bophelo li etsa hore 'journey' e be thata.

  • 00:35:00 - 00:40:00

    Karolo ea filimi ka lipale tse amanang le '1961-1965', moo motsamao oa Bob Dylan o ileng oa nyoloha. Teko ea ho bontša lefatše la boikarabelo ba mophetwa e ntse e tsoela pele.

  • 00:40:00 - 00:45:00

    Bob e le sebini sa 'rock and roll star' se ileng sa fetola sechaba. Ho phahamisa lintho tsa bohloa, boitsebahatso bo bopa karolo ya filimi.

  • 00:45:00 - 00:51:06

    Boithuto bo tebileng ba Bob Dylan le phapang ea bopaki ba lipale, mokgwa o ikgethile. Seabo sa bopaki ba moo o ileng a tloha le ho khutla, ka lehlakoreng la maikutlo a maholo a tsamaiso.

Afficher plus

Carte mentale

Mind Map

Questions fréquemment posées

  • What is the significance of the song 'Ballad of a Thin Man' to Timothy Chalamet?

    It's a live version featured in a Scorsese documentary that Timothy Chalamet found particularly influential.

  • How has Timothy Chalamet been influenced by Bob Dylan?

    By immersing himself deeply into Bob Dylan's music and thoughts, embracing lessons on artistic integrity and expression.

  • How did Timothy Chalamet approach portraying Bob Dylan?

    He aimed to capture the essence and spirit of Dylan rather than his precise mannerisms.

  • What role did the theater space play in Chalamet's acting career?

    He found the environment creatively enriching and it helped him develop his acting prowess.

  • Why does Chalamet consider his role as Bob Dylan particularly special?

    It was a crucial opportunity for him to interpret a legendary musician's formative years.

