Oscar Isaac thought Timothée Chalamet playing Bob Dylan was a 'really bad idea' at first

Mike Coppola/Getty Images for The Gotham Film & Media Institute

Actor Oscar Isaac wasn’t sure if Timothée Chalamet could pull off playing Bob Dylan — that is until he heard him sing one of Dylan’s songs.

While presenting Chalamet and director James Mangold with the Visionary Tribute award at the 2024 Gotham Awards on Monday, Isaac recalled working with Chalamet on Dune: Part One. While hanging out with fellow actors Josh Brolin and Stephen McKinley Harrison, Chalamet mentioned his upcoming project, A Complete Unknown.

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“He starts telling us about his next project he was working on. A movie with the wonderful director James Mangold about a young Bob Dylan coming to New York in 1961,” Isaac. “And my first thought, ‘It sounds like a really bad idea.’ I mean, it’s Dylan. It’s the holy of holies for me. It just didn’t sound right.”

But Isaac’s opinion changed after he heard Chalamet sing.

“Then Timmy takes out his guitar — not a good sign — and starts playing ‘Girl from the North Country,'” Isaac said. “Now, this is a song I know deeply, to my core, and Josh, Stephen and I, we’re not your average Timmy Chalamet groupies. We’re grizzled movie vets. We’ve seen some s***.”

Isaac finished his speech with kind words for Chalamet and Mangold.

“James and Timothée have approached this work with a mix of humility and irreverence, just like Dylan approached the Great American Songbook, probing familiar forms to rediscover the truth of the present moment,” Isaac said.