Timothée Chalamet Goes Acoustic

RMLA, LESE / Backgrid

Timothée Chalamet has been preparing to play Bob Dylan for what feels like an eternity—or at least since 2020, when he hunkered down in rural Woodstock, New York to “practice his guitar and harmonica in peace” during the throes of lockdown. But after the two-pronged stop-start wrought by a global pandemic and a 118-day-long Screen Actors Guild strike, the forthcoming James Mangold film A Complete Unknown finally began filming this month. All the while, Timmy’s been strumming that guitar and keeping his wavy, Dune-proof curls intact.

Brandishing an uncased Gibson acoustic in hand, Chalamet arrived at a rehearsal in Los Angeles today as though he were heralding the occasion. He wore a gray Stüssy sweatshirt (a standard-issue version of the riled-up sleeveless hoodie Chalamet wore last month on Jimmy Kimmel, from the brand’s collaboration with Junya Watanabe) with blue velour track pants, a black face mask, and Nike’s space-agey Lunar Roam sneakers. He carried a Celine leather backpack and pulled the brim of his Yankees cap down over his eyes.

In Chapter Three of our ongoing project, the young actor talks candidly about coming of age over the last few years — a process he calls “adultifying" — during which he turned a professional corner, discovered a cohort of colorful peers, and learned to embrace his spirit of rebellion.

In other words, it was an outfit that hewed to Timmy’s usual off-duty formula—zealous brand-mixing, a slightly sloppy streetwear silhouette—with a very conspicuous Dylanesque accessory.

How has this extended Dylan limbo shaped Timmy’s personal style these last few years? Aside from a general influx of leather jackets, there have been notable moments. In July, Chalamet went for a walk in New York City with two members of his A Complete Unknown prep team—movement coach Polly Bennett and dialect coach Tim Monich—for which he’d paired an old Bob Dylan tee with Courrèges denim and a truly bonkers tulle-trimmed Dior stocking cap. Last week, he wrapped the Dune: Part Two press tour in a leather Prada set and Wayfarer-shaped Gentle Monster sunglasses that felt “more like Dylan than Paul Atreides.”

It’s all part of the gig, the indent a role can leave on its proprietor. “It’s something I think about a lot with Dylan,” Chalamet told GQ last fall, “that life rhythms are different. When you’re raised in the city, going stir-crazy during the pandemic, your life rhythm becomes agitated. And driving through the middle of the country listening to Townes Van Zandt”—as the actor did in 2022, while filming Luca Guadagnino cannibal love story Bones and All—“your life rhythm adjusts in a great way.” There will always be a guy in a Stüssy hoodie, ready to say: Anyway, here’s “Wonderwall.”

Originally Appeared on GQ

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