The ‘Totally Inaccurate’ Scene Bob Dylan Included in His Biopic

During the production of the biopic Bob Dylan, A Complete Unknownscheduled to premiere on December 25th, Timothee Chalamet praised a specific piece of dialogue to director and co-writer James Mangold. “Bob put it up,” Mangold replied.

As the new cover story of Rolling StoneDylan and Mangold met several times before production began. “I felt like Bob just wanted to know what I was doing,” says Mangold. “Who is this guy? Is he an idiot? Does he understand? I think these are normal questions anyone asks when they’re siding with someone.” Dylan offered substantial feedback on the script in these meetings, eventually making notes on a copy of it.

“Bob had these one-off lines that were fantastic,” says Chalamet. “Jim has a script written down by Bob somewhere. I’m going to beg him to get it. He’ll never give it to me.”

Dylan also personally requested that the name of Elle Fanning’s character – his real-life girlfriend from the early 1960s – be changed. Suze Rotoloa key influence in his political awakening, is known as Sylvie Russo in the film. In Dylan’s view, Rotolo was “a very private person and didn’t ask for this life,” says Fanning. “She was obviously someone very special and sacred to Bob.”

The line that Chalamet praised appears to have occurred in a scene where Bob and Sylvie argue – Sylvie laments the idea of ​​returning from a trip to Europe to “live with a mysterious minstrel” and Dylan, whose first album was a flop, retorts: “Minstrels mysterious sell more than a thousand records. Maybe you just won’t come back”.

Dylan had at least one more personal influence on the film. Edward Nortonwho plays the deceased Pete Seeger in the film, he says Mangold told him that Dylan insisted on putting at least one wildly inaccurate scene in A Complete Unknownalthough the actor did not reveal any details. Norton says that when Mangold told Dylan he was worried about the public reaction, Bob glared at him. “What does it matter what other people think?” he asked. (There are several possibilities for the scene in question, including the moment when an infamous audience scream – which actually happened a year later – is played at the 1965 Newport Festival.)

Norton, a longtime Dylan fan, notes the singer’s “obvious pleasure in obscuring and distorting,” adding, “He’s a troublemaker.”

Article published in Rolling Stone on November 19, 2024. To read the original in English, click here.