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  • 00:00:00
    for me it started with the music this
  • 00:00:02
    song Ballad of a thin man the live
  • 00:00:03
    version that's in the scorey doc that
  • 00:00:05
    was my way
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    in I'm now deep in that church of Bob
  • 00:00:12
    and I feel like I got this opportunity
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    to kind of be a bridge to this
  • 00:00:18
    music has been understanding what he
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    went through has it changed you like Bob
  • 00:00:24
    says at the end I don't look back I feel
  • 00:00:26
    like I went through a thing and it was
  • 00:00:28
    like a new Guiding Light to how I want
  • 00:00:30
    to feel when I
  • 00:00:34
    work this theater space this is where I
  • 00:00:36
    found my rhythm my
  • 00:00:38
    confidence it all started there the
  • 00:00:41
    journey I've been on as an actor this is
  • 00:00:43
    like bringing it all back home no pun
  • 00:00:45
    intended you know the words and songs of
  • 00:00:47
    Bob Dylan have translated so much of The
  • 00:00:49
    Human Experience there's going to be
  • 00:00:51
    puns some of these iconic songs were
  • 00:00:53
    written here in New York City which is
  • 00:00:55
    where I meet Timothy shalam one of the
  • 00:00:58
    actors of his generation where dides
  • 00:01:00
    that term come from probably also New
  • 00:01:02
    York in the early 60s when Bob Dylan
  • 00:01:04
    arrived sang these songs and spoke for
  • 00:01:06
    his generation what a time what a story
  • 00:01:09
    to tell Bob Dylan then and Timothy
  • 00:01:12
    shalamay
  • 00:01:14
    now well we're here it's good to see you
  • 00:01:17
    by the way nice to see you and meet you
  • 00:01:19
    I feel like I've known you and uh I'm so
  • 00:01:22
    stoked to do this and I feel like you're
  • 00:01:24
    talking to a non musician so I'm very
  • 00:01:26
    grateful for that I don't think so and
  • 00:01:28
    we'll get to that I think I think you
  • 00:01:29
    are in lots of different ways I don't
  • 00:01:31
    don't think we could be sitting here
  • 00:01:32
    having this conversation about this film
  • 00:01:34
    and and your journey thus far if if
  • 00:01:37
    music hadn't played a role in your life
  • 00:01:39
    but we'll get to that I mean it seems
  • 00:01:42
    strange to not start with the location
  • 00:01:44
    yes and why we're here cuz you were
  • 00:01:45
    excited we were coming here I think this
  • 00:01:47
    was actually your idea yeah not only
  • 00:01:49
    excited this is Manhattan theater Club
  • 00:01:50
    this is not this space but the space
  • 00:01:52
    right next door yeah that's where I kind
  • 00:01:54
    of hibernated and got all these ideas
  • 00:01:56
    out and uh so with without the theater I
  • 00:02:00
    don't have an acting career and without
  • 00:02:01
    your early interviews and in addition to
  • 00:02:04
    the interviews you have now you know I
  • 00:02:06
    wouldn't uh I wouldn't have jumped into
  • 00:02:07
    this either I know you don't do a lot of
  • 00:02:09
    this yeah it's not a common thing for
  • 00:02:11
    you to sit down with all cameras and
  • 00:02:12
    stuff around and so we're going to have
  • 00:02:13
    a good time I think the work should
  • 00:02:15
    speak for itself all the pretentious
  • 00:02:17
    reasons actors would have yeah but this
  • 00:02:19
    role and this guy Bob Dylan in this
  • 00:02:20
    movie and this is why I like to bring it
  • 00:02:22
    into this theater space because I really
  • 00:02:24
    I feel like I'm a we get into it but in
  • 00:02:26
    the journey I've been on as an actor
  • 00:02:27
    this is like bringing it all back home
  • 00:02:28
    no pun intended but I had will myself
  • 00:02:30
    into doing this a little bit because the
  • 00:02:32
    greats like Dana de Lewis or whatever
  • 00:02:34
    they don't you don't have to necessarily
  • 00:02:35
    explain bit by bit how you went about
  • 00:02:37
    something but uh this felt worth it to
  • 00:02:38
    me and talking to you felt like the
  • 00:02:40
    easiest way and this is the first time
  • 00:02:42
    not to be dramatic it's the first time I
  • 00:02:43
    talk about this movie or this role with
  • 00:02:44
    anyone not to be cynical but the further
  • 00:02:47
    you go along sometimes your answers can
  • 00:02:48
    get watered down or you get guarded or
  • 00:02:50
    defensive if you don't necessarily trust
  • 00:02:51
    who you're talking to so this I put off
  • 00:02:54
    things because I wanted to make sure the
  • 00:02:56
    first time I talked about what's been
  • 00:02:57
    the most special thing role I've ever
  • 00:03:00
    worked on was with someone whose
  • 00:03:03
    interviews I've watched and seems to get
  • 00:03:05
    the best out of people you know it's
  • 00:03:06
    cool to hear you say that like the most
  • 00:03:09
    worthwhile role and you said this really
  • 00:03:11
    cool thing to me when we spoke the first
  • 00:03:13
    time he said you know I think I I hope
  • 00:03:14
    people and I feel like people will
  • 00:03:16
    consider it worthy but Worthy is not a
  • 00:03:18
    term that gets kicked around when you're
  • 00:03:20
    talking about numbers or box office or
  • 00:03:21
    worthy you can do something totally
  • 00:03:23
    worthy and it can only matter to you the
  • 00:03:25
    the experience I had I know was worthy
  • 00:03:27
    yeah and but I've joked about it with
  • 00:03:29
    friends just because it was the best
  • 00:03:30
    experience I've had as an actor or the
  • 00:03:32
    most rewarding experience i' had doesn't
  • 00:03:34
    really necessarily translate to the
  • 00:03:36
    effect of it not only on people but
  • 00:03:37
    maybe in the finished product because
  • 00:03:39
    I've also had more challenging
  • 00:03:40
    experiences that come out great so I
  • 00:03:42
    don't think that things necessarily go
  • 00:03:44
    hand inand but I do feel like that's a
  • 00:03:45
    good word to revolve around is worthy
  • 00:03:47
    here because when I got approached with
  • 00:03:50
    this project five years ago or six years
  • 00:03:52
    ago let's say this 2018 and I had just
  • 00:03:55
    done call me by her name Bob Dylan was
  • 00:03:57
    this name I knew was held in reverence
  • 00:03:59
    and I knew I was supposed to respect if
  • 00:04:01
    you were in The In Crowd that's a name
  • 00:04:03
    you get behind but truthfully I didn't
  • 00:04:05
    know anything about it you know I
  • 00:04:06
    thought doing the hen I did a Henry V F
  • 00:04:08
    movie called The King I thought it was
  • 00:04:09
    to my advantage I didn't grew up in
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    England and I thought that would be my
  • 00:04:11
    advantage with Bob Dylan if we did in
  • 00:04:13
    the first year or two years because I
  • 00:04:14
    could see online the communities that
  • 00:04:15
    revered him how deep that reverence was
  • 00:04:18
    and I'm happy it took five six years
  • 00:04:19
    because I I'm now deep in that church of
  • 00:04:22
    Bob I feel like that's my mission is the
  • 00:04:24
    the next three months till the movie
  • 00:04:25
    comes out I feel like I'm in the Church
  • 00:04:27
    of Bob I'm a humble disciple and I feel
  • 00:04:29
    like I got the this opportunity to kind
  • 00:04:31
    of be a bridge to this music you know
  • 00:04:35
    this period this time period in order to
  • 00:04:36
    get to this to this role which is
  • 00:04:38
    playing somebody or interpreting
  • 00:04:41
    someone's a period of someone's life
  • 00:04:43
    while they're still alive there's
  • 00:04:45
    certain disciplines I think that that
  • 00:04:47
    hopefully you get to go through to
  • 00:04:48
    figure out how you do that and I wonder
  • 00:04:51
    if any of the work you've done
  • 00:04:53
    previously was of service to that
  • 00:04:56
    because I I'd imagine it must be one of
  • 00:04:57
    the biggest challenges for you you're
  • 00:04:59
    saying other roles i' done yeah there's
  • 00:05:01
    anything this was the biggest this was
  • 00:05:02
    the biggest because this was taking on
  • 00:05:04
    someone who maybe to my generation isn't
  • 00:05:06
    impersonated to death but to a previous
  • 00:05:08
    generation is one of the most I mean I
  • 00:05:11
    saw an article I didn't click on but was
  • 00:05:12
    like four Dylan Impressionists on the a
  • 00:05:15
    complete Unknown trailer so actually
  • 00:05:17
    when we're shooting the movie somebody
  • 00:05:18
    came up to me one of the actors and he
  • 00:05:20
    said ah you're doing early 60s Bob I do
  • 00:05:22
    more of a Rolling Thunder review Bob
  • 00:05:23
    first of all they were really positive
  • 00:05:25
    on your take which must have been nice
  • 00:05:26
    yeah that was really nice that was that
  • 00:05:27
    was hugely nice and the thing that came
  • 00:05:29
    out of it was that they they wanted you
  • 00:05:32
    to play Bob yeah it can quickly fall
  • 00:05:34
    into character the best feedback I got
  • 00:05:36
    over the course of the shoe and this is
  • 00:05:37
    the first shoot I really turned my phone
  • 00:05:38
    off the entire time you know I was
  • 00:05:40
    watching this Ed Bradley interview with
  • 00:05:41
    Bob D the other day 60 Minutes one kind
  • 00:05:43
    of this famous 2004 interview and Bob
  • 00:05:45
    and it says his uh connection to a sense
  • 00:05:49
    of Destiny was fragile I like that he
  • 00:05:51
    use that word fragile because I always
  • 00:05:52
    felt my connection to Bob was fragile I
  • 00:05:54
    felt like I came into his music at a
  • 00:05:55
    time where pop culturally not a lot of
  • 00:05:59
    people around me were coming to Bob
  • 00:06:00
    Dylan so I felt very connected to it I
  • 00:06:02
    had to learn how famous he was in the
  • 00:06:04
    60s and 70s I at first I thought he was
  • 00:06:07
    like the the treat I found you know and
  • 00:06:10
    as I began to work on the movie and as
  • 00:06:11
    everyone has an opinion about Bob
  • 00:06:13
    especially an older fan I felt like my
  • 00:06:15
    connection to him became fragile and I
  • 00:06:17
    had to like fiercely protect that and
  • 00:06:20
    fiercely protect what as an actor or the
  • 00:06:21
    kind of actor I am is really important
  • 00:06:23
    which is a sense of play I don't like to
  • 00:06:25
    go about it mechanically and I felt like
  • 00:06:27
    that was a learning curve on this too at
  • 00:06:29
    some point it was like I need to worry
  • 00:06:31
    less about how I think Bob Dylan would
  • 00:06:33
    eat a bagel and more capture the spirit
  • 00:06:36
    of this guy because you you know one can
  • 00:06:39
    get in their head at the beginning of
  • 00:06:40
    the process and go especially with other
  • 00:06:42
    music biopics yeah okay this is about
  • 00:06:44
    brushing your teeth the way he would
  • 00:06:46
    have brushed his teeth or or getting the
  • 00:06:48
    but anyway all that to say I got this
  • 00:06:50
    text from Jeff Rosen who's Bob's manager
  • 00:06:53
    halfway through the shoot I didn't even
  • 00:06:54
    know he came to set thank God yeah cuz
  • 00:06:56
    that whole day I would have been yeah
  • 00:06:57
    exactly essentially he said like like
  • 00:07:00
    good on you for capturing the spirit of
  • 00:07:02
    he didn't say good on you man I'll read
  • 00:07:03
    it to you because to the Bob to the Bob
  • 00:07:05
    purist they'll go good on you yeah
  • 00:07:07
    exactly to that point too Jeff Jeff was
  • 00:07:09
    so effusive and positive I Edward Norton
  • 00:07:11
    and I were jumping up and down went man
  • 00:07:12
    Bob's manager loves it and then we went
