Timothée Chalamet

Let's play it right here, actually, for the audience. I know the classiest thing would be to downplay the effort that went into this role and how much this means to me, but the truth is this was five and a half years of my life. I poured everything I had into playing this incomparable artist, Mr. Bob Dylan, a true American hero, and it was the honor of a lifetime playing him.

It's an honor I share with Monica, Elle, Edward, the entire cast who in a genre doing a biopic that could be perhaps tired, everyone gave it their all. So I'm deeply grateful to them. And lastly, I can't downplay the significance of this award. because it means the most to me. And I know we're in a subjective business, but the truth is I'm really in pursuit of greatness.

I know people don't usually talk like that, but I want to be one of the greats. I'm inspired by the greats. I'm inspired by the greats here tonight. I'm as inspired by Daniel Day-Lewis and Marlon Brando and Viola Davis as I am by Michael Jordan and Michael Phelps, and I want to be up there. So I'm deeply grateful to that. This doesn't signify that, but it's a little more fuel.

It's a little more ammo to keep going. Thank you so much. That's unusual. That's unusual.

The way Bob Dylan, when he came up, there was all these cafes in downtown New York and the music. And now I was trying to find the folk scene in modern-day Manhattan. It was brutal. Oh, I think in Manhattan, probably. Maybe, like, somewhere in the village, probably, right? Yeah, but it was brutal. It's still rough.

I mean, I went to Cafe Wah, where Bob Dylan came up, and it's just, like, Aerosmith covers now. So some guy goes, Dream on!

I never got the chance to meet him. Not yet at all? Oh, he's super reclusive, yeah. He's elusive and reclusive. He's that reclusive? Yeah, I don't know if he'll ever see the movie. Yeah. He did this X-Post, I've been taught to say. It's not Tweet anymore, I guess. Fucking X-Post. But he did it like three days ago, you know. And that was more than... He...

No, nothing. I never got the chance to talk to him. I like that you pointed out the Timmy. I tried, you know, when I was 19, 20, I was, you know, I was evolving into Timothy. You said some letters. Exactly. Add some letters. Add some letters from Timmy to Timothy. Yeah, I thought you were going Tim. Sorry. Tim would be, you know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I said, 40s, 50s, couple ex-wives. Then you go Tim. Then you go Tim. You know, I'm like mowing my lawn all day. Yeah, hey, Tim. Exactly.

Missed a spot. You're like, oh, there's a bird's nest there. Calm down. Sort of a disgruntled expression on my face watching my kids' sports games because they're not playing to the level.

How many swim meets? You go to Lipscomb College swim meets? I mean, I don't go to that. I've been aside. Yeah, be careful, dude. Yeah, I do.

So it's normal. It's totally normal. So the fact you've been doing it since your early 20s means that, you know.

I've got a grandfathered aunt. Your grandfathered aunt.

He's an artist. He's an artist. And this show happened, you know, this show sprouted in this period of you doing that. So how can you fault the process?

I don't know. I've never been to a swim meet. You know, that's a very non... You know, like there's four pools in New York City. Oh, yeah.

We don't have swim meets, but we have...

No, I'm kidding. But, you know, I was talking about this the other day. Like, my high school, they wouldn't let us out for lunch. Would they let you out for lunch or no? Oh, yeah. You could do whatever you wanted at lunch. They didn't let us out. I feel like my skin tone from when I went into high school, by the time I got out, I looked sickly. I haven't recovered.

We were just in Nashville. Let's start there. Are we good, Zach? Yeah. Cool beans.

I heard you're a big play guy. Really? No. Oh, thanks. I was like, God, I don't want that going around. Hey, man, listen, that's the subversive. No one would expect it. That's very low key, dude. Is there theater in Nashville?

Yeah, Outsiders. I went to the high school, it was the opposite. The drama kids were the... Oh, the cool kids. Yeah, and the basketball kids were like... No. There was like four of them. Bro, that's got to be interesting because a lot of people don't get that opportunity.

No, it skewed my perception of the real world because then I got to Columbia and I was like, oh shit, the value system is totally different, you know? But actually, in a serious way, it kind of motivated me to go pursue my acting even harder. But did you ever think about acting? You're like, what's the exchange rate on this Hamlet scene I have? No, exactly, exactly, exactly.

Had you been there before? Yeah, once, kind of exploring. I was doing a movie called Bones and All. I was trying to do research.

You didn't go for it?

You got to be bold. You would have earned the respect of all your classmates. Or actually, I don't know where you're from. Who knows?

Um, if I've got to make it.

All right. You went, you don't want to be slotted into something.

For some reason, for some reason you had me on. That was a bad choice.

I was born, I was bred at Warner Brothers Studios in a little embryo fluid. It was just like that? Yeah, no, man, you know, probably Brett Goldstein, you know. A kid in your building or something from school? No, he was a kid on the Upper West Side and my older sister was friends with his older sister, Brenna. And just, I think they still live there. Greg and Bess, those are his parents.

And Brett, you know, that was my whole friend group. Then they all, my whole friend group went to this school called Computer School. And then I went to a school called Booker T. Washington. So I lost my, I lost my friend group there. But. And you have a roommate now? No. You don't? Thank God, man. That's like more than that. Sorry. No, I mean, but fucking that's more than anything.

No way. So I had wandered there, and this time got a better sense of it. It's a great city, huh?

