Dylan has always felt a fierce urge to reject whatever his most devoted fans may think he is. From the rock 'n' roll renegade whose emergence anchors the movie to so many of his subsequent career moves -- country bumpkin, born-again Bible thumper, Tin Pan Alley crooner -- he's perpetually chasing the unexpected.
Todd Haynes's biographical pastiche "I'm Not There" (2007) captured this essence in eccentric style, casting several actors (including Cate Blanchett) to represent various aspects of Dylan's life and career.
Besides that bunch, however, the list of actors who have played Dylan in the movies is shorter than the number of artists in his peer group. In the Coen brothers' "Inside Llewyn Davis" (2013), a thinly fictionalized portrayal of the Greenwich Village folk scene that introduced him, the title character gets a glimpse of the future when he's followed onstage by "Bob Dylan," played by Ben Pike.
The real-life Dylan has tried his hand at this acting thing on several occasions. These wayward episodes in an otherwise monumental career range from the lead role in his ill-fated directing debut, "Renaldo and Clara" (1978), to a cameo in a 1999 episode of "Dharma & Greg" (no fooling). For a writer who loathes the hot lights of fame -- that's mostly what "A Complete Unknown" is about -- his occasional compulsion to stand before the cameras seems counterintuitive. See the above quote from the new movie, I suppose.
To mark the heavily anticipated rollout of Chalamet's impersonation, we've rounded up a gallery of cinematic moments when rock music's biggest enigma stooped to reveal another side of Bob Dylan.
Dont Look Back (1967)
Five years after his too-young-to-shave debut album, a couple of years removed from the Newport Folk Festival kerfuffle that culminates "A Complete Unknown," Dylan starred in D.A. Pennebaker's quirky documentary. The one with the tossed-off cue cards.
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)
Kris Kristofferson lobbied for a part in Sam Peckinpah's western for his friend Bobby, who appears as "Alias." As in, call me "anything you please." Dylan wrote the soundtrack, which is an underrated gem.
Renaldo and Clara (1978)
Directed by Dylan and co-written with Sam Shepard, a mainstay on Dylan's 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue tour, this melange of concert footage, interview sequences, and fictionalized set pieces was excoriated as a certified four-hour mess when it came out. Dylan took it out of circulation shortly thereafter and it's been rarely seen since.
Hearts of Fire (1987)
Conceived as a portrait of a reclusive rock star named Billy Parker, this clunker featured a rewrite by Hollywood fixer Joe Eszterhas and the last directing job by Richard Marquand, who made "Return of the Jedi" (1983) and "Jagged Edge" (1985). It premiered to pans in the UK before lurching through a mercifully brief theatrical life in the US.
Catchfire (1990)
Released under this title, this romantic thriller was credited to Alan Smithee, the alias for directors who want their name removed from a finished product. A restored director's cut, retitled "Backtrack," came out a couple of years later. Dennis Hopper, who directed and starred (opposite Jodie Foster), cast Dylan in a cameo as a chainsaw-wielding artist.
Dharma & Greg (1999)
Yes, this really happened. Dylan (and T Bone Burnett) appeared on the ABC sitcom in a band, auditioning Dharma (Jenna Elfman) on drums. Dylan's connection was the writer Eddie Gorodetsky, the WBCN alum who later produced the singer's "Theme Time Radio Hour" program for XM Satellite Radio (now SiriusXM).
Masked and Anonymous (2003)
Dylan conceived of this tall tale, involving a paroled music legend named "Jack Fate" and plenty of existential questions, as a farce. Then he got cold feet. With Larry Charles ("Seinfeld," "Borat") in the director's chair, an all-star cast bumbled through this ponderous feature instead. Initial reactions basically amounted to Greil Marcus's infamous Rolling Stone review of Dylan's 1970 album "Self Portrait" ("What is this s -- ?"). Critical consensus has softened a bit since.
Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story By Martin Scorsese (2019)
"When somebody's wearing a mask, he's gonna tell you the truth," the aging trickster tells Scorsese's film crew. "When he's not, it's highly unlikely." Compiled of excerpts from the Rolling Thunder caravan (which began in Plymouth), this quasi-mockumentary includes the "tour recollections" of several actors playing fictional characters. Dylan himself is a fiction: "Life isn't about finding yourself, or finding anything," he says. "Life is about creating yourself."