Cate Blanchett praises “fantastic” Timothée Chalamet’s Bob Dylan portrayal in ‘A Complete Unknown’

Cate Blanchett has praised the new Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown and Timothée Chalamet’s “fantastic” performance in it, for which he received an Oscar nomination – check out her full interview with NME above.

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A Complete Unknown was released earlier this year and tells the story of Dylan’s rise to fame in the 1960s. Chalamet won the Best Performance By An Actor In A Leading Role trophy at the Screen Actors Guild Awards for his portrayal of the iconic musician as well as a Golden Globe.

In a new interview with NME, Hollywood legend Blanchett – who previously played Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes’ experimental 2007 biopic I’m Not There – confirmed she has seen A Complete Unknown and said of Chalamet: “I thought he was fantastic. I really loved the whole film.”

“A Complete Unknown is a very different endeavour to Todd Haynes’ film, which was about shape-shifting identity and an artist’s refusal to be pinned down,” she continued.

“I’ve never been more liberated than [when I was] asked to play so wildly against type and gender… Because you knew there was a woman [behind] that iconic silhouette of Dylan when he went electric, you were complicit with the audience in it. There was no way you’d ever be accused of mimicry.”

When asked if she’d go back and change anything about her performance in I’m Not There, which saw six actors play different aspects of Dylan’s personality, Blanchett said: “As time goes by you [realise] cinema is temporal so [if you went back], you’d probably do it entirely differently. But with that film, the character was made up of everyone’s portrayal. Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw, they all put in remarkable, astonishing performances. I was but a part of it.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Blanchett revealed her go-to album would be something by Sigur Rós after seeing them live in Iceland when they first “popped off”.

“I also saw Sonic Youth in Toronto years ago. I loved their music but I became addicted to it after hearing it live,” she added. “I think when people make beds of sound like that, it goes into you in a visceral way that you can’t get in a [studio] recording.”

Check out the full NME interview with Cate Blanchett and her Black Bag co-star Tom Burke above, where they talk about their sleek new spy thriller, the interview questions they’re tired of answering and when it’s OK to tell a lie.

‘Black Bag’ is in cinemas now

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