That's what Jezelnik says on Netflix. He says, you really made it when you don't have a roommate anymore. Oh, yeah.

In life.

Do you have a roommate?

How do you go – 2020 wife.

2020 wife. How do you go about that? I think getting out there and meeting people. Do you have friends that you trust, that you would trust like to set you up?

How so? Give me an example. Just like. No names, but.

Okay, all right, all right, all right, all right, enough said, enough said. Just people that there was no... How do you do this format? Like, you're never nervous that people are going to watch that you're talking about?

Right, and you send, you'll send scary people after people, you know. Oh, well, I mean, we'll... You'll send guys in suits outside people's houses, make sure they don't...

Right, right, right, right.

No, but you're not. Are you from there?

Yeah, man. Yes and no, you know, because I've become such a fan of his that it's not like I feel like I'm a blemish on the legacy, but I... No, not at all.

I'm just saying that even if I have a healthy amount of self-respect, it's never going to come close to who he is. So I like the idea that I could be a bridge. But I had a buddy that said the Johnny Cash movie, Joaquin Phoenix, who is the same director who walked the line, he said, you know, I actually like Joaquin's versions of Johnny Cash's songs better than Johnny Cash's songs.

But I never wanted that. Sincerely, I don't want that to happen here. And I wanted to protect against it because Bob's got this raw voice. He's got this iron voice. And I never wanted these songs to be more gentle than his songs. And I had to fight against that because the recordings we made, a lot of them were super... It's hard, man. He was playing on a beat-up guitar with shitty recorders.

He had a bronchitis in his early 20s. His voice was all fucked up. And I didn't want it to be watered down. Because he very purposefully was... He liked Jack Kerouac and Moriarty. A lot of the books I read said he didn't have great hygiene or stuff like that, so I didn't want the movie to be watered down all of a sudden.

So it's, there's like 14 people.

Yeah, not do this Hollywood version, basically. Right. Because these biopics, it's a fine line, man. And I've never done anything like this. I usually play a role. Actually, sort of. Yeah, Wonka you did, kind of. Yeah, Wonka I did, yeah. But that's maybe not real. No, but it's real. Yeah, thank God.

but don't tell the children thank god thank god no you know probably have to get psychiatric help but um but uh no but and there's a certain pressure with that Wonka too people are like very protective of characters they love you know they don't want and there's sort of like a cynicism about Hollywood you know about like why are they keep revisiting um the Wonka thing I felt was justified because it's a new story we weren't doing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory we were doing sort of an origin and uh

By the way, I don't know if you've seen Wonka. Have you? Yeah, which one have I seen? Yeah, I've seen all of them. You watched it while you were in the car spying on the list. You had it playing on the audio.

Uh-huh, okay.

They had Stevie Wonder at the movie last night. Oh, really? Yeah.

We were up late, and I basically, I shot this movie, Marty Supreme, all of a fall. These crazy directors, or crazy director, Josh Saft. You ever see Uncut Gems?

That director. So it's kind of that energy, that chaotic thing. So it wasn't like a low energy shoot. This was like 16 hour days for three months. Then I went right into this. So I haven't been like drinking at all. Not that I ever really had a problem with it, but just, you know, cause these days and I actually find my mind is so much sharper.

I'm amazed I haven't gotten sick through this whole, like last couple of months. But last night I did have a couple of drinks. I'm kind of fried today, man.

I'm sorry. My voice is a little.

It's like... Oh, here we are. Oh, man. I don't do the, I call it instant nostalgia, you know? Oh, seeing these pictures like this? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean... It's kind of bizarre, isn't it? Yeah, it's kind of bizarre, man. This is good because this is – I'll say this. It's a great cast and a great director, so we all have fun. Edward Norton, man. Edward Norton should come on this podcast, man.

He's a legend, absolute legend.

Yeah. Do you play Texas Hold'em?

Errico – Errico.

Look at that. Calm down, brother. I've seen so many people ape your haircut. Really? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And a whole, like, sort of generation of comedians came out of there then, huh?

Is that a bigger comedy base here than New York, you think?

In New York, you don't think you get the love you get out here?

I've never heard that MO.

Interesting, interesting, interesting.

That's interesting. You ever had that Yakum in New Orleans? That Yakum? It's not a drug, is it? No, no, no.

It's crazy, right? It's a crazy setup.

Did you see the last Sandler special on Netflix? McGee performed that night, too.

I thought that was McGee. Dude, you look like you're 23, man.

Once. Works out once.

No, his kids, you know, almost towards the start, Monica, who plays Joan Baez in the movie, she was in touch with Joan the whole time. And I thought about reaching out to his kids, but the thing is, when somebody gets revered like Bob at some point, he becomes this legend, you know, people can sanitize the past. What do you mean by that when you say that, just so we know?

They could present the best version of someone, you know, and not present their flaws. Even a lot of the documentaries about Bob, they just paint him as a genius. There's one documentary called Don't Look Back, the D.A. Pennebaker one, where you actually see him raw. It just captures his behavior.

And it was sort of right before he got too famous where he turned his back, you know, on letting himself be filmed. And so that was like the biggest help for me. And I thought about talking to his kids or his grandkids, but actually I was at the University of Minnesota like three days ago. We're doing a sort of a screening for the students there. And then someone said, this is Milo Dillon.