  • 00:07:14
    oh no the real Bob's such a contrarian
  • 00:07:17
    that Jeff's GNA go to him and say this
  • 00:07:18
    movie looks good and then Bob's gonna
  • 00:07:20
    say well must be a piece of yeah
  • 00:07:21
    totally but um for me the connection was
  • 00:07:24
    through the music you know at some point
  • 00:07:26
    we this movie does not
  • 00:07:27
    demystify the cult of Bob doesn't try to
  • 00:07:30
    go Oh in fact it's a challenging story
  • 00:07:32
    in that way the Johnny Cash movie that
  • 00:07:34
    Jim mangled also directed The Johnny
  • 00:07:35
    Cash story is a little clear from a tra
  • 00:07:37
    not a tragic perspective but from a
  • 00:07:39
    narrative you know uh there were beats
  • 00:07:41
    clear Beat Beats the flashback beats
  • 00:07:43
    that then walk hard I don't know if
  • 00:07:44
    you've seen that movie like brutally you
  • 00:07:47
    know yeah I made the mistake of watching
  • 00:07:49
    five minutes of that movie before I
  • 00:07:50
    started this I'm oh my God I'll never be
  • 00:07:51
    able to do this you know and uh but this
  • 00:07:54
    is a more this is a kind of a confusing
  • 00:07:56
    story structure because well he was
  • 00:07:58
    confusing he's a mystery he's still he's
  • 00:08:00
    still a mystery 61 to 65 the general
  • 00:08:02
    impression you get if you read the books
  • 00:08:03
    or you've seen any the movies or or read
  • 00:08:05
    any of the articles about that time is
  • 00:08:06
    that he was almost an apparition and his
  • 00:08:08
    come up was two years basically from
  • 00:08:10
    when he got to New York in January 1961
  • 00:08:12
    to his point of success was like a
  • 00:08:14
    2-year run so there isn't the The
  • 00:08:18
    Waiting 10 years to come up that's the
  • 00:08:20
    other really interesting thing about it
  • 00:08:21
    is that um you know this his is a story
  • 00:08:23
    of of not even reinvention CU he didn't
  • 00:08:26
    even re there's nowhere for him to come
  • 00:08:28
    from he literally started fresh when he
  • 00:08:31
    got to New York he started there he was
  • 00:08:33
    like there's a great quote in the Martin
  • 00:08:34
    sces film where he says um you know I
  • 00:08:37
    really didn't feel like I had any past
  • 00:08:38
    that I had to hold on to so I could just
  • 00:08:40
    kind of start again that was a huge
  • 00:08:42
    thing for me when I came into this music
  • 00:08:44
    I felt like self-invention self creation
  • 00:08:46
    you know I grew up 10 blocks from here I
  • 00:08:47
    grew up in like a the most untethered
  • 00:08:49
    environment and I say that
  • 00:08:51
    affectionately you know I grew up in a
  • 00:08:52
    Arts Building you know there's a a
  • 00:08:54
    rapper from my building named Marlin
  • 00:08:56
    craft he's got a New Yorker or piece on
  • 00:08:57
    him if you want to understand the
  • 00:08:58
    building I grew up in that that's the
  • 00:08:59
    thing to read like Alicia Keys grew up
  • 00:09:01
    in my building it's all like it's an
  • 00:09:02
    Arts it's like a super untethered I
  • 00:09:04
    don't know but it's a beautiful place
  • 00:09:06
    but
  • 00:09:07
    equally I culturally came into all the
  • 00:09:10
    things like kid cut your hip-hop the
  • 00:09:11
    things that formed me like any normal
  • 00:09:14
    kid in that period and then when I was
  • 00:09:15
    23 and when I got to
  • 00:09:17
    LA and it's not like I hit a wall but I
  • 00:09:21
    started to everything's perspective and
  • 00:09:22
    I started to see what my perspective was
  • 00:09:25
    relating to that kind of music or what
  • 00:09:27
    people's perspective that made that
  • 00:09:28
    music would be on me as as a as a
  • 00:09:31
    whatever as an actor all of a sudden I
  • 00:09:33
    was like oh this was a means to an
  • 00:09:34
    empowerment but it's but it's something
  • 00:09:36
    I'm is fragile for me to relate to or
  • 00:09:38
    whatever and then I came into Bob's
  • 00:09:40
    Music and and this whole thing of
  • 00:09:42
    self-invention which isn't the license
  • 00:09:44
    we necessarily give ourself in this day
  • 00:09:46
    and age in 2024 no I don't want to
  • 00:09:48
    speaking broad Strokes I don't think
  • 00:09:49
    it's anti that but it's it's hard it's
  • 00:09:51
    more challenging it's more challenging
  • 00:09:53
    to get away with or something yeah that
  • 00:09:56
    aspect of self-invention it was freeing
  • 00:09:57
    to me at a time where already my career
  • 00:10:00
    you know people want to know you as a
  • 00:10:01
    certain thing and I'm not saying that as
  • 00:10:02
    a negative I'm not saying wo is me no
  • 00:10:04
    but typ casting is a thing right okay
  • 00:10:06
    it's a term I actually want to ask you
  • 00:10:07
    about this what does it mean to an actor
  • 00:10:09
    when that term ever gets kicked around
  • 00:10:10
    even in closed circles where you've had
  • 00:10:12
    some success doing a certain thing
  • 00:10:14
    people like you for that right is it
  • 00:10:15
    hard to break away from what people love
  • 00:10:17
    you for most brutally which I haven't
  • 00:10:19
    experienced I that's I guess the best
  • 00:10:21
    example of typ casting would be if you
  • 00:10:23
    had been on a sitcom that have been
  • 00:10:24
    hugely popular and you try to make a
  • 00:10:27
    dramatic film and know people people
  • 00:10:29
    laugh at you on screen cuz they're only
  • 00:10:30
    used to laughing at you right in my
  • 00:10:32
    experience this is where I also felt
  • 00:10:34
    like I connected to Bob in humility so
  • 00:10:36
    I'm not putting myself in a level with
  • 00:10:37
    but there's got to be some common ground
  • 00:10:38
    so I understand why you laying out the
  • 00:10:41
    groundwork as a disclaimer but and and
  • 00:10:43
    also I've had a life experience I want
  • 00:10:45
    to say it's weird but I can relate to
  • 00:10:47
    some of these these things he went
  • 00:10:48
    through so Bob wanted to be a rock and
  • 00:10:50
    roll star Buddy Holly Little Richard
  • 00:10:52
    Elvis Presley that was the sort of
  • 00:10:54
    depending on your point of view the sort
  • 00:10:56
    of like rice krispy pop rock and roll
  • 00:10:58
    music that was
  • 00:11:00
    saturated and you know marketed to kids
  • 00:11:01
    in the late 50s equally I wanted to be a
  • 00:11:04
    big movie actor right I wanted to be oh
  • 00:11:07
    yeah and but if I audition for The Maze
  • 00:11:09
    Runner or Divergent things of that
  • 00:11:11
    variety that were popping when I was
  • 00:11:13
    coming up it was like the feedback was
  • 00:11:15
    always over you don't have the right
  • 00:11:16
    body or I had an agent that that called
  • 00:11:17
    me and said you got to like put on
  • 00:11:18
    weight basically you know not
  • 00:11:20
    aggressively but you know and then I
  • 00:11:22
    found my way into these like very
  • 00:11:24
    personalized movies or something for him
  • 00:11:26
    it was folk music you know he couldn't
  • 00:11:28
    keep a rock and roll band because they
  • 00:11:29
    would all get hired by other kids that
  • 00:11:31
    had more money literally in Minnesota so
  • 00:11:34
    for me was finding a very personal style
  • 00:11:36
    movie like call me by her name or
  • 00:11:37
    beautiful boy or ladybird or Little
  • 00:11:39
    Women Miss Stevens hot summer nights
  • 00:11:41
    those were like smaller budget but very
  • 00:11:45
    I don't know how else to put like
  • 00:11:46
    personable movies that started in this
  • 00:11:48
    theater space this is where I found my
  • 00:11:50
    rhythm my confidence my flow doing
  • 00:11:52
    prodical son here John Patrick Shanley
  • 00:11:54
    that playright they gave me the juice
  • 00:11:56
    the way LaGuardia gave me the juice when
  • 00:11:58
    I was starting out in high school juice
  • 00:11:59
    the juice was the confidence you know
  • 00:12:02
    the juice was like um just saying You're
  • 00:12:05
    great and also at some point that I
  • 00:12:06
    wouldn't take no for an answer like I
  • 00:12:08
    felt like there were it was people with
  • 00:12:09
    connections that were getting these
  • 00:12:10
    roles prodigal son was supposed to be a
  • 00:12:13
    kid with connections I don't want to say
  • 00:12:14
    that disparagingly you know I say it
  • 00:12:16
    respectfully and the audition I had not
  • 00:12:19
    in this space but at Manhattan theater
  • 00:12:20
    Club in Midtown I was going nuts you
  • 00:12:22
    know I was like kicking things across
  • 00:12:23
    the room and uh and it was it the role
  • 00:12:26
    was about a a sort of a dylan-esque
  • 00:12:29
    character a little more like rageful
  • 00:12:31
    than Dylan who you know refused to not
  • 00:12:34
    break out of his shell you know and and
  • 00:12:36
    so to have John the way Harry schiffman
  • 00:12:38
    my teacher like you just have to have
  • 00:12:39
    people when you're young and this is
  • 00:12:40
    where privilege or being in the right
  • 00:12:42
    place at the right time does play a
  • 00:12:43
    factor that go hey that Pat you on the
  • 00:12:45
    back you know that say do this basically
  • 00:12:48
    and I realize at some point my strength
  • 00:12:50
    is my vulnerability like you know I feel
  • 00:12:52
    like you know at at 25 or
  • 00:12:56
    something you know similar to Bob again
  • 00:12:58
    you hear stories of people that their
  • 00:13:00
    upbringings are way more dramatic than
  • 00:13:03
    mine you know and then you start to go
  • 00:13:04
    like what is my drive you know what is
  • 00:13:07
    and then like Bob my drive is my drive
  • 00:13:09
    my thing is my thing like it just is at
  • 00:13:11
    the time you don't know what that is
  • 00:13:12
    right which is why you're going for the
  • 00:13:13
    rolls that all your peers are going for
  • 00:13:15
    exactly so you're showing up in these
  • 00:13:16
    places going well I'd like to play that
  • 00:13:18
    and someone goes but you can't yeah
  • 00:13:20
    exactly yeah you're not you're you're
  • 00:13:22
    you're sort of not cut out for this I
  • 00:13:23
    was either not cut out for that kind of
  • 00:13:24
    thing or I wasn't what was considered
  • 00:13:26
    like a more vulnerable I don't know like
  • 00:13:28
    something
  • 00:13:30
    it was driving me nuts call me by her
  • 00:13:32
    name ladybird hostiles and beautiful boy
  • 00:13:34
    I shot in a 9mon stretch or something
  • 00:13:37
    and that's before I did any sort of like
  • 00:13:39
    press or anything related to it so the
  • 00:13:41
    so the window was pure the way Bob made
  • 00:13:45
    Bob LP or free wheeling that's how I
  • 00:13:47
    look at it you know where his success
  • 00:13:49
    was kind of going like that now the
  • 00:13:50
    turning point for Bob for me the way I
  • 00:13:52
    interpret his career or a symbol of the
  • 00:13:54
    turning point is this thing uh a civil
  • 00:13:56
    rights award called the Tom Pay award he
  • 00:13:58
    got next to James B Balwin and he was
  • 00:14:00
    drunk when he was there there's no audio
  • 00:14:02
    that exists of it but there's a speech
  • 00:14:03
    he gave you can read where clearly he's
  • 00:14:05
    had it with sort of being um deified now
  • 00:14:09
    I was never deified but I could equally
  • 00:14:10
    relate that I was like well I've done
  • 00:14:13
    this thing but when Deni VV knocks on
  • 00:14:16
    the door about Dune or I got the
  • 00:14:18
    opportunity to play Wily Wonka or
  • 00:14:19
    something that was Bob wanting to be in
  • 00:14:21
    a rock and roll band up top you that was
  • 00:14:23
    like well Leonard DiCaprio and those
  • 00:14:26
    that's who I initially aspired to be
  • 00:14:27
