Does Timothee Chalamet play Bob Dylan in a film? Actor pays tribute to the singer on Saturday Night Live

Actor Timothee Chalamet paid tribute to legendary singer Bob Dylan on the January 25 episode of Saturday Night Live. Chalamet was also the host and the musical guest of the SNL episode and delivered a monologue about Dylan's work.

During his performance, Chalamet played three of Dylan's lesser-known songs - Tomorrow Is a Long Time, Outlaw Blues, and Three Angels. He performed a medley of the last two songs, with James Blake assisting him on the keyboard.

"You might not know the Bob Dylan songs I’m performing, but they’re my personal favorites. I’m so grateful ‘Saturday Night Live’ is still doing weird stuff like this 50 years in. They’re either really nice for letting me do this or incredibly mean and this is all a big prank," Chalamet said.

The first track, Tomorrow Is A Long Time, is not a Dylan original. It was performed by multiple legends including Judy Collins and Elvis Presley before Dylan released his version in 1971. Meanwhile, Outlaw Blues is a track from Bob Dylan's 1965 album, Bringing It All Back Home. Three Angels was a part of the singer's 1970 album, New Morning.

Timothee Chalamet has portrayed Bob Dylan in the 2024 film A Complete Unknown. Directed by James Mangold, the film is a biographical musical drama about Dylan's experiments with folk music and his controversial use of electrical instruments later in his career.

The film is based on the 2015 book Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald and comprises a cast of Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, and others. Chalamet was nominated in the Best Actor category at the 97th Academy Awards for portraying Dylan in the film. A Complete Unknown received overall eight nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor and Actress.

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Timothee Chalamet compares Bob Dylan to Roald Dahl's fictional character Willy Wonka

Dylan At The BBC - Source: Getty

During his performance as the host and musical guest on the January 25 episode of Saturday Night Live, Timothee Chalamet drew a comparison between two characters he has played on the silver screen.

Chalamet was critically acclaimed for portraying Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown in 2024. However, a year before, he also gained attraction for playing Willy Wonka in Paul King's 2023 directorial, Wonka. The film was based on Roald Dahl's iconic fictional chocolate factory owner from his books Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. The film is an origin story for Willy Wonka and is set before Dahl's original novels.

Speaking on his SNL appearance, Timothee Chalamet claimed Bob Dylan is similar to Willy Wonka:

"I will say it was a little weird playing Bob Dylan after playing Willy Wonka. But I heard the two men have a lot in common. The two men are both eccentric, they are both innovators and they both captured and enslaved hundreds of oompa loompas."

The episode marked Chalamet's third time hosting Saturday Night Live. He has been a host on the show in 2020 and 2023. Meanwhile, Bob Dylan has appeared as a musical guest on the show only once in 1979. The Nobel Prize-winning lyricist performed three songs - Gotta Serve Somebody, I Believe in You, and When You Gonna Wake Up from his album Slow Train Coming.

Chalamet's selection of Dylan's songs he chose to perform during his appearance was interesting, given that the latter has not performed all of them himself during his career. According to The Guardian, Bob Dylan has performed Tomorrow Is A Long Time multiple times during tours, but has sung Outlaw Blues on stage only once. The singer has never sung Three Angels in any concert.

Apart from his music, Bob Dylan is often celebrated for his lyrics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016 for his lyrics. The Noble Prize committee said he was chosen "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition". The legendary singer has also published two poetry collections - Tarantula (1971) and Chronicles: Volume One (2004).

The singer's breakthrough album was the 1965 venture, Bringing It All Back Home, which included 11 tracks. Some of Dylan's most iconic songs include Blowin' in the Wind, Mr Tambourine Man, The Times They Are A-Changin', It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding), and Like A Rolling Stone.

Earlier this month, Dylan's early draft of his iconic 1965 track, Mr Tambourine Man, was sold for $500,000 via the California-based house, Julien’s Auctions. The yellowed pages included the first draft of the typewritten lyrics of the classic. Alongside the draft, multiple other memorabilia from Dylan's work were also sold for good sums.