This is his grandnephew. And he looked like, kind of looked like Bob. And he said, can we get a picture? And then he put his finger out and he said, you FaZe? And then I said, well, like the video game, he said, no, nevermind.

Who's Sketch? I don't know who Sketch is.

Oh, there's Vietnamese food. I don't think so. I was watching top five, like top five New Orleans street foods. Yaka, homie.

Sketch him. No. Oh, my God. No. Oh, yes, I have. I have. I have. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is that brother? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's been on this.

Some people on their podcasts are, granted, stand-up is different, right?

Do you feel like stand-up's in a golden era? I feel like it's like boxing. I feel like Netflix kind of made it

That's a risk, man. I mean, it's a risk dollars wise, right?

Well, they give you heart attacks too.

No, no, based on that Sex and the City, you know, Mr. Biggs. That's how he died.

You see that he died on the Peloton in the episode. He dies in the episode, and then their stock crashed because people thought it was killing. And they obviously had to sign off on that. I guess. That wouldn't be a good idea. That's a real thing, right, Mr. Biggs? I think.

Yeah, we're pulling it up.

And you don't have to, you don't have to, you don't have to like the movie, but were you, did you know anything about Bob Dylan before or no?

Yeah, he was a mumbler. I mean, at some point he enunciated better.

Really, in the country? I did not know that. I've never been to NOLA. I think so. You haven't? Never. Oh, man. And a lot of stuff shoots there. For some reason, I just haven't been there before. Yeah.

Well, he definitely keeps it behind a screen. We don't know what's going on. Yeah. I probably said more in this interview than he said his whole life. It's mythical.

I had five years to work on it. So I took guitar lessons with a great... Wait, you had five years to work on this?

Yeah. Over a long period of time. Well, 2018, we're supposed to do it summer of 2020. Then the pandemic hit. Then I just kept working on it, kept working on it. I was supposed to do the summer of 2023. Then the strike hit, which is when I was coaching. Still getting in trouble for doing my, you know, getting rid of my lisp. I'm just kidding.

You don't actually talk like this.

Your voice is actually super high. When I walked in here today, Theo's voice was super high. I'm a Disney character, guys, dude. And he kept doing this weird thing where he'd rock back and forth. Oh, boy. That's how he welcomed me. He insisted that I jump on his back and get brought in here. And he put me on the couch, and then he assumed the character we all know, that is Theo Vaughn.

You know, Nashville reminded me of Austin a little bit. You know, 6th Street?

I actually wanted him to jump on my front, dude.

But listen, you've got to be strong enough to do that. That's a good point. I could probably do it to you. I'm getting you out of your comfort zone, man. You could not do a frontside piggyback whiz. When we finish this, I'm jumping on the front.

That promenade a little bit. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Sort of, yeah.

And, you know, can I F you this? Like a little John Cena thing? Just for promo. Just for promo.

I'll do it on this. Okay. All right. Then you land on that. Oh, man. You just lay somebody on this. No, I'm going to be like that, and then I'll suplex you on that.

Yeah. It's that time of year, man. It's the holidays. Come on, it's the holidays. You know, this is the holidays in America in 2024.

About nothing.

So what about you? I'm going to be here because I've been all over the place. I'm going to New York tonight. Then I go to London and then do all this promo for the movie. Oh, you still have to promo for this movie? For how long does promo take? Well, it's coming out on Christmas, so I'm going every day, you know? But I love the movie.

You go to the soccer games ever? Nashville SC? Yeah.

That's why, you know, that's why... Shit, man, I'm trying to go as hard as possible. And, you know, and then fucking come back here and be with my family, be with my new little niece. Oh, you got a new niece?

First one. Let's go, dude.

Can you bring a picture of her?

I don't even think... I think my sister's kept her offline. You know, my sister lives in a sort of like a... She's with a group of people in like a forest type thing in France.

Near Annecy? Yeah, near Annecy, yep. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In a forest. No internet. I'm sorry, bro. I'm sorry. No, no.

You know, let's email her a meal. Let's give her a French Groupon. French Groupon. No, but she's... Yeah, yeah, yeah. No Groupons in France, man. No Groupons in France. No Groupons and a high property tax. They have high property tax over there.

Beautiful property. And they don't want people just coming in, you know, not, you know. Just milling around for 40 bucks a month property tax. I'm in that age now where I'll chat GBT, like, what are the most attractive, low property tax places in America or around the world?

Wait, who'd she give it to?

He had a hoodie that said government. He had a couple of them, yeah. She just gave him eight bucks. Oh, man. Same thing, man. I grew up in like a Mitchell Llama. You know about Mitchell Llama? Oh, yeah, the restaurant stars or whatever? No, no, no, no, no. The Mitchell Llama is like, there's like two, to my understanding, there's two versions of like good arts housing here. You got section eight.

That means you're paying like under 800 bucks. Mitchell Llama, yep. Oh, that damn Mitchell Llama, brother. Absolutely.

So how do you know New York, man?

What's the ideal, you know, what does she look like both inside and out?

She's looking for... Likes to laugh, has a good sense of humor.

Could she do somersaults?

So it's like you can go there from K to senior year of college.

So you love your diehard season ticket holder. You're there all the time. Sometimes I'll text my neighbor who's the coach. You're like, hey, you mind if I pop by? You might just pop by, and they're cool. And he'll be on the field. He'll be like, yeah, sure, pull up. Do you get the McConaughey UT pass? You can go wherever you want?

