Costumer Teases If Timothée Chalamet Wears Any of Bob Dylan’s Actual Clothes in A Complete Unknown (Exclusive)
The designer, who also worked with director James Mangold on his Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, says that the experience isn’t unique. “On Walk the Line, I didn’t have access to Johnny Cash or June Carter’s costumes either,” she shares.
Phillips faced similar challenges while working on Madonna’s historical romantic drama W.E., which mainly takes place in the 1930s and follows several real-life figures, as well as Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood about two actors in Hollywood in the late 1960s, but ultimately had more access to resources on both.
“But in this case, no, I didn’t get to,” Phillips continues. “I don’t think Bob [Dylan] wanted to give up his clothes. They’re hanging in his closet.”
Speaking about working with Chalamet on his transformation into Dylan, she says he “was so generous with his time and he would come for fitting before or after recording music or a vocal lesson or a guitar lesson.”
The costume designer — who also recently worked on Joker: Folie à Deux — adds that the actor took up numerous skills for the role, such as learning how to play guitar and harmonica.
“He is very focused, very generous with his time and he’s a dream collaborator, really,” Phillips says. “He had almost 70 costume changes in this film, which requires a lot of fitting time. I can’t imagine anyone else playing this role.”
Phillips feels that the Dune star’s role in the movie and “reverence” for the “Blowin’ in the Wind” singer will “inspire a lot of young people who maybe don’t know who Bob Dylan is.”
The biopic follows Dylan’s arrival to New York City at 19 years old in the early 1960s.
The synopsis teases, “As he forms his most intimate relationships during his rise to fame, he grows restless with the folk movement and, refusing to be defined, makes a controversial choice that culturally reverberates worldwide.”
The movie is directed by Mangold, who cowrote the script with Jay Cocks, and also stars Edward Norton, Boyd Holbrook, Dan Fowler, Norbert Leo Butz and Scoot McNairy.
A Complete Unknown is in theaters Dec. 25.