    when that door wasn't open yeah then I
  • 00:14:29
    had to go make folk music basically you
  • 00:14:32
    know then I had to go really hard it's
  • 00:14:34
    the opposite of a thing where that's
  • 00:14:36
    where I get jealous of musicians where
  • 00:14:37
    you can uh you know show up when you
  • 00:14:40
    want and the studio is curated and and
  • 00:14:43
    I've watched musicians record with one
  • 00:14:45
    engineer in the room or 30 people in the
  • 00:14:47
    room you know or take eight years to
  • 00:14:48
    make an album or take eight years to
  • 00:14:49
    make an album or eight months you know
  • 00:14:51
    or never put it out you know and there's
  • 00:14:52
    actually a beauty I think and a
  • 00:14:53
    rigorousness to a film set you are
  • 00:14:55
    showing up at a certain time and you got
  • 00:14:56
    to flip the switch and I've seen people
  • 00:14:58
    like Christian Bill I've work with
  • 00:14:59
    people like that that do it you know so
  • 00:15:01
    you just got to do it but that's a whole
  • 00:15:02
    other discipline when did you start to
  • 00:15:04
    learn that the king that was the the
  • 00:15:07
    this movie this Netflix movie The King
  • 00:15:08
    The Henry the fth movie that was the
  • 00:15:09
    switch and that was also the biggest
  • 00:15:10
    budget I worked at and I'm a young New
  • 00:15:14
    York 22-year-old kid at that point
  • 00:15:15
    playing Henry V who's like one of the
  • 00:15:17
    great but every movie I've done has
  • 00:15:20
    reflected some place I'm at in my life
  • 00:15:22
    in that moment I've had this this weird
  • 00:15:24
    gift of that the one exception to that
  • 00:15:26
    would maybe be Wonka which is actually a
  • 00:15:27
    challenge to kind of Bring It All back
  • 00:15:29
    home that movie was like I got to access
  • 00:15:30
    a musical theater bone that was really
  • 00:15:33
    alive to me at 17 16 at performing arts
  • 00:15:36
    high school but now was well I was like
  • 00:15:38
    I was postco and all that stuff but
  • 00:15:40
    everything else so the king or Dune are
  • 00:15:43
    these roles where uh you know it's
  • 00:15:47
    they're basically about like a
  • 00:15:48
    circumstance being too great for your
  • 00:15:51
    youth you know and I I could relate
  • 00:15:53
    deeply to that on both those projects
  • 00:15:54
    you know um uh that was my point in
  • 00:15:57
    relation the Bob thing not to bring it
  • 00:15:58
    not I not want to jump five years but
  • 00:16:00
    that was like a that was a new challenge
  • 00:16:02
    of sort of playing a savant and a genius
  • 00:16:04
    and how do you do that somebody once
  • 00:16:05
    said to me you can't make a movie about
  • 00:16:06
    a painter because it's not interesting
  • 00:16:08
    to watch paint dry and and and and you
  • 00:16:11
    know and Bob has that yeah yeah and Bob
  • 00:16:14
    has that element because he's not I like
  • 00:16:16
    to say about Bob he's not one of these
  • 00:16:17
    forward- facing musicians in other words
  • 00:16:20
    it doesn't make sense to match the
  • 00:16:22
    choreography the exact way it was there
  • 00:16:23
    was no choreography you know the way the
  • 00:16:26
    Jackie the Jackie Onasis biopic Natalie
  • 00:16:28
    Portman as a sequence in that that's
  • 00:16:30
    step for step exactly what Jackie did
  • 00:16:32
    that was sort of my aspiration my
  • 00:16:34
    Layman's aspiration going into Bob and
  • 00:16:36
    at some point the vocal coach I was
  • 00:16:38
    working with or the dialect or movement
  • 00:16:39
    all the stuff that I saw my my good
  • 00:16:41
    friend Austin Butler crushing with on
  • 00:16:42
    Elvis and I thought okay and at some
  • 00:16:44
    point I was like wait I got to do none
  • 00:16:45
    of this because this is not my style and
  • 00:16:47
    B Bob did not have a vocal coach yeah
  • 00:16:51
    you know he had two bottles of red wine
  • 00:16:52
    and four packets of cigarettes so you
  • 00:16:54
    know there's no way to uh impersonate
  • 00:16:57
    that you know um but you got to start
  • 00:17:01
    somewhere from a process point of view
  • 00:17:04
    as someone who has made music and talks
  • 00:17:07
    about music and loves music I've got to
  • 00:17:08
    get into the whole sort of where it
  • 00:17:10
    began for you from a from from a a
  • 00:17:13
    performance point of view because cats
  • 00:17:15
    out the bag now anyone who knows knows
  • 00:17:17
    that's you singing and playing the
  • 00:17:19
    guitar on the trailer so you do that
  • 00:17:21
    throughout the film and it sounds like
  • 00:17:22
    everybody does it sounds like Monica
  • 00:17:23
    barara does as well yes as well yeah so
  • 00:17:26
    let's just get into the technicalities
  • 00:17:27
    of that yeah um you had to teacher but
  • 00:17:29
    not only are you learning how to play an
  • 00:17:31
    instrument it maybe you had played as a
  • 00:17:32
    kid or not but you've got to kind of do
  • 00:17:34
    it in a way that is reflective of of the
  • 00:17:37
    period of the period and of the person
  • 00:17:39
    and his particular type of playing is
  • 00:17:41
    what makes him him oh yeah it's a lot of
  • 00:17:43
    downstrokes and his strumming pattern in
  • 00:17:45
    the early 60s was very different you
  • 00:17:47
    know I've heard some people say his
  • 00:17:48
    guitar playing sort of peaked in the 80s
  • 00:17:50
    and 90s that he was getting better in
  • 00:17:51
    other words the the two two craziest
  • 00:17:54
    things to me are how people are hard the
  • 00:17:56
    purists are hard on his guitar playing
  • 00:17:57
    or hard on his voice because Blind
  • 00:17:59
    Willie mctell is a good example that but
  • 00:18:00
    I can give you a million songs worried
  • 00:18:02
    blues or where his voice is beautiful
  • 00:18:04
    and it's got that quality okay I got to
  • 00:18:06
    I got to wrap it around back to your
  • 00:18:08
    question but inside Luen Davis which is
  • 00:18:09
    a sort of Bob Dylan inspired movie with
  • 00:18:11
    Oscar Isaac Cohen Brothers it makes this
  • 00:18:13
    great point that Luen Davis is kind of
  • 00:18:14
    like the struggling folk singer the
  • 00:18:15
    whole movie but he's got this beautiful
  • 00:18:17
    voice and the last scene it's sort of
  • 00:18:18
    the anti- biopic he never has his moment
  • 00:18:20
    of Triumph but the last scene Len Davis
  • 00:18:22
    gives this beautiful rendition of of the
  • 00:18:25
    song farewell and then in the background
  • 00:18:26
    of a shot you see a Bob Dylan figure Bob
  • 00:18:29
    in Shadow with the singing the song
  • 00:18:31
    farewell as well but it's like got this
  • 00:18:33
    rust this like thing that's cutting
  • 00:18:35
    through and and Oscar makes the perfect
  • 00:18:37
    expression because all these aspiring
  • 00:18:39
    folk artists you couldn't have guess
  • 00:18:41
    that this weird thing was going to be
  • 00:18:42
    the thing that that cut through so
  • 00:18:45
    anyway to bring it back to process for
  • 00:18:46
    me it started with the music before
  • 00:18:48
    there was even a start date CU this
  • 00:18:50
    started really for me and Co sort of
  • 00:18:51
    bored and this song Ballad of a thin man
  • 00:18:54
    the live version that's in the scors doc
  • 00:18:56
    that was my way in what did you feel
  • 00:18:58
    when you heard I just like oh this is
  • 00:19:00
    rock and roll and and it was this first
  • 00:19:02
    like wow is this what the album version
  • 00:19:03
    sounds like and then I went to the
  • 00:19:04
    original went oh cool he was really just
  • 00:19:07
    vibing but at a high level the way he's
  • 00:19:10
    pissed off he's pissed off in that like
  • 00:19:12
    performance it feels slower it feels
  • 00:19:15
    heavier I don't even know sometimes when
  • 00:19:17
    the cord changes it just feels to me
  • 00:19:19
    like he's just spitting B yeah yeah he
  • 00:19:23
    exactly it's acidic it's like battery
  • 00:19:24
    acid very acid yeah and and uh Robbie
  • 00:19:27
    Robertson I met years later who was kind
  • 00:19:28
    of giving me sort of what the vibe was
  • 00:19:30
    on that tour actually when I met Robbie
  • 00:19:31
    his wife said what do you think about
  • 00:19:32
    playing Robbie in a biopic and I said
  • 00:19:34
    well I'm supposed to play Bob in a
  • 00:19:35
    biopic and she he went God damn it Bob's
  • 00:19:37
    been beating me to the punch for 35
  • 00:19:38
    years or whatever something like that
  • 00:19:40
    but um when Co hit and I was just stuck
  • 00:19:44
    at home like everyone was stuck at home
  • 00:19:45
    I watched Don't Look Back The Da
  • 00:19:47
    pennybaker thing and I started to get
  • 00:19:48
    into the times they were changing and I
  • 00:19:50
    saw this folk music not as necessarily
  • 00:19:53
    chirpy love ballads but then songs like
  • 00:19:55
    Ballad of Hollis Brown North Country
  • 00:19:56
    blues or rocks and gravel I was like you
  • 00:19:59
    know whoa he's this this he's got some
  • 00:20:02
    edge here and then there was obviously
  • 00:20:03
    there was the black lives matter
  • 00:20:04
    movement in that moment and and and
  • 00:20:07
    there was like a social social Crest in
  • 00:20:10
    America at that time I found myself
  • 00:20:12
    going back not only to Bob's Music but
  • 00:20:14
    Pete Seager and all these folks that uh
  • 00:20:17
    in the 60s had gone through a very
  • 00:20:18
    similar thing but I felt like I was
  • 00:20:20
    going back to the 60s I went man a lot
  • 00:20:21
    of like popular music was that it was
  • 00:20:24
    topical songwriting but the music was
  • 00:20:26
    The Guiding Light it was you know when I
  • 00:20:28
    found myself just pouring over and
  • 00:20:30
    pouring into his life and then also
  • 00:20:31
    admiring that it didn't feel like he was
  • 00:20:34
    virtue signaling you know that it was
  • 00:20:36
    simply where his art was that a song
  • 00:20:38
    like the death of emit till he wrote
  • 00:20:40
    Because he wrote you know his thing was
  • 00:20:42
    his thing his juice was his juice you
  • 00:20:43
    couldn't really Define it and at some
  • 00:20:45
    point 6465 where he felt like he had
  • 00:20:48
    been pedestaled he turned his back and
  • 00:20:50
    like and and what to me is a coolest
  • 00:20:52
    thing ever you know that's why I love
  • 00:20:54
    bringing it all back home so much that
  • 00:20:55
    album because I know that it got heavier
  • 00:20:57
    and progressively heavier he' made the
  • 00:20:59
    cut he done it he'd gone I'm out that's
  • 00:21:01
    my favorite album that was a moment
  • 00:21:03
    where he like in battle of him man where
  • 00:21:04
    he's like something's going on you don't
  • 00:21:05
    know what it is like that I didn't know
  • 00:21:07
    what that song was about until maybe 6
  • 00:21:09
    months ago and I don't want to I don't
  • 00:21:10
    want to presuppose but then I I was
  • 00:21:11
    reading in that book the sort of
  • 00:21:13
    whatever the ones that explain that it's
  • 00:21:14
    sort of about about folks like me a
  • 00:21:16
    little bit a little bit a little
  • 00:21:19
    bit no a little bit I mean and me too
  • 00:21:21
    people that are like sort of on the
  • 00:21:23
    outside and trying to understand it
  • 00:21:25
    trying to sorry trying to understand it
  • 00:21:28
    look I mean curiosity is a funny thing
  • 00:21:30
    and you have to walk the line really
  • 00:21:31
    carefully right like what what got me
  • 00:21:32
    into a chair like this having a
  • 00:21:33
    conversation with you is this curiosity
  • 00:21:35
    that just keeps bigger and bigger and
  • 00:21:36
    bigger the longer I go yeah which is
  • 00:21:38