Absolutely. And those are two crucial chapters of life. Is your home, you know, wifeable? Not currently. Is there like shit everywhere when you walk out? No.

um it's there's not a lot of bleachers so it's pretty you're basically on the field all the time yeah i was amazed i was at that that ut georgia game mcconaughey gets oh you went to that he gets full license yeah he could do whatever he wants because i already had a field pass i thought i was pretty right you know high level in some way he's like with the coach he's calling plays he's coaching he's taping a guy he's taping a guy up he's like you're gonna be all right he's living the experience you know

And it's got a little mic and a camera in there.

She's just... Bro, that's such a good idea.

She's just watching you watch...

It's a murder, yeah.

And it has a camera in it. Yeah. Write it, baby.

What do you watch on Christmas? What would the camera see you doing?

No, I've never seen Family Man.

Have you ever met him? No, man, but Matchstick Men is one of my favorite movies ever. Yeah. You know, Nicolas Cage, man. What a life. But yeah, I'd like to get a wife maybe.

Yeah, she's... Her real name's Suze Rotolo in real life, but the real Bob Dylan was still very protective over her. She was never really famous. So that was one of his big script notes. He said, change that name. And, you know, just... I think he felt protective over her legacy in some way. And so he had some notes about the script. Yeah, exactly. The love triangle is sort of one of the big...

You know, like we do these Q&As for the movie now, and people will say, was Bob, was his behavior towards the people that he was in a relationship with in his life, you know, it's definitely complicated. But my answer is always, he was focused on his art, first and foremost. Also, this movie's about people in their early 20s. You don't really have life figured out, especially in relationship then.

Yeah. Stuff is a mess at that age. So it was kind of between these two women in the movie, and Joan Baez is a musician and artist, ambitious the way Bob would have been, and Sylvie's really the more grounded character. I think what Elle Fanning does in the movie is incredible. You kind of see the movie through her eyes because she's not one of these famous musicians.

She's really just a real person and is, you know, deeply affected. Right.

Yeah. And the things that pulled... Well, she's the only person in the movie that doesn't have a transactional relationship with him. Right. Really loves him for who he is. And, you know, that was our theory. You know, I never talked to Bob Dylan, but I feel like that's why I think he's still fond of that relationship and private about it, because...

if maybe the rest of his life could be confusing. I'm not, I don't want to speak for him, but confusing about like who's being genuine with me and who's not. She was always the clear day one. Clear candidate.

Yeah. You know? Yeah, no one's like a great... Besides Elle Fanning, everyone comes off a little... Real. Yeah, yeah, hopefully, yeah.

Flawed in a human way, and a little... Especially in your early 20s, man, you're trying to figure out your life.

Were you a saint in your early 20s? Dude...

You're at the game.

Drew Brees jersey on your 16th Miller Lite.

I got a buddy who's on the national soccer team. His name's Alex Mule. Oh, really?

Man, exactly. And that's something I could relate to, not in the relationships necessarily in my life, but you know, you feel like your career gets going. I don't know how you feel about that. And you want to protect your energy and, and, but you still want to have close, you know, friendships and relationships.

And, but at first it's very, it's a hard thing to navigate, particularly if you want to keep writing, you keep wanting to like Bob Dylan, you know? And like you said, he was genuinely great at it. He had a gift from God at that point in his career. He said it in an Ed Bradley interview in 2004. He's like, I feel like God was writing through me. And he says in the interview, I can't do it anymore.

He almost says it like, like, uh, like he misses it.

It's a beautiful moment in this Ed Bradley interview. He just, uh, he says, I can't do it anymore. I don't know how those words were coming to me. Wow. And I feel like musicians even more than actors, I feel like an actor into your 30s and 40s and 50s, as your face ages, you can keep doing great work. And the gravitas of your life lives on your face. You know what I mean?

Absolutely. And the games are often sold out. You know, I grew up with this guy. Alex Mule. Yeah, but he was always M-U-Y-L. That's the bane of his life, man. Oh, yeah.

Right, and so the more you learn in life, the more abilities you're going to have. Yeah, and the more trauma you go through, whatever. And I feel like as a musician, you can still do great shit, but it's really like a young man's game. Yeah, because you have to do all that touring and stuff as well. Yeah, and it beats you up.

exactly you know I love you know it's funny we do these Q&A's so I get the backstage experience my holy shit I'm coming out man like fuck they're gonna say my name out loud I'm all excited and I come out and then as opposed to a rock star I fucking sit in a chair oh yeah and I answer like watch this and I sit down and I try to give poised answers and just make sure your posture's okay the whole time dude it's humiliating posture rocking in the house tonight that shit is so hard to deal with cause I'll be backstage and you hear the crowd like Timothee Chalamet yeah

and then I fucking take my seat yeah yeah and then I'm poised yeah you're like let's go and you sit down and I sit down dude it's humiliating it's like it's very anti uh I don't know what the word is but somebody else probably knows it but yeah I don't know it but um

And sort of the first guy for me in American pop culture that said, I'm gonna do whatever the fuck I want.

Yeah, and that was like sort of blasphemous. Like every artist through the last 30, 40, 50 years that a lot of whom you can't shout out because they basically burned so many bridges. But Bob Dylan was the first. He just wouldn't take no for an answer. He just was fired up about his art. And his perception. No, I don't think it sounds like anything.

