Timothée Chalamet hasn’t even won an Oscar yet, but he’s still one step closer to an eventual EGOT, with his first-ever Grammy nomination. The soundtrack album for last year’s biopic A Complete Unknown, featuring Chalamet singing and playing Bob Dylan classics from “Masters of War” to “Blowin’ in the Wind,” scored a nomination for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media. Although it’s credited solely to Chalamet, the album also includes performances from other members of the film’s cast — Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, Ed Norton as Pete Seeger, and Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash.
Chalamet (and friends) are up against some intense competition. Other nominees in the category include the much-lauded Sinners soundtrack (featuring Buddy Guy, Rhiannon Giddons, Rod Wave, Brittany Howard, and more), the hit-filled KPop Demon Hunters album, the Wicked cast album (featuring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo), and F1 The Album (with artists from Ed Sheeran to Tate McRae).
No one could accuse Chalamet of not working hard for the nomination — he spent five years taking guitar, voice, and even harmonica lessons as he prepped for the film. He even played and sang live on the movie’s set. “You can’t re-create it in the studio,” he told Rolling Stone for our cover story on the film. “If I was singing to a prerecorded guitar, then all of a sudden I could hear the lack of an arm movement in my voice.”
In his preparation, the actor “never wanted to take the easy way out,” Chalamet’s guitar teacher, session musician Larry Saltzman, told Rolling Stone. “If I presented something to him like, ‘OK, this is the real way,’ but there’s a little bit of a shortcut,’ his answer to that was always, ‘Don’t show me the shortcut.’ ” Chalamet went all-out promoting the movie, going as far as to perform more Dylan songs as Saturday Night Live‘s musical guest.
From Rolling Stone US