    beautiful but you have to be careful
  • 00:21:40
    with it right because to your point it's
  • 00:21:42
    it's not to be overanalyzed and and it's
  • 00:21:44
    probably not to be analyzed at all he
  • 00:21:45
    would say that you know Bob's got a
  • 00:21:47
    great interview with Martha Graham uh '
  • 00:21:49
    80s MTV journalist where she he's
  • 00:21:52
    describing a a n a German movie that he
  • 00:21:54
    wanted a music video to be like and she
  • 00:21:55
    said well what's the movie about and
  • 00:21:57
    he's like well it's kind of hard to
  • 00:21:58
    explain you know it's kind of like
  • 00:21:59
    trying to tell someone what what's a
  • 00:22:01
    song about you it's like somebody say
  • 00:22:03
    what's the song about he goes would you
  • 00:22:03
    listen to it you're like yeah I listen
  • 00:22:05
    to it well that's what the song's about
  • 00:22:07
    that's been my whole life trying to find
  • 00:22:08
    out what the song's about yeah yeah and
  • 00:22:11
    and the and the gift that he's you know
  • 00:22:13
    the da Penny Baker doc called Don't Look
  • 00:22:15
    Back I feel like he lives it to a te you
  • 00:22:17
    know the no direction home the Scorsese
  • 00:22:19
    doc he didn't watch until like three
  • 00:22:20
    years ago I mean Bob has that great
  • 00:22:22
    quote kind of like ballot of a thin
  • 00:22:24
    manner where Jeff said why did you leave
  • 00:22:26
    the F Community why did you disappear in
  • 00:22:27
    the 60s he goes well I was sick of
  • 00:22:28
    people like you he says to his own
  • 00:22:29
    manager you know which is fantastic my
  • 00:22:32
    other favorite quote in that is when
  • 00:22:33
    they're talking about the booing and he
  • 00:22:34
    goes I didn't really get it I mean I
  • 00:22:36
    didn't make me mad though they can kill
  • 00:22:37
    you with kindness too exactly exactly
  • 00:22:41
    and and those kind of artists it's hard
  • 00:22:43
    now I don't know how someone would do it
  • 00:22:45
    now musically you know those kind of
  • 00:22:47
    artists that are sincerely indifferent
  • 00:22:49
    because he's 83 now he's sort of
  • 00:22:50
    retreated from the public eye I know him
  • 00:22:52
    you never met him never met him would
  • 00:22:55
    love to any contact at all I've seen him
  • 00:22:57
    live
  • 00:23:00
    but did he did he contribute did did he
  • 00:23:01
    write you a note did he send you
  • 00:23:02
    anything nothing no that would be the
  • 00:23:04
    most the least Bob like thing ever
  • 00:23:06
    approve the script he made modifications
  • 00:23:08
    in the script he has lines that are his
  • 00:23:09
    in the script you know that I relished
  • 00:23:11
    oh wow so you could definitely tell his
  • 00:23:13
    lines that well there was one I was
  • 00:23:14
    saying a Jim mangle the director writer
  • 00:23:16
    and I said this is good man I was like
  • 00:23:17
    when didd you come up with this he goes
  • 00:23:18
    Bob put that in I was like oh I was like
  • 00:23:21
    yeah yeah yeah yeah I was like that's
  • 00:23:23
    that's a b yeah it was yeah yeah he has
  • 00:23:26
    he has the Bob annotated script I'm
  • 00:23:27
    going to ask Jim for it he won't give it
  • 00:23:29
    to me but I want it you know with the
  • 00:23:31
    annotations he didn't really there's a
  • 00:23:34
    song I don't want to say what song but
  • 00:23:35
    there's a song like Jim was looking to
  • 00:23:36
    cut verses because it's really long in
  • 00:23:38
    the movie and um I just love it like he
  • 00:23:41
    went to Bob very nervously and said like
  • 00:23:43
    you know and that Bob was me like third
  • 00:23:45
    verse sixth verse seventh verse you know
  • 00:23:47
    ex out like you don't really need those
  • 00:23:48
    ones he's sort of unsentimental about
  • 00:23:51
    that's the coolest thing ever man like
  • 00:23:53
    he had some instinct to not let people
  • 00:23:56
    in at the beginning it's hard because
  • 00:23:58
    because when people say when people Pat
  • 00:24:00
    you on the back and say hey you did a
  • 00:24:01
    good job you kind of want to explain why
  • 00:24:03
    you did a good job you know and he just
  • 00:24:06
    had some insight to not and that's
  • 00:24:08
    that's where I'm so prideful to get to
  • 00:24:10
    play Bob in the 60s because you think
  • 00:24:12
    Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger or Jimmy
  • 00:24:14
    Hendricks and these sort of Larger than
  • 00:24:15
    Life figures to the earlier metaphor
  • 00:24:18
    about Mason or Divergent when I look at
  • 00:24:20
    my older contemporaries my
  • 00:24:20
    contemporaries now I don't really see
  • 00:24:22
    myself in the mirror of them I don't say
  • 00:24:23
    that to put myself down but I just don't
  • 00:24:25
    when I watch group interviews for movies
  • 00:24:27
    I put out whatever and they cut
  • 00:24:28
    castmates I think they're much much
  • 00:24:31
    better spoken like they can flip the
  • 00:24:32
    Hollywood thing on way more than I I
  • 00:24:34
    feel like I Stumble over my words and I
  • 00:24:35
    can't really get it across so I like I
  • 00:24:38
    get to be Bob in that 60s I'm pretending
  • 00:24:40
    there's a Multiverse that doesn't exist
  • 00:24:42
    so the fact that I get to be this guy
  • 00:24:45
    you know and that's where I try to be
  • 00:24:47
    humble too and check my ego at the door
  • 00:24:49
    that in process I never wanted to see
  • 00:24:52
    myself less when I looked at the monitor
  • 00:24:54
    in the movie and I've also ever before
  • 00:24:57
    in this particular yeah why is that well
  • 00:24:59
    because the guy's so known you know when
  • 00:25:01
    I've seen when I've had to do ADR you
  • 00:25:02
    know coming and fill lines I've had to
  • 00:25:04
    divorce myself I'm like this isn't da
  • 00:25:06
    Penny Baker you know this is its own
  • 00:25:08
    thing now and and it's not an impression
  • 00:25:12
    Olympics it's a thing I found early on
  • 00:25:14
    you know it it it you it's a process you
  • 00:25:17
    can't you can't do at home you know you
  • 00:25:20
    got to be on set figuring it out and
  • 00:25:22
    like anything I've always been humble
  • 00:25:23
    about this you got to play to the least
  • 00:25:25
    educated person in the room not
  • 00:25:27
    exclusively but but that's who you're
  • 00:25:28
    making it for because again someone said
  • 00:25:31
    to me in Bob's Camp I'm not going to say
  • 00:25:32
    who but they said don't worry about the
  • 00:25:34
    Bob Dylan fans not liking this Bob Dylan
  • 00:25:37
    fans don't like what Bob Dylan does you
  • 00:25:39
    know what I mean which is a great point
  • 00:25:41
    they're like they haven't liked what
  • 00:25:42
    he's done since 1966 you know what I
  • 00:25:45
    mean so that was sort of a weight off my
  • 00:25:47
    shoulders yeah it was the most unique
  • 00:25:49
    challenge I've taken on but that where
  • 00:25:52
    my my confidence came through is
  • 00:25:53
    eventually doing all the Music Live you
  • 00:25:55
    know maybe it was the least responsible
  • 00:25:56
    thing on the actor's part because music
  • 00:25:58
    exists and the performances exist so
  • 00:26:00
    maybe I should have been most concerned
  • 00:26:01
    about spreading no no no you're not
  • 00:26:02
    wrong Stakes is high for sure and and
  • 00:26:04
    like when well first of all like you
  • 00:26:06
    said Bob's Bob's here Bobba is alive Bob
  • 00:26:09
    Bob this is interpretive this is not
  • 00:26:10
    definitive this is not fact this is not
  • 00:26:12
    how it happened this is a fable you know
  • 00:26:14
    exactly it's not it's it's kind of
  • 00:26:16
    softball to say would the easiest thing
  • 00:26:18
    would have been to sing along to the
  • 00:26:19
    original songs or whatever but it's it's
  • 00:26:21
    a lot to take on MH because you're not
  • 00:26:23
    just having to do it Faithfully in fact
  • 00:26:26
    you have to do it uniquely right you
  • 00:26:28
    have to do it in a way that isn't like
  • 00:26:30
    like the songs that exist cuz otherwise
  • 00:26:32
    just sing a lot of those exactly so
  • 00:26:33
    that's a whole other thing it's a whole
  • 00:26:35
    other thing but when you say uniquely
  • 00:26:38
    that's what Harry schiffman one of my
  • 00:26:39
    earliest mentors when I was taking on
  • 00:26:40
    this role he said don't worry about
  • 00:26:42
    being Bob Dylan Like because people can
  • 00:26:44
    go see Bob Dy they can watch the early
  • 00:26:45
    footage or go see him now because he's
  • 00:26:46
    still tours this is about not only
  • 00:26:48
    myself interpreting Bob but Edward noron
  • 00:26:51
    interpreting Pete Seer and Monica
  • 00:26:52
    interpreting Joan bz and um Boyd hook
  • 00:26:56
    interpreting Johnny Cash you know in
  • 00:26:57
    this moment in this 60s where American
  • 00:26:59
    culture was a kaleidoscope and grenwich
  • 00:27:01
    Village was a kaleidoscope you know the
  • 00:27:03
    way culture still is now too but but
  • 00:27:06
    it's just without being like a history
  • 00:27:08
    teacher that was the beginning you know
  • 00:27:10
    personalized music stuff with intention
  • 00:27:12
    stuff with poetry it all started there
  • 00:27:16
    in the movie we did these pre-record but
  • 00:27:18
    I'm not playing the guitar on the
  • 00:27:19
    pre-record with Nick Baxter is a super
  • 00:27:21
    talented musical supervisor and the
  • 00:27:23
    music and I would butt heads with Nick a
  • 00:27:25
    lot the guitar sounded really friendly
  • 00:27:28
    it's hard to get that sound I mean he
  • 00:27:30
    was playing on a a card a guitar that
  • 00:27:31
    was basically falling apart you know and
  • 00:27:33
    I also found like my voice had like a
  • 00:27:35
    bar tone it was it all sounded clean and
  • 00:27:37
    I was doing vocal warm-ups with Eric
  • 00:27:38
    vitro who was this vocal coach help me
  • 00:27:40
    on Wonka and helped me sing Grand on
  • 00:27:43
    Wonka and then here I would listen it
  • 00:27:44
    back and I'm like man this sounds too
  • 00:27:46
    clean you know and then when we would do
  • 00:27:48
    it on set it was song To Woody which is
  • 00:27:49
    one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs ever
  • 00:27:51
    it was the first one we shot in the
  • 00:27:52
    movie you couldn't do it to a playback
  • 00:27:54
    cuz it's such an intimate scene it's in
  • 00:27:55
    a hospital room with Woody with Woody
  • 00:27:57
    Guth and Pete SE
  • 00:27:58
    and I did it live and it and it and it
  • 00:28:01
    went it clicked great you know and I'm
  • 00:28:04
    making mistakes on the guitar a little
  • 00:28:05
    bit here in there you can kind of fill
  • 00:28:07
    those in after I went home and I wept
  • 00:28:09
    that night not to be dramatic but it's a
  • 00:28:10
    song I've been living with for years and
  • 00:28:13
    and something I could relate to deeply
  • 00:28:15
    and I also felt I I come back to this
  • 00:28:17
    word a lot I felt like it was the most
  • 00:28:18
    dignified work I'd ever done and dignity
  • 00:28:21
    might be a weird word there but it felt
  • 00:28:23
    like so dignified and humble we're just
  • 00:28:25
    bringing life to a thing that happened
  • 00:28:27
    67 years ago I went oh of course Leo and
  • 00:28:30
    Daniel de Lewis of course they do these
  • 00:28:31
    biopics it kind of all clicked because
  • 00:28:34
    there's dignity to it you're not pulling
  • 00:28:35
    at a thin air this is this happened you
  • 00:28:38
    know we did when I did song To Woody
  • 00:28:40
    which is a song I like I said I could
  • 00:28:42
    relate to deeply and it went great then
  • 00:28:43
    I was like all right I'm going to fight
  • 00:28:44
