Is this a good idea? Saturday Night Live has announced that Timothée Chalamet will be the musical guest and perform as Bob Dylan, who he plays in “A Complete Unknown,” on an upcoming episode of the show.
The episode is supposed to air on January 25. Based on what is being reported, it does sound like Chalamet will be singing as Dylan. Since he recently wrapped shooting Josh Safdie’s “Marty Supreme,” he can probably also shave that mustache.
What this decision on the part of Chalamet tells me is that he wants to win that Oscar, badly. His campaigning so far has been pristine, and as attested by recent SAG and DGA noms, there’s a lot of love for ‘Complete Unknown’ in the industry. Can Timmy pull it off?
One could surmise that Adrien Brody (“The Brutalist”) is currently the frontrunner to win Best Actor. Other would-be contenders like Ralph Fiennes (“Conclave”) and Colman Domingo (“Sing Sing”) have not built up any kind of momentum in recent weeks. Chalamet has. Since Brody has already won an Oscar, there’s a chance that Chalamet could pull off the upset and win. He certainly has the narrative.
It should also be mentioned how Chalamet could very well win SAG next month as well since that voting body seems to be not so keen on ‘The Brutalist,’ having snubbed Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones’ performances earlier in the week.
If Chalamet were to win the Oscar then he’d become the youngest Best Actor winner in history. The current record-holder is —you guessed it— Adrien Brody who won his statuette for “The Pianist” when he was 29 years old. Chalamet, who is also 29, would beat him by just a few months.
While James L. Brooks teased last year that "we'll soon be seeing" Jack Nicholson, 89, act again, and that he was "reading scripts," that idea has now been shut down by his close friend Michael Douglas, 82.