Yeah, but it didn't sound corny because he really didn't give a fuck. And that, to me, was really refreshing to work on. Now we live in a time where not only is it hard to be rebellious about your art, but it's as much about the Coliseum's reaction. You think about a clip you like online or something you like or don't like, the first thing you do is you go to the comments.

This is amazing, man. I wish this is like, this is what AI is going to be in 20 years. Just say it and it pops up.

It's as much about how people are reacting, you know what I'm saying, as it is about the actual thing.

It's kind of harder now.

I don't know what I'm saying. No, no, but yeah, I was just trying to say, and also to avoid that, that's kind of what I'm doing these days, man. You just got to like, you have to bury your head so far. Even like the pictures from the premiere, I'm just like, you know, I just try to put the shutters on because it's not healthy, man. Oh, looking at all your stuff and looking at that?

It's fucking weird. And you're not supposed to do it. No, we're supposed to be, you know, like gathering nuts and berries. No.

What are you talking about, dude? You're not even that good looking. Yeah, killer rabbit, dude. Yeah. Our tribe needs to eat, dude.

Yeah, we got people to feed. We have 17 people and our elder is fucking suffering.

Yeah, exactly.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Like, what are you even talking about? Dude, it's 300 BC. What does that even mean? Stop working on your Raya profile. Fucking help us with the fire we need to put out in the forest, you narcissistic prick. Yeah, dude, what are you talking about? Yeah, I have no fucking clue. No clue.

Have you tried... Do you use the... VR? The Vision? Oculus, that kind of thing? No, no, no. Well, Oculus too, I guess, but the AirPod... What do you mean?

We don't know. I don't know. I burned a biopic and I got to go back in three months and I got to check if it's still there. And, um, no, I, You're right. I can only do so many, especially like music ones. I'll be honest. What are some other ones you think? I have a couple.

Oh, ideas? No, you go first.

So we got to get you to say something, bro. No, I mean, well, I'm trying to think of ones you could do. You could do. I know I could do maybe.

you could do a Brad Pitt biopic you know what I'm saying put a little right there come on put a little sprinkle on it put a little sprinkle on it no maybe if like maybe a Brad Pitt like was stranded somewhere like you know maybe like a hitchhiker something no but you could you could do would you ever do Mabu you think little Mabu oh my god dude that is fucking funny that's an alternate time I'm him in an alternate timeline oh yeah because you know I used to well you know there's two ways you could have gone that's what we like to say a lot of times yeah that's me in an alternate timeline I love him bro

I don't know enough about him. I know he's from New York, though. You're right. You know, it's a great point. I don't fucking know if I like him.

Maybe I'll do a little Mabu biopic. I don't know what it's about. I wonder what the tragedy of his life is.

The Vision Pro. Vision Pro? What is it? The Apple helmet. Tell me about Mule. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My bad. So you played ball with him growing up? I played ball with him growing up and he was just gifted, you know. It's tough, you know, you could play like, it's like that Last Dance Chicago Bulls documentary.

Yeah, he launched Mabu coin. Oh, he's going to be so pissed at us, dude. Man. Bro, sorry.

No, I don't know him. I mean, he's clearly killing it. Yeah. If he wasn't killing it, we wouldn't be talking about him. That's a good point.

And he started that conservation fund for that thing. I'm sorry.

What was his... Born with a cleft lip and palate. I'll work with Tim Monick. We were talking about earlier. I'll work with Tim Monick on it, you know, and hopefully there's no strike.

Did he ever? Did he ever?

We could just give him the speech. They were considered notorious hellions, him and his brother Willie. He was sick a lot. He got typhoid. A lot of people were getting sick back then.

Yeah.

Who's playing Abraham Lincoln?

Pa's dead. I can hardly believe that I should never see him again. This is some heavy shit. After the assassination, Mary Robert and Tad lived together in Chicago. We died at 18, dude. I can't. Come on. Holy shit. Tuberculosis. This was a waste of a pitch. Pneumonia and congestive heart failure. You could do it, man. I think you could do it.

He's so brilliant. Have you seen his... He went to some fashion event in 2018, 2019. You see this red carpet interview? It's the biggest not-give-a-fuck interview of all time. Yeah, if we have enough time. We should add 20 minutes to this anyway if we can. This is the greatest. He looks so dropped into being himself.

Some of those guys will be partying all night and then they'll, then they'll drop, like Dennis Rodman will drop 40, you know, it's like, I could work my ass off. And if you don't have the gift of physical talent, of athleticism, you're cooked.

I mean, he was the biggest, biggest star.

Yeah, he was like the only white guy on it.

I saw an interview with him today, Sonic the Hedgehog. They said, why did you do this? He said, for the money. What a life. Because when Bruce Almighty was coming out, I mean, really, he was like the biggest. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, Alex Mule is a foot Mozart.

and it's direct to the consumer in some sense. Like, you do whatever the fuck you want, and if people are vibing with it, you'll know, and whatever. In the movie industry, you do kind of have to, you gotta be reliable. You know, a musician, you show up whenever you want. They could be a rockstar to show up four hours late. If you're three hours late to a movie, they gotta call insurance.

You cost a million dollars now, you'll never work again. So there's a part of the job that's obedient, in a sense. But the best art and the best shit we see is stuff that, you know, is- People showed up for. People showed up, but also where they broke rules in a sense. I was just talking to – Oh, yeah. Yeah, and so it's a fine line, and I look at it like this.