    this war until the rest of the movie and
  • 00:28:45
    Nick Baxter and I were great friends and
  • 00:28:48
    he came to my house the other night and
  • 00:28:49
    we're great friends but over the course
  • 00:28:50
    of the movie it was a
  • 00:28:52
    constant you know the metaphor was like
  • 00:28:55
    I was throwing this delicately
  • 00:28:58
    made China on the ground each time we
  • 00:29:00
    didn't use a pre-record something we had
  • 00:29:01
    crafted in La for six months but there's
  • 00:29:04
    not a single pre-record in the movie and
  • 00:29:06
    then Jim would say to console Nick or
  • 00:29:08
    myself you know treat that as like a
  • 00:29:11
    work session you know you were
  • 00:29:12
    practicing to do it left because all of
  • 00:29:13
    a sudden Edward Norton say too something
  • 00:29:15
    clicked in my voice there was a certain
  • 00:29:17
    rawness those microphones those old
  • 00:29:19
    school microphones we were using were
  • 00:29:20
    playing in concert halls I could get I
  • 00:29:21
    could get the strum better and I could
  • 00:29:23
    get how he was singing he also say
  • 00:29:24
    something really really beautiful about
  • 00:29:27
    the natural comforting effec of Reverb
  • 00:29:30
    and the fact that it allows you like and
  • 00:29:32
    theater has it anywhere where you
  • 00:29:34
    perform the idea of what you do what you
  • 00:29:37
    do being wrapped up and nurtured by the
  • 00:29:41
    the natural Reverb of the room
  • 00:29:42
    absolutely allows you the space to be
  • 00:29:47
    more open and to be Freer in there
  • 00:29:49
    absolutely you're in a studio
  • 00:29:50
    meticulously creating pre-recorded
  • 00:29:52
    tracks yeah that's that feels to me
  • 00:29:54
    confined and a it's confined and
  • 00:29:56
    contrived and you can also hear that my
  • 00:29:57
    arm is not going the way you don't hear
  • 00:30:00
    Bob's arm going but he's doing something
  • 00:30:01
    to his voice but you're in that club and
  • 00:30:03
    you the cameras are rolling but who
  • 00:30:05
    cares about them right now there a
  • 00:30:07
    spotlight on you and you're singing this
  • 00:30:08
    song exactly and I didn't know of
  • 00:30:11
    another music biopic where somebody was
  • 00:30:12
    doing it live you know and I I'm like a
  • 00:30:14
    I you know Jeremy Kleiner who was a
  • 00:30:16
    great producer he once said to me you
  • 00:30:17
    act lyrically and I love that I love
  • 00:30:19
    that yeah I don't want to understand
  • 00:30:21
    myself too much as an actor but it made
  • 00:30:22
    sense to me you know you know holding my
  • 00:30:23
    elbow a different way isn't as
  • 00:30:25
    interesting to me as capturing like
  • 00:30:26
    spirit and soul and something and here
  • 00:30:28
    it was in the music that I could capture
  • 00:30:29
    the spirit and the Soul you know it
  • 00:30:31
    wasn't I couldn't I I I did find my way
  • 00:30:33
    in otherwise you'll see like you got to
  • 00:30:35
    when you're playing Bob Dylan otherwise
  • 00:30:37
    it's going to be weird to claim you're
  • 00:30:39
    Bob Dylan and not doing things that were
  • 00:30:40
    unique to his behavior but that's that's
  • 00:30:42
    it I mean you know if you're doing a bck
  • 00:30:44
    about somebody it's because they've had
  • 00:30:45
    enough of an impact on us all as human
  • 00:30:47
    beings and on society through the music
  • 00:30:49
    that they make that we know those songs
  • 00:30:50
    inside out so we're right there like
  • 00:30:53
    shouts to to to Remy mallik right when
  • 00:30:55
    he did Queen live AG which is amazing
  • 00:30:57
    amazing when I saw that performance of
  • 00:30:59
    him of of him doing live a that that
  • 00:31:01
    performance of Queen at live a being a
  • 00:31:03
    boomer is ingrained in me so hit those
  • 00:31:05
    beats but how do you hit those beats
  • 00:31:08
    when Bob is like I said you can't sing
  • 00:31:11
    along Faithfully to a Bob Dylan song you
  • 00:31:13
    just got to sing perfectly said it's
  • 00:31:15
    sort of Blasphemous on its nose that's
  • 00:31:16
    why Joel Cohen before we had Mangold
  • 00:31:18
    involved who directed inside Len Davis I
  • 00:31:19
    said hey don't why don't you direct the
  • 00:31:21
    Bob Dylan movie and he said it's
  • 00:31:23
    impossible and I said why is it
  • 00:31:25
    impossible he goes because it's not
  • 00:31:26
    about a singular moment how do in a
  • 00:31:28
    2-hour movie
  • 00:31:30
    Encompass the the miracle that is the
  • 00:31:33
    breadth of what he wrote and how much he
  • 00:31:35
    got out and the fact that it's like
  • 00:31:37
    watching paint dry because how do you
  • 00:31:38
    how do you make how do you make lyric
  • 00:31:40
    writing interesting basically so tell me
  • 00:31:42
    what is the movie about so the movie is
  • 00:31:44
    about 1961 and 1965 a young Bob Dylan
  • 00:31:48
    arriving in New York and how his career
  • 00:31:50
    took off it's sort of about the folk
  • 00:31:51
    Community it's an ensemble movie right
  • 00:31:53
    it's an ensemble yeah it really is I
  • 00:31:54
    mean a free whe in time which is Suz
  • 00:31:56
    Rolo's book and there was another book
  • 00:31:58
    which the name of which escapes me that
  • 00:31:59
    was less about Bob and more about
  • 00:32:01
    Greenwich Village at that time because
  • 00:32:02
    Greenwich Village was this artistic
  • 00:32:04
    Community where people were bubbling and
  • 00:32:05
    you had people like Pete Seager da van
  • 00:32:07
    rck or Paul Clayton that were like folk
  • 00:32:10
    stars but but through McCarthyism folk
  • 00:32:12
    music got blacklisted in the late 50s so
  • 00:32:15
    nobody had cracked through and rock and
  • 00:32:17
    roll was seen as this kind of thin music
  • 00:32:20
    that was you know you know on the Pick
  • 00:32:21
    It line with us right yeah exactly it
  • 00:32:23
    was like aimed at teenagers so the
  • 00:32:24
    Newport Folk Festival was sort of the
  • 00:32:26
    Coachella let's say for like better
  • 00:32:28
    metaphor of the picket line of pure
  • 00:32:31
    music of Folk Music and so there was
  • 00:32:32
    sort of an opening for someone if not
  • 00:32:35
    literally a young person to sort of take
  • 00:32:39
    over the folk Community the the
  • 00:32:41
    structure of the movies that Woody
  • 00:32:42
    Guthrie was dying that Pete Seager was
  • 00:32:45
    sort of the lieutenant and was like a
  • 00:32:47
    real
  • 00:32:48
    Bonafide folk artist and you know
  • 00:32:52
    politically super on the left and of the
  • 00:32:54
    people and he was slated to take over
  • 00:32:56
    the folk community and at nowhere a
  • 00:32:58
    prophet shows up that is Bob Dylan who
  • 00:33:01
    inexplicably takes over everything at
  • 00:33:03
    once and who's who who in Bob's words
  • 00:33:05
    the songs are coming from God and the Ed
  • 00:33:06
    Bradley interview says I can't do it
  • 00:33:08
    anymore so in that period anyway and
  • 00:33:10
    then at the moment of deification at the
  • 00:33:12
    moment where he was on top decided to
  • 00:33:15
    turn his back on the folk community in
  • 00:33:16
    one interpretive way in another way he
  • 00:33:18
    just wanted to make the music he wanted
  • 00:33:19
    to make and became a rock and roll star
  • 00:33:21
    let's say the first rock and roll star
  • 00:33:22
    at the Newport Folk Festival got booed
  • 00:33:24
    off stage or like a mixed reaction
  • 00:33:27
    because because he took let's say what
  • 00:33:31
    was considered pop music whatever rock
  • 00:33:32
    and roll and he played it at what was
  • 00:33:34
    supposed to be a space of Purity at a
  • 00:33:36
    time when he was considered to be the
  • 00:33:37
    one person through all of this
  • 00:33:39
    blacklisting this fear-mongering this
  • 00:33:41
    mcarthism this there's no place for
  • 00:33:43
    politics and music if you if you step on
  • 00:33:45
    that stage and you speak about
  • 00:33:46
    government and we speak about our
  • 00:33:47
    actions we will make it very tough for
  • 00:33:49
    you to reach your audience was
  • 00:33:50
    legitimately happening he was bigger
  • 00:33:52
    than that so they saw him as someone who
  • 00:33:54
    was going to be able to destroy
  • 00:33:58
    that methodology right cut through and
  • 00:34:00
    Reach people and then he went over here
  • 00:34:02
    and then he went over here and he played
  • 00:34:02
    rock and roll yeah and and and and sort
  • 00:34:05
    of yeah got rid of his savior label and
  • 00:34:07
    people thought he was making like not
  • 00:34:09
    only a bad career decision but a bad
  • 00:34:11
    artistic decision the irony is now like
  • 00:34:13
    a rolling stone or sub trinian Homesick
  • 00:34:15
    Blues they're kind of considered some of
  • 00:34:17
    his his best music but so that's
  • 00:34:19
    generally what the movie is about you
  • 00:34:21
    know it's that it's that period and it's
  • 00:34:22
    a good period too because mid-60s early
  • 00:34:24
    you know mid 70s Rolling Thunder review
  • 00:34:26
    ' 80s Bob a lot of it's Chronicle this
  • 00:34:27
    this is sort of the period cuz he wasn't
  • 00:34:29
    famous yet that's the least sort of
  • 00:34:31
    scene but we also don't demystify it the
  • 00:34:33
    movie is called the complete unknown so
  • 00:34:35
    this isn't like this isn't inventing
  • 00:34:37
    tragedy to explain backstory in fact
  • 00:34:39
    that was sort of sort of some of the
  • 00:34:40
    challenge of the movie you're playing
  • 00:34:41
    someone whose career rise was rapid you
  • 00:34:44
    know where which I can relate to too
  • 00:34:46
    because I I I I struggled and I worked
  • 00:34:49
    very hard but ultimately my career took
  • 00:34:50
    off when I was 21 you know so yeah I
  • 00:34:52
    want to talk about that actually because
  • 00:34:53
    the idea of like quote unquote Fame
  • 00:34:55
    right when something happens to you very
  • 00:34:56
    fast and it's a product of of how of of
  • 00:34:59
    the good work that you do needless to
  • 00:35:01
    say if there's the chemistry of like
  • 00:35:03
    your most authentic self meeting the
  • 00:35:05
    best opportunity meeting the most amount
  • 00:35:06
    of people that's good Fame with all my
  • 00:35:09
    work but especially the early work it so
  • 00:35:12
    wasn't working until it totally worked
  • 00:35:16
    and that's why I'm so proud if youed to
  • 00:35:18
    call me by her name had a small budget
  • 00:35:19
    it was like a $3 million movie and in
  • 00:35:20
    the context of how people's careers
  • 00:35:23
    launch it's never that I mean rarely
  • 00:35:26
    rarely that's when I'm happy to bring it
  • 00:35:28
    all back home with this one or even do
  • 00:35:29
    this interview here because this is the
  • 00:35:31
    sweet spot as an actor is you know these
  • 00:35:34
    sort of bigger budget they're not like
  • 00:35:35
    an indie but it's a bigger budget thing
  • 00:35:37
    it's sort of like where I feel like Leo
  • 00:35:38
    did a lot of his great work it's not the
  • 00:35:40
    huge movies that are really hard to
  • 00:35:42
    sneak great performances in I always
  • 00:35:43
    talk about Heath Ledger as Joker in The
  • 00:35:45
    Dark Knight that's an example of a huge
  • 00:35:46
    movie where someone snuck in a yeah a
  • 00:35:48
    fantastic performance his
  • 00:35:50
    performance in that by RS could have
  • 00:35:52
    been the box office death of that film
  • 00:35:55
    it was that strange strange and
  • 00:35:56
    affecting and intense but because he was
  • 00:36:00
    who he was he made it even bigger yeah
  • 00:36:03
    without compromising anything no
  • 00:36:05
    compromise no compromise um and it feels
