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Timothée Chalamet made another stop on his award season promotional tour this weekend by pulling a double shift on “Saturday Night Live,” hosting as himself and singing like Bob Dylan, the rock legend he plays in the Oscar-nominated film “A Complete Unknown.”
The three-time SNL host was clear during his opening monologue that he intended to play some lesser known songs. “You might not know the Bob Dylan songs I’m performing, but they’re my personal favourites,” he told the audience. “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.”
SNL alum Adam Sandler, playing off a joke from the Golden Globes about how he pronounces Chalamet’s name, introduced Chalamet before he performed “Outlaw Blues” and “Three Angels.” Later in the evening, Chalamet, sitting on a dark stage and brightened only by the soft glow of the spotlight, performed “Tomorrow Is a Long Time.”
“Outlaw Blues” appeared on Dylan’s fifth album “Bringing It All Back Home” – heralded as one of the best albums in history, by Rolling Stone.
“Three Angels,” meanwhile, comes from “New Morning,” which was Dylan’s 11th album released in 1970 that lives between his different music eras. Chalamet was joined onstage throughout the night by James Blake, a British musician who played the piano and offered backup vocals.
Later in the show, Chalamet returned for a moody rendition of “Tomorrow Is a Long Time,” which Dylan originally performed live in the ’60s before it finally appeared on “Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Vol. II” in 1971.
Chalamet will be looking ahead to the Oscars on March 2, where he’ll compete against Adrien Brody (“The Brutalist”), Colman Domingo (“Sing Sing”), Ralph Fiennes (“Conclave”) and Sebastian Stan (“The Apprentice”) in the best leading actor category. Chalamet lost to Brody in the best actor in a drama category at the Golden Globes earlier in January.
In his monologue, Chalamet poked fun at award shows and showed a montage of himself losing previous awards. “I just keep losing, and each time it gets harder to pretend it doesn’t sting,” he quipped. He then staged a fake award ceremony, assuming he’d win, only for the imaginary honor to be handed to Kenan Thompson instead.
Elsewhere, Chalamet showed up as a barista in training, an AI-generated podcast host and a little dog speaking to other little dogs. (He did not appear in the “Founding Fathers” cold open, which included a cameo from Lin-Manuel Miranda as Alexander Hamilton.)
Many social media users sung high-praise for Chalamet’s performance on SNL, seeing it as a good move for his Oscar campaign and for any potential side gigs as a singer. His choice to sing deep cuts won over Dylan fans, too.
“A Complete Unknown,” a biopic on Dylan based on Elijah Wald’s 2015 book “Dylan Goes Electric!,” was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including best picture. The film follows Dylan during his early years and rise to critical acclaim. Ty Burr wrote for The Washington Post that Chalamet was “excellent” in the role, and very much channeled a younger Dylan in his performance.