This is my inner Tom Cruise where I want movies to be seen, and I don't want to live an unobedient life, but I also want at a time where maybe Hollywood or a movie maker has got a perception of like – sometimes being out of touch or something, or definitely like awards type movies.

I want, especially a movie about Bob Dylan, I want, in all the movies I work on, that's why I did Dune, that's why I did Wonka, and I'm proud that those movies, I know I'm not supposed to pat myself on the back, but those movies were big, you know? Like in the movie industry, or the movie business, brick and mortar theaters, they don't, they don't do the business they once did.

Some of that's inevitable because of streaming, but I want to put my best foot forward. You gotta, you gotta give back to the industry that gave to you. That's really my MO.

And that's why I'm, that's why I'm here that, you know, you know, um, otherwise that's why you can't be the reclusive figure that Bob Dylan or Daniel Day-Lewis or these guys were because the, the, the, it's not about the bottom line, but the, the attention isn't guaranteed the way it used to be. You know what I mean? I hope this doesn't sound like too inside baseball or whatever.

That's what I visited. Yeah, I was at Vanderbilt.

Yeah. And then also I had a full ass real life before my career took off, like in the East village in New York. So, um, not that my life isn't real now, but like obviously on these press tours and stuff, the days are micromanaged in some way, but man, you, here's the thing. That's another thing I say, like as a musician or as a pop star, whatever, Your music can be about your erosion of humanity.

It could be about, hey, I'm driving this car, and this is the crazy lifestyle I live. But if you're an actor, if you lose your sense of humanity, if you lose your stink, for lack of a better word, people will see that on screen. You do see it on screen. Oh, you see them too fancy. You see them out of touch. People are going to know.

You know, I never had that American college experience. You know, I went to Columbia for a second. I went to NYU. So I'm jealous of that. But Vanderbilt, respect to Vanderbilt, it didn't feel like UT or it didn't feel like I had a huge campus or a huge.

That's why the Safdie movie I just did, man, he put me through the ringer. Really? Oh, yeah. I felt like he was testing me early on.

Yeah, look, Josh knew me since I was 21. Josh Safdie?

That's one of the best movies. There you go, man. And Good Time. You know, Good Time with Robert Pattinson, he directed, too. I haven't seen that.

Yeah, for sure. For sure. But, you know, like early on, we had stuff that could have been stunt guys on this movie, on Marty Supreme. And I saw him wanting me to do it. And part of me was like, this feels like a test, you know? And I wanted to show him. And now I feel like I've emerged from the other side with no broken bones or whatever, thank God.

And Josh, I know I'm supposed to be talking about the Bob Dylan movie, but Josh is like... Yeah, Josh is the real deal, man. And seriously, Josh Safi, he's like the modern-day Scorsese. Dang, I want to meet that guy. Oh, dude, you would love him.

Yeah. I would like to meet him.

He could play Abraham Lincoln.

I could play Tad Lincoln. Tell him right now. His brother's an actor, Benny. You ever see the Nathan Fielder show with Emma Stone on Showtime?

That's his brother.

Yeah, this is a crazy, crazy fucking movie.

It's only on Christmas you can see it. It comes out on Christmas day. Biggest journey was the music and the voice. And also I've never had my phone off the entire movie. I had three months to play this guy. And then the rest of my life I never get to play him again. So I was locked in. You're never supposed to say you're competitive, but I want, you know, there's been a lot of music biopics.

And I wanted to do a great fucking job, man. I love Bob Dylan. I love this artist. None of this is for granted. This little misconception about actors, too, and acting, you can have a cushy job on a TV show. If you don't give a fuck about your work, it could be a great lifestyle, right? You're making, like, high six figures, maybe low seven figures, and you're just showing up when you want.

If you give a fuck about what you're doing, these are long-ass days. Wow. You know what I mean? These are 14-hour days, six days a week sometimes, three months. Look, I know people got it way harder, but I want to feel that grit. I want to feel it. I hope people don't laugh at it. I feel like I'm the hardest working man. Anyway, maybe I shouldn't say that. You respect what you do.

So that was huge. It was crazy. Because usually their football program is not that good, right?

Yeah, because you got to. What else is the point? I talk about this with friends a lot. This is too weird a lifestyle to be... Nonchalant about. Yeah, why do this?

If you're not going to go as hard as possible.

On Marty Supreme, I'm wearing contacts cause he wanted my eyes to be little. So he gives me real glasses that fuck my eyes up and I'm wearing contacts underneath to offset what the glasses are doing. And my vision was, my vision was basically fucked up until a day ago. Every time I took these glasses off, my, my vision was skewed. Wow. You know, um,

You're like the Forrest Gump of sight or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Sort of. Dude, Forrest Gump is... We had the Forrest Gump ping pong coaches. Same. Lovely couple in LA, Diego and Wei. Been married 40 years. Wei is a Chinese ping pong champion.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. From the 80s. She pretty cool? She's like... We would train... Yeah, Wei. Wei Li. There she is. There she is. That's my ping pong coach. You know, we train for three hours and then she said, let's play for real. And she's like, she's probably like 97 pounds. She's like five foot one. And she's just like, yeah. Unbelievable. You're not getting a point across. Yeah.

Do you...