  • 00:36:09
    to me like your experience is here and
  • 00:36:12
    that 9month period we got to make those
  • 00:36:14
    films and everything you went through
  • 00:36:15
    because let's not forget you'd had a
  • 00:36:16
    taste of what it was to be on a big seat
  • 00:36:17
    you did Interstellar I mean yeah
  • 00:36:19
    Interstellar for me Interstellar and I
  • 00:36:21
    was I was signing William Morris the
  • 00:36:23
    agency that was Bob having a deal at
  • 00:36:25
    Columbia and his album flopping it's
  • 00:36:27
    it's not like nothing flopped but
  • 00:36:29
    remains my favorite movie I've ever been
  • 00:36:30
    in you know that's that's at the top of
  • 00:36:32
    my list that's the one I go back to and
  • 00:36:33
    watch but I thought it was going to do
  • 00:36:36
    something for my career the way it
  • 00:36:38
    didn't you I just thought my part was
  • 00:36:39
    bigger basically there's a scene where
  • 00:36:40
    MC the best acting some of the best
  • 00:36:42
    acting of the decade where he's weeping
  • 00:36:44
    in the in the uh the ship I'm the other
  • 00:36:47
    half of that scene so I thought it would
  • 00:36:49
    cut sort of back and forth you know what
  • 00:36:51
    I mean even though stay on him it's on
  • 00:36:54
    him
  • 00:36:56
    so you know so I'm sort of yeah yeah so
  • 00:36:59
    I'm sort of I was watching watching it
  • 00:37:01
    just like where am I you know and then
  • 00:37:03
    and then it cuts to to to Casey was
  • 00:37:05
    playing me older I was like now I'm out
  • 00:37:06
    the movie you know but um yeah but
  • 00:37:08
    there's a great moment when you say
  • 00:37:09
    goodbye to him yeah that's great there's
  • 00:37:11
    there's also a shot in one of the
  • 00:37:12
    trailers I'm saying good bu to him that
  • 00:37:14
    wasn't in the movie so also when I watch
  • 00:37:15
    the movie they used this like push in
  • 00:37:16
    shot so I was getting ready for this you
  • 00:37:18
    know well this is this is this this
  • 00:37:20
    leaves an interesting placeing in your
  • 00:37:22
    role in this in um in a complete unknown
  • 00:37:24
    because you're also a producer on this
  • 00:37:26
    film so what happens with successes you
  • 00:37:28
    get to a point where you're able to have
  • 00:37:29
    a little bit more of an invested
  • 00:37:30
    interest in the end result when you're
  • 00:37:32
    an actor and you're starting out it's
  • 00:37:33
    pure trust in the director abely trust
  • 00:37:36
    in the studio now you get to produce
  • 00:37:38
    this film it it puts you in a in a more
  • 00:37:40
    invested role which ultimately people
  • 00:37:41
    want you to be MH but there's going to
  • 00:37:43
    be moments when your instinct goes above
  • 00:37:46
    and beyond protocol even where an actor
  • 00:37:48
    and a director an actor and a studio and
  • 00:37:50
    actor and a producer you talked about
  • 00:37:51
    some of the areas where you already kind
  • 00:37:52
    of had to put your foot down and say no
  • 00:37:53
    I want to do it like this so what's that
  • 00:37:55
    line like to walk as you as you as you
  • 00:37:57
    haveit as you take on more
  • 00:37:58
    responsibility for the projects you say
  • 00:38:00
    yes to what's it
  • 00:38:02
    like building a new form of trust with
  • 00:38:05
    the people who that's a great question I
  • 00:38:07
    don't want to I don't you can't medal a
  • 00:38:09
    director has to have their singular
  • 00:38:11
    Vision I've been spoiled where I've
  • 00:38:12
    worked almost exclusively with URS in
  • 00:38:15
    some way produc orally I see like people
  • 00:38:18
    that are really all over it that's where
  • 00:38:20
    I earn that justification is the music I
  • 00:38:22
    snuck into the movie so I feel like
  • 00:38:24
    that's where I earn my credit there
  • 00:38:26
    being an actor is about being humanist
  • 00:38:28
    at its core that's my theory you have a
  • 00:38:31
    couple actors that are alienists you're
  • 00:38:33
    watching them for their worldview and
  • 00:38:35
    how they and you don't really relate to
  • 00:38:36
    it but you go oh that's kind of
  • 00:38:37
    fascinating most actors like you are
  • 00:38:38
    relating through I would put myself more
  • 00:38:41
    in that humanist category but I found in
  • 00:38:43
    my early career when call me by her name
  • 00:38:44
    and all this stuff was taken off and I
  • 00:38:46
    was like treated like a pop star or
  • 00:38:47
    something you can drink the Kool-Aid for
  • 00:38:49
    like a better expression and when I was
  • 00:38:51
    doing my play here my dream was to on
  • 00:38:53
    Showtime or HBO book a miniseries or
  • 00:38:55
    something that I have a great role in I
  • 00:38:57
    had home humbled myself to that point I
  • 00:38:58
    really was like act this this is a
  • 00:39:01
    drying up business if I could just get a
  • 00:39:03
    great but I found for my work I'm like
  • 00:39:05
    wait I'm jealous of the musicians or the
  • 00:39:07
    pop stars your your music can be about
  • 00:39:09
    your eroding Humanity or if you're a
  • 00:39:10
    postmodernist or something it could be
  • 00:39:12
    about anything but I'm like pounding my
  • 00:39:14
    nail in the wall so I actually have to
  • 00:39:16
    retain that sense of humanity that's
  • 00:39:19
    that's a long- winded way of saying so I
  • 00:39:20
    have a producer credit on a movie that's
  • 00:39:23
    really not to you know any director I
  • 00:39:26
    work with I was just pitching Alonso
  • 00:39:27
    Quon a project but if I produce
  • 00:39:29
    something that he's directing I'm not
  • 00:39:31
    going to be you know cuz uh that would
  • 00:39:33
    be foolish you know um unless I direct
  • 00:39:35
    something one day but I wouldn't direct
  • 00:39:36
    myself in something would you do that I
  • 00:39:38
    wouldn't I I would I would definitely
  • 00:39:39
    direct something and I also think I've
  • 00:39:41
    had a the I've had a few like I have the
  • 00:39:45
    weird worldview experience where I've
  • 00:39:46
    worked with like 10 greats and I've seen
  • 00:39:50
    how they've all or like something
  • 00:39:52
    something like that something crazy and
  • 00:39:53
    I've seen how they all work so most it's
  • 00:39:55
    it's an insular job most directors
  • 00:39:57
    really see how other directors work
  • 00:39:58
    Greta has because she's an actress in
  • 00:40:00
    her own right but but uh but I always
  • 00:40:02
    think like when actors get to work with
  • 00:40:04
    the great it's like at some point you're
  • 00:40:05
    going to have to Define your vision
  • 00:40:06
    right there's great examples of
  • 00:40:08
    musicians who played guitar for great
  • 00:40:10
    bands session play like Jimmy pagee
  • 00:40:11
    right Jimmy Paige was like a very
  • 00:40:13
    successful session guitar player very
  • 00:40:15
    successful could have made a great
  • 00:40:16
    living out of that but then he had to go
  • 00:40:18
    find out what Li Zeppelin sounded like
  • 00:40:19
    right right right and so at some point
  • 00:40:22
    it's going to be like yeah of course
  • 00:40:23
    like I know what makes James James and
  • 00:40:25
    and you can take all those things but
  • 00:40:26
    what's your identity is directed going
  • 00:40:28
    to be that I have no clue I know what I
  • 00:40:30
    don't want it to be I'm in this I'm in
  • 00:40:32
    this worldview where the film business
  • 00:40:34
    this this is my inner Tom Cruz no I'm
  • 00:40:36
    joking but like but where the film
  • 00:40:38
    business sort of isn't what it was so I
  • 00:40:41
    feel there's a responsibility to make
  • 00:40:42
    things that works that's not that
  • 00:40:45
    doesn't dare an audience to be bored
  • 00:40:47
    basically which is what a lot of
  • 00:40:50
    prestige movies do right and so that's
  • 00:40:53
    why I love this Bob Dylan movie because
  • 00:40:54
    there's two versions of Bob Dylan movie
  • 00:40:55
    I think one is a behavioral master class
  • 00:41:00
    that honors someone who didn't really
  • 00:41:01
    make a lot of eye contact M and then
  • 00:41:04
    what's the movie about then it's like
  • 00:41:05
    watching paint dry or something and and
  • 00:41:07
    to the people that know he's a genius
  • 00:41:08
    they love it and to people that don't
  • 00:41:09
    know anything about him they'd rather
  • 00:41:11
    you know spend their time and money
  • 00:41:12
    elsewhere and then there's the other
  • 00:41:14
    version that's disingenuous
  • 00:41:16
    to who he actually was and his like a
  • 00:41:20
    greatest hits thing and he's yeah smooth
  • 00:41:22
    talking and making eye contact and this
  • 00:41:24
    is something else where it's still
  • 00:41:26
    engaging which is why mangle was the
  • 00:41:27
    best director but it doesn't dishonor
  • 00:41:29
    the fact that this was a strange cat so
  • 00:41:30
    it's an ensemble cast and there's a lot
  • 00:41:33
    of characters that played really pivotal
  • 00:41:34
    roles in in Bob's story and and I think
  • 00:41:37
    what what became very clear in the
  • 00:41:39
    movies that that follow in the
  • 00:41:40
    documentaries and the stories and
  • 00:41:41
    interviews was that he was he was trying
  • 00:41:43
    to get away from it being about him and
  • 00:41:46
    he was he was respectful of the fact
  • 00:41:49
    that it was about Pete and about Joan
  • 00:41:51
    and about Sue ultimately now played as
  • 00:41:55
    sy so what was it like kind of where
  • 00:41:57
    looking it in character with that cost
  • 00:42:01
    mentality and with the chemistry of
  • 00:42:03
    those people around and having to sort
  • 00:42:04
    of recaptured that experience that he
  • 00:42:06
    was going through with those really
  • 00:42:08
    pivotal people in his life okay I'll
  • 00:42:10
    give you two answers one is about
  • 00:42:13
    preparation for Bob exclusively one is
  • 00:42:15
    about in relation to those characters so
  • 00:42:17
    what I did for Bob started during Co
  • 00:42:19
    that was learning all the songs learning
  • 00:42:22
    maybe the Bob songs I know how to play
  • 00:42:24
    20% of which are in the movie so that
  • 00:42:26
    was the first education then I was
  • 00:42:27
    working with Tim monik who's the why you
  • 00:42:30
    had to learn how many songs for the
  • 00:42:32
    movie I had to
  • 00:42:33
    learn 13 let's say or something but in
  • 00:42:36
    total I could probably play 30 so Tim
  • 00:42:38
    monik was a dialect coach that's who I
  • 00:42:40
    work with for years on this work with a
  • 00:42:42
    harmonica coach for five years and then
  • 00:42:45
    worked with a woman named Polly Bennett
  • 00:42:47
    who's a a movement coach that actually
  • 00:42:50
    we got more out of just working on the
  • 00:42:52
    script together than anything
  • 00:42:53
    physicality related and then for my own
  • 00:42:56
    Spirit Guap gaing for like a better
  • 00:42:57
    metaphor I retrace Bob step through
  • 00:43:00
    Chicago his steps through Chicago and
  • 00:43:02
    Madison Wisconsin and I started in
  • 00:43:04
    Hibbing in duth and I spent about a week
  • 00:43:05
    where he was from in Minnesota so let's
  • 00:43:07
    get into that part of it because I could
  • 00:43:09
    go there and I could go and visit a
  • 00:43:10
    house that he lived in or right I did
  • 00:43:12
    visit the house he lived in because it's
  • 00:43:13
    a mega fan named Bill I'm forget his
  • 00:43:14
    last name but Bill owns the house and
  • 00:43:17
    there's a piece of paper where he wrote
  • 00:43:19
    this not online he wrote the lyrics to
  • 00:43:20
    song To Woody which has the melody
  • 00:43:23
    structure of 1913 Massacre he wrote it
