Oscar Isaac first thought the Timothèe Chalamet Bob Dylan biopic sounded like a bad idea

If you were skeptical of Timothée Chalamet playing Bob Dylan, you’re not alone. Even Oscar Isaac, his movie dad, wasn’t sure about the casting. “My first thought was… 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,” Isaac admitted at the Gotham Awards, recalling when Chalamet shared his Dylan news on the Dune set. Isaac attended the ceremony to present Chalamet and A Complete Unknown director James Mangold with the Visionary Tribute award, per Variety. 

To win over his Dune castmates Isaac, Josh Brolin, and Stephen Mckinley Henderson, Chalamet pulled out a guitar—”Not a good sign,” Isaac joked. Then the younger actor performed Dylan’s “Girl From The North Country.” “Josh, Stephen and I aren’t your average Timmy groupies. We’re grizzled movie vets; we’ve seen some shit,” Isaac shared. “But to hear this kid, who had just started learning the guitar, who hadn’t done much singing, and who wasn’t all that familiar with Dylan’s music, approach these songs not as if he was learning something new but remembering something he’d already known, just rediscovering… The three of us just sat there watching this young man connect with something mysterious.”

Isaac—who knows a thing or two about portraying the ’60s folk scene, given that he’s Llewyn freakin’ Davis—was obviously convinced by Chalamet’s portrayal. And Chalamet took something away from Isaac as well; he recently said that observing the older star on the Dune set helped teach him to “guard” his process. Interestingly, Dune director Denis Villeneuve shared a similar sentiment from a mentor at the Gotham Awards. 

While accepting the Director Award, Villeneuve shared that he turned to Martin Scorsese for advice about moving from indies into big Hollywood productions. “He said, ‘The advice I’d give you is, ‘stay intact.’ Protect the flame—that’s what he meant. In the indie world, you can have creative freedom and don’t [need to] compromise,” the filmmaker said. “I don’t know the value of what I’ve done in the past 12 years, but I’m proud I’ve protected my flame and kept intact my independent spirit.”