I didn't sleep on set, and you know, method acting, that gets like a bad rap, people think it's just like a person being a prick, and obliging everyone around them to subscribe to a reality that's not real. The thing I came up with, I call it- Oh dude, that's just everybody's stepdad as well, you know? Yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah, that's method acting, I need a beer!

Yeah, exactly, and you, yeah, and uh, yeah. Damn it! Give me that goddamn Miller Lite. But I call it method energy because, you know, you'd shit on me too if I'm coming off like a dick. But, you know, I just tried to, no cell phones, nothing that reminds you of the present. And try to treat it like Bob Dylan as much as possible, especially if you're playing somebody that iconic.

That was tough too. He didn't feel like an icon when he was himself. He was just living his fucking life. So if you talk to too many people, you got to avoid earworms.

Yeah. That's why Edward Norton, I love him. He's great. Pete Seeger in the movie. But he's like, Edward Norton is a little bit his character in the movie Birdman, if you ever saw that. He's like a very confident, opinionated actor. So I would kind of have to, you know. And then he caught me watching Rounders one day. Oh, yeah. And then it was over. Then he knew he had me.

Yeah, he caught me in the hair and makeup show. He's like, oh, you like Rounders? And I was like, all right, now we're going to talk. Oh, hold me for a second. That's a lot. I'm still jumping on you at the end of this.

I'm getting you out of your comfort zone.

What's the most comfortable you've ever felt in your life?

Like most in your body, no drugs, no alcohol.

I guess. He just has a lot of just expendable income to be that guy, you know? That's the other thing, like, where I want to be humble about putting movies out there. People's attention is elsewhere now. It's quick.

Yeah, and you got to convince someone to see A Complete Unknown on Christmas Day and take the $15 or $20, whatever the fuck it is now, and instead of watching, you know, Mr. Beast in the Arctic...

Scoot McNary. He's amazing. Yeah.

And he, and he doesn't have a line in the movie. He doesn't have a line because he's so sick. Because he's so sick.

Scoot McNary could play Bernie Sanders in a biopic. Oh, he could. Right? Yeah. Totally could. Dude, you could play Ronald Reagan's son, Ricky Reagan or whatever.

What are you doing on the field, dude? You almost ran that person over. Hey, bro. That's amazing.

Is that a real guy?

He's looked the same in the last... Yeah.

It was a crazy time. It was like the, it was the... It was a cool piece of life. It was a cool piece of life. The 60s were a cool time. When you get out of it all and it's done... I was beat on this one. Were you?

No, another misconception about movies, as opposed to the academic year, it kind of winds down. You're never winding down in a movie. You're doing 14-hour days, and you go off a cliff, and it's done. In other words, you don't relax towards the end. We were doing a very important scene, and it was done forever. Yeah, I guess I relaxed a little bit. I went on vacation, but I was beat.

I was working on this for five years. This was as important to me as you going to the parking lot and spying on the swim team up there. of Lipscomb College. Nothing to see here. Exactly. I'm just recruiting, guys.

Absolutely not. Also, because I had the experience in my life where I would do interviews and, you know, it's a scary time to come up with the internet and stuff. You know, you want to get it right. And Bob Dylan, his early press conferences, he was confrontational. He was basically a dick. And I thought there was something really inspiring about that.

Not that I ever wanted to be like that, but I just thought it was so different than how people are now. Yeah.

where you were you right you're just automatically cordial you just assume like well you got to be man a a i am i'm not a pretty cordial guy yeah but b um god forbid you know you don't want to be anyway so but he's these early press conferences oh you know if uh if you're tremendously bored and not watching mr b stuff watch the the the early bob dylan san francisco press conferences you know and i just thought so anyway five years working on it i got a better sense on the other side of it oh this is why he would have carried himself like that

You know, he had some wherewithal I didn't have in his early 20s, where somebody said, how do you do it? He goes, basically, I didn't want to tell anyone. You know, me, maybe because of whatever, the acting bone. Somebody says, how do you do it? And you're so desperate for that pat on your back, and you go, this is how I did it, you know?

That was pretty good. You got the nasality down. You got the nasality.

Yeah, he just made shit up. That was good, man. He verbified things, didn't he? I don't think, I'm trying to think who your music biopic would be still. It might have to be. What about Chet Baker? I would do Chet Baker. Chet Baker or... Chet Hanks, even. Dude, you should do that Chet Hanks biopic, dude. That would be unbelievable. That's a glitch in the system. Yeah, it's a glitch. Everything is.

Also, it would be a great excuse to get shredded.

Oh, man. No, just thanks for having me on. I'm trying to think. I think we kind of covered a lot of new stuff.

Yeah.

Wait, you have a place in LA? Yeah, I still have an apartment.

It's a fictional woman. Yeah. I feel like the next time we talk, if you had me back on, I feel like you're going to be a year and a half into a beautiful marriage and a recent father. And, um, and you will have, you will have, um,

I see you doing, you know, you know, so, um, you just got to go hard.

It'll be in theaters on Christmas Day. A complete unknown. Super proud of this, man. You should be, man.

Thanks for letting me talk about it, bro. Yep.

Holy shit, that wasn't as ground as I'm sorry. Yeah! That's front side.

Man, that's pretty crazy, huh?

I feel like I could see three stadiums from my hotel. I feel like I could see the Vanderbilt one, the Tennessee Titans one, and Nissan Stadium. Shout out, Nissan. Yeah. Is Nissan a big Tennessee car manufacturer? That's a good question. I don't think so.