  • 00:43:26
    on the record sleeve of 1913 Massacre
  • 00:43:30
    with a drawing that says Bob in Chicago
  • 00:43:33
    a drawing of him from the back with a
  • 00:43:35
    long winding road to New York City and
  • 00:43:37
    it says Bound for Glory and he and he
  • 00:43:40
    drew it's yeah what which is the name of
  • 00:43:42
    the Woody goth three book and then and
  • 00:43:44
    then and then a drawing of New York City
  • 00:43:46
    with Woody and NYC at the top but I but
  • 00:43:48
    I but I went there just to get a sense
  • 00:43:50
    of and also because it was sort of
  • 00:43:52
    mysterious to me and still is mysterious
  • 00:43:53
    Hibbing and Deluth they're like on the
  • 00:43:54
    edge of the world it felt like I went at
  • 00:43:56
    the peak of wind
  • 00:43:57
    and I was I landed in Minneapolis I
  • 00:43:59
    rented a truck I was racing down the
  • 00:44:01
    highway and listening to sun the sun
  • 00:44:03
    record Sun record is that what it was
  • 00:44:04
    where that Johnny Cash and Elvis and all
  • 00:44:05
    them were on when they were young and
  • 00:44:07
    then I skitted on on on ice and because
  • 00:44:10
    I didn't know the roads well enough just
  • 00:44:11
    get a sense of where he's from obviously
  • 00:44:13
    Minnesota in 2024 not the 60s but those
  • 00:44:16
    are good friendly people you know that
  • 00:44:19
    don't have the city pretentions that you
  • 00:44:22
    know sometimes you have live in New York
  • 00:44:24
    or La did you get a sense of what he was
  • 00:44:25
    trying to get away from yeah
  • 00:44:27
    I absolutely did I absolutely did I
  • 00:44:29
    could sort of relate to it that my dad
  • 00:44:31
    my dad's sort of from the Minnesota of
  • 00:44:33
    France you know he's from he's not from
  • 00:44:34
    Paris he's from from uh adesh is the
  • 00:44:37
    region you know so when I spent my
  • 00:44:39
    summers in that region I could relate to
  • 00:44:41
    that where I was in a Tiny Town in
  • 00:44:42
    France and it's not that I resented it
  • 00:44:44
    but I went man there's got to be
  • 00:44:45
    something out there CU I feel it again
  • 00:44:49
    what's your reason to being sometimes
  • 00:44:50
    your reason of being is just your reason
  • 00:44:52
    of being they just got something to say
  • 00:44:54
    it matters sometimes less what you have
  • 00:44:56
    to say more your need to say it yeah you
  • 00:44:58
    know so just trying to get a sense of
  • 00:45:00
    how he was like I said drove through
  • 00:45:02
    Madison in Chicago which is supposed to
  • 00:45:05
    be what his route was to New York on his
  • 00:45:07
    first journey there just you just me
  • 00:45:10
    just me it had to be just me and then I
  • 00:45:12
    you know because you got to that's the
  • 00:45:15
    challenge of as opposed to like when I
  • 00:45:16
    was shooting beautiful boy you got to
  • 00:45:17
    create those moments of insularity as an
  • 00:45:20
    actor it's it and it can become more
  • 00:45:21
    challenging and you want to offshoot
  • 00:45:23
    responsibilities you know but the whole
  • 00:45:24
    point why you know I didn't get into
  • 00:45:26
    this to that's the whole thing with all
  • 00:45:28
    the coaches and stuff I had to do it
  • 00:45:29
    because because I knew my contemporaries
  • 00:45:33
    that had done biopics had done it and
  • 00:45:34
    that's some point I was like this isn't
  • 00:45:36
    this isn't helping me and it's also not
  • 00:45:39
    fun it's not it's not as rewarding you
  • 00:45:41
    see exactly you get to check in Chicago
  • 00:45:42
    and you have one job which is to try to
  • 00:45:45
    better understand the environment even
  • 00:45:47
    when I was Landing in Minneapolis and I
  • 00:45:48
    had tears in my eyes because I thought
  • 00:45:49
    this is so strange I thought here's a
  • 00:45:52
    guy you know if you told me Bob came has
  • 00:45:55
    come to me to me what C he meant to me
  • 00:45:57
    so visiting where cudy lived on New Lots
  • 00:45:58
    Avenue in New York when I dropped out of
  • 00:46:00
    college for Interstellar and I couldn't
  • 00:46:01
    get a job and I'm at New Lots Avenue on
  • 00:46:03
    the last stop of the train just to see
  • 00:46:05
    where he was made sense if you told me I
  • 00:46:08
    was going to have that journey through
  • 00:46:09
    my early 20s mid 20s with another artist
  • 00:46:11
    that I would then be tasked with
  • 00:46:12
    actually embodying and I didn't know who
  • 00:46:15
    that artist was yet I would have I would
  • 00:46:16
    have been stunned you know so a lot of
  • 00:46:17
    it was just you know and listening to
  • 00:46:20
    this music from the but he would have
  • 00:46:21
    been listening to Johnny Cash or Elvis
  • 00:46:22
    or Little Richard or Buddy Holly and a
  • 00:46:24
    lot of listening to his music and going
  • 00:46:26
    and just feeling like a humble historian
  • 00:46:28
    or something just kind of walking that
  • 00:46:30
    path did you feel different when you
  • 00:46:31
    started than when you arrived back in
  • 00:46:32
    New York absolutely made some insecurity
  • 00:46:35
    had been solved some some curiosity and
  • 00:46:38
    also knowing people knowing the the
  • 00:46:41
    lawyer who helped them change his name
  • 00:46:43
    you know and getting anecdotes I'm not
  • 00:46:45
    going to share here but stuff that was
  • 00:46:46
    tremendously insightful stuff that
  • 00:46:48
    hasn't made its way online that
  • 00:46:49
    shouldn't make its way online but stuff
  • 00:46:51
    that was there were little clues that
  • 00:46:53
    drawing I just described to you seeing
  • 00:46:55
    his basement seeing how he grew up
  • 00:46:56
    seeing how confined his room was seeing
  • 00:46:58
    how it wasn't torturous it was a house
  • 00:47:00
    on a street not a bad not a bad street
  • 00:47:04
    amazing that this film is even being
  • 00:47:05
    made really because if you think about
  • 00:47:07
    how the lengths he went in order to stop
  • 00:47:09
    people from understanding what you went
  • 00:47:11
    and ultimately experienced the length to
  • 00:47:14
    which he just like the answers he would
  • 00:47:16
    give to interview questions that were
  • 00:47:18
    just so obscure and obtuse in order to
  • 00:47:22
    just say look you know he was he was the
  • 00:47:23
    best in the world of batting them away
  • 00:47:24
    cuz he's understood somewhere in a pure
  • 00:47:27
    artistic sense a lot of us don't it's
  • 00:47:29
    about what he made it's not about
  • 00:47:30
    anything else that is the least 2024
  • 00:47:33
    mentality of all time and in some
  • 00:47:34
    respects are you and I guess maybe you
  • 00:47:36
    can speak for James mangle the director
  • 00:47:38
    are you surprised that he is involved in
  • 00:47:40
    this film at all no because I don't
  • 00:47:41
    think word is Gospel to him in this in
  • 00:47:43
    other
  • 00:47:44
    words I think his experience the world
  • 00:47:46
    was so strange to be deified like that I
  • 00:47:49
    think this is another my guess is it's
  • 00:47:52
    another raindrop in the bucket of a
  • 00:47:55
    strange life of people trying to
  • 00:47:56
    interpret you or your words or your
  • 00:47:58
    songs so this so the idea of deification
  • 00:48:01
    right the idea
  • 00:48:02
    of having so much talent or having such
  • 00:48:06
    a gift or being open to some energy some
  • 00:48:11
    Muse some magic which is what I think
  • 00:48:14
    music and art ultimately stems from as
  • 00:48:16
    magic you know I've spent a long time
  • 00:48:18
    talking to artists who just tap in and
  • 00:48:20
    they don't know
  • 00:48:21
    why how does a person just like anybody
  • 00:48:24
    else process how the world is seeing
  • 00:48:27
    them through their talent absolutely and
  • 00:48:31
    when people want a piece of that is the
  • 00:48:32
    most conventional cliche but also when
  • 00:48:34
    it's really good and and people want a
  • 00:48:36
    slice of it and how do you how do you
  • 00:48:38
    protect whatever it is that makes it
  • 00:48:40
    good that's sort of the structure of the
  • 00:48:41
    movie too is he leaves Minnesota to get
  • 00:48:43
    away from I don't want to say what's
  • 00:48:45
    strangling him but feels like it's
  • 00:48:47
    holding him back goes to New York finds
  • 00:48:49
    a family the F community that then does
  • 00:48:51
    the exact same thing and tries to
  • 00:48:53
    strangle him and then he has to you know
  • 00:48:56
    break Break Free of that and then does
  • 00:48:58
    that the rest of his life you know in
  • 00:49:00
    dedication to his art no matter what
  • 00:49:02
    consequence it was to his personal life
  • 00:49:04
    not that I know of any but we don't
  • 00:49:05
    really know you know we don't know maybe
  • 00:49:08
    there like 20 films that could be made
  • 00:49:09
    about his life really this is going to
  • 00:49:11
    be such an interesting one has better
  • 00:49:13
    understanding what he went through at
  • 00:49:16
    least through the character that you're
  • 00:49:17
    playing the interpretation of it has it
  • 00:49:20
    changed you and how you're able to sort
  • 00:49:22
    of live your life ultimately and does
  • 00:49:25
    that happen often when you come out of
  • 00:49:26
    rols in particular way that's a real
  • 00:49:27
    life role yes here I I felt like I went
  • 00:49:30
    through a thing like Bob says at the end
  • 00:49:32
    of Don't Look Back I I feel like I went
  • 00:49:33
    through a thing and on the other side of
  • 00:49:36
    it is The Bravery to Don't Look Back you
  • 00:49:38
    know we look our culture now we look not
  • 00:49:40
    only do we look back we contextualize
  • 00:49:42
    the back the immediately immediately
  • 00:49:43
    what happens if you see somebody take a
  • 00:49:44
    picture and spend 10 minutes editing and
  • 00:49:46
    putting it back that's them
  • 00:49:47
    contextualizing what happened you know
  • 00:49:49
    unless you're the kind of the rare kind
  • 00:49:50
    of person that post takes a picture and
  • 00:49:51
    posts right which no one but but uh so
  • 00:49:55
    here I felt like I had The Bravery on on
  • 00:49:56
    the other side of it to I often ask
  • 00:50:00
    myself like what would Bob do you know
  • 00:50:02
    um uh that sounds so basic but it's just
  • 00:50:05
    a truth would we know yeah no but I mean
  • 00:50:08
    it in the sense that I'm I'm ignoring
  • 00:50:09
    what he would do by even being here CU
  • 00:50:11
    he would he would be on another planet
  • 00:50:13
    but just in my own in my own day-to-day
  • 00:50:16
    just Le leading with your artistic foot
  • 00:50:18
    first not in a pretentious sense but
  • 00:50:20
    just doing the stuff that really
  • 00:50:22
    challenges you who was I was an actor's
  • 00:50:23
    interview I was reading the other day
  • 00:50:25
    was it a waen phoenix interview
  • 00:50:26
    something where you always you just got
  • 00:50:29
    yeah it was it was a Vini interview but
  • 00:50:30
    you just got to always push yourself out
  • 00:50:32
    of your comfort zone and not be
  • 00:50:34
    complacent and man I can't say he he's
  • 00:50:38
    he his songs are like the songs of life
  • 00:50:41
    and it's they're you can't describe them
  • 00:50:43
    and so the if I got anything out of it
  • 00:50:45
    it was just the feeling of it you know
  • 00:50:47
    at a moment I needed it you know and it
  • 00:50:49
    was like a new Guiding Light to how I
  • 00:50:51
    want to feel when I work I'd love to do
  • 00:50:53
    more things like this that's for
  • 00:50:55
    sure e
Tags
  • Timothy Chalamet
  • Bob Dylan
  • Acting
  • Music Influence
  • Theater
  • Artistic Journey
  • Cultural Impact