Bob Dylan speaks on Timothée Chalamet playing him in ‘A Complete Unknown’ (‘what a title!’)

The Bard has spoken.
With the release of “A Complete Unknown” — the movie based on Bob Dylan’s rise to fame as a young singer — now weeks away, he shared a message about the film, starring Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet.
Dylan, 83, has become a more regular user of X, formerly Twitter, just as many have left the social network for other online spaces.
So it’s no surprise that’s where he addressed the upcoming film Wednesday afternoon.
“There’s a movie about me opening soon called A Complete Unknown (what a title!),” Dylan said. “Timothee Chalamet is starring in the lead role. Timmy’s a brilliant actor so I’m sure he’s going to be completely believable as me. Or a younger me. Or some other me.”
Chalamet, 28, filmed “A Complete Unknown” in New Jersey and New York this year with director James Mangold (”Walk the Line,” “Girl, Interrupted,” “Cop Land,” “Ford v Ferrari”).
Jersey spots in the movie, many of them standing in for 1960s Manhattan, include Hoboken, Jersey City, Kearny, Newark, Paterson, Plainfield, Elizabeth, Belleville, West Orange, Kinnelon, Blairstown, Skillman, Highlands, Mountainside, Clifton, Alpine, Red Bank and Cape May (subbing in for Newport, Rhode Island).
READ MORE: See Timothée Chalamet filming Bob Dylan movie in Hoboken as Chalamaniacs buzz around set
They were still filming as of June, so the movie, distributed by Searchlight Pictures, was turned around quickly, in time for consideration at the 2025 Oscars. The first trailer for the film was released in July.
Chalamet, who also served as a producer of the movie alongside Mangold, sings Dylan’s songs in the film, including “Blowin’ in the Wind” (1963), “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” (1963) and “Like A Rolling Stone” (1965).
The movie centers on the beginning of young Dylan’s journey as a folk music enthusiast and artist on the rise and culminates in his controversial decision to “go electric” at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, where he first publicly performed “Like a Rolling Stone.”
The 19-year-old Minnesota native arrives in New York City in 1961, propelled by his love for his folk hero, Woody Guthrie, who had Huntington’s disease and died in 1967. He visits the ailing singer-songwriter, played by Scoot McNairy, at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in Morris Plains, and meets fellow folk star Pete Seeger, played by Edward Norton. Seeger takes Dylan under his wing as the young talent goes from budding performer to standout voice and great hope for spreading the gospel of folk.
“The film’s taken from Elijah Wald’s Dylan Goes Electric – a book that came out in 2015,” Dylan continued in his post. “It’s a fantastic retelling of events from the early ‘60s that led up to the fiasco at Newport. After you’ve seen the movie read the book.”
MORE: See Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan in first trailer for ‘A Complete Unknown,’ filmed in N.J.
Mangold’s script, written with Jay Cocks (”Gangsters of New York”), is based on the book, full title “Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night that Split the Sixties.”
The movie’s title comes from the lyrics of “Like a Rolling Stone.”
“How does it feel?” Dylan sings. “To be on your own, with no direction home / A complete unknown, like a rolling stone.”
Emmy nominee Elle Fanning co-stars as Sylvie Russo, a character based on artist Suze Rotolo, who was in a relationship with Dylan at the start of his career and appears with him on the cover of his 1963 album “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.”
Monica Barbaro (”Top Gun”) plays folk star Joan Baez, who had a relationship with Dylan on and offstage. Barbaro also sings in the movie.
Boyd Holbrook (”The Bikeriders”) plays Johnny Cash. Dylan, a Cash fan, became a friend of the Man in Black, and their dynamic is depicted in the film.
Mangold, of course, told the story of Cash and his wife, June Carter, in “Walk the Line” (2005), starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, who won an Oscar for playing June.
“A Complete Unknown” is in theaters Dec. 25.
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Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at [email protected] and followed at @AmyKup.