Man, thank you. You know, I, not with the shameless plug, but I got this movie, A Complete Unknown, coming out on Christmas Day.

Did you actually see it? Yeah. Fantastic, man. So I'm excited that we can actually talk about it. I was, uh, very much in the time period of the movie the whole time and trying to stay without being a dick, you know, within the bounds of the character. But somebody in the hair and makeup trailer at the end of the day, they would play this podcast, you know, which is how I discovered it.

And, uh, particularly the, uh, the episodes with the garbage man and sort of like the real life episodes, the lunch lady, the coroner. Wayne. Yeah. Wayne, the garbage man. He's doing good. Those were, those were like awesome episodes, you know, sort of like worldviews that I wouldn't get otherwise, you know? And, uh, Yeah, and you're from New York, right?

And I'm from New York, so Garbage Man, he totally recontextualized that for me.

Yeah, because you think they're taking their time. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And I realize how tough that job is. I mean, he was like throwing dogs in the back of the... I mean, that story is... Do you remember that?

In the back of the, back of the, whatever.

No, hearing it on accident and loving it. And I'm so happy you saw this movie. And this is like, you know, I hope this isn't like a shameless self-plug.

I still don't know, man. Biopic sounds like a medical procedure. Yeah. You know, that sounds like someone, you know, is inspecting your lungs to see if you played the role the right way. I like biopic. Biopic sounds fancier.

This is a four or five year period in the early Bob Dylan's life. And I'm sure a lot of people listening to your program are already fans of Bob Dylan's, but I'm sure a lot aren't because to my generation, you know, Yeah, people, some people don't know. So I don't know. And he's really one of the most fantastic American artists of all time and has influenced our culture in so many deep ways.

And it's just, you know, I grew up on, on Kid Cudi and hip hop and that was really my, you know, my, my, my passion. And then somewhere in my twenties, because this movie I was working on, I became obsessed with this, this man, Bob Dylan, who's absolutely, I could just speak about him endlessly. And, you know,

I would love if people saw this movie and even if they got a passing interest, discover the world of Bob Dylan. I feel like we get to be a bridge or a gateway to this guy. And I hope this isn't one of your episodes where you got like someone, you know, like one of the ones people skip because it's like a person plugging something, you know what I'm saying? Like a...

I don't want to use that word celebrity, but like, you know, because my favorite episodes of yours are... Oh, like a fancy, like a fancier person, hypothetically fancier? No, I don't mean it like that, but just like, I like, like I said, I like the ones that are off the cuff.

Yeah, I never really used that word, but... No, that's okay.

Look, man, I think... I feel like this part of the job is that, though, because when I'm working, I'm really very much in it, you know what I mean? And then here, anyway.

Well, if you want to get your movie out, there's only a limit of how... pretentious in some way, you know, whatever, you know, I want, I want this, especially this movie. I believe in this movie and I believe in this man. He's a tremendous artist. So I want to, I want to, you know, get it out there. Yeah.

Yeah. I know you struggle with that a little bit. Yeah.

And I appreciate you bringing up Beautiful Boy, and I feel like you're doing the exact same thing, not to just blow smoke up each other's ass, but I feel like when you... Oh, we're a couple of naughty Native Americans right here. Come on, come on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. If you're listening to this and not watching this, we're fully at the bottom half of our bodies.

We're out of your booth, and it's getting spicy out here.

Take that out. No, no, no. Because I know you speak on it, too, and you probably empower people that otherwise would be... Doing some naughty stuff.

Tell me about the first time. That was super gradual. Can't do it with people that are fans. Because people that are fans of Bob Dylan will go, they'll all tell you you got it wrong. That's the trouble with playing someone so famous and beloved. Everyone's got an opinion about him.

So you got to put the blinders on and just kind of do it around people that you know. Look, man, I'm usually not that prick actor who's obliging his friends or whatever to listen to the character he's working on. But this is the one time I did that.

Because, yeah, you don't want to get out there and do a bad job of it. Exactly, man. This would have been blasphemous. I would have gotten... killed. I mean, I could still get killed. Yeah. But now it seems like, you know, getting a little bit of love, you know what I'm saying?

Yes. Very gradually. Um, I, I, I had to, there's a great dialect coach named Tim Monick. You know, you can work with people that are like experts in this field and they'll tell you how to go about it. He, this man, Tim Monick invented dialect coaching. He came up with it. Tim Monick. Let's bring him up. M-O-N-I-C-H. He's worked with Leonardo DiCaprio. He's worked with everyone, you know.

So he's a famous dialect coach. I've never looked him up before. Yeah. Tim Monick.

Yeah, there I am with him, and I got in trouble anyway. Oh, you did?

I got in trouble because the strike had just hit, and I was just hanging out with him, and I didn't really get in trouble. People thought I was a scab, and I was working with him. Oh, yeah. Crossing lisp lines or whatever. You're right, dude. You're right. You're right.

That's the only union where you'd be crossing the picket line by working on your tongue. Yeah, that's crazy. No, I'm serious. It was a real thing, dude. Oh, yeah.

Stop working on the accent. How dare you learn Spanish? Yeah, exactly. That's crazy. Wow. Man, next time I'll call you. Because actually, when you put it like that, it's like, what are you supposed to do? And I wasn't working with him. I was hanging out. We went to a shitty, super shitty. It's bleak, man.