What's it like to teach an actor to move like Dylan?
Polly Bennett helped transform Timothée Chalamet into Bob Dylan for the film A Complete Unknown
Searchlight Pictures
- Craig McLean
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Polly Bennett is a movement director who helped Austin Butler transform into Elvis Presley, Rami Malek into Freddie Mercury, Naomi Ackie into Whitney Houston and, most recently, Timothée Chalamet into Bob Dylan for the film A Complete Unknown.
BUILDING MY SKILLSET My parents did amateur dramatics, so I spent a lot of time in rehearsal rooms, watching people, thinking, “That doesn’t feel right. They should walk that way.” Then I did a master’s in Movement at London’s Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
STRICTLY NOT DANCING I do use choreography, but movement direction is working with the human body to help tell the story in a physical way that amplifies what’s already in the text.
THE HARD YARDS Viewers have an expectation of how people are, so actors have to convince them. I’m with the actor every day, offering ideas and changing things.
Austin Butler as Elvis Presley. Warner Bros
PLAYING DYLAN We don’t have much footage of young Bob Dylan, so it was about investigating photographs, the music, and his personal life, and helping Timothée access that material so he can portray a full-bodied essence of him, rather than an impersonation.
TAKE ME TO CHURCH Whitney Houston grew up in the gospel church, so when you watch her perform, she behaves like a pastor. She referred to herself as a tomboy, so we said she’s “a boy in a dress” to help Naomi walk in I Wanna Dance with Somebody.
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PUBLIC ACCLAIM There is a sort of invisibility cloak around what we do. It felt valid when Austin, Naomi and Rami publicly thanked me. We don’t get awards, and we don’t get residuals — even though people win prizes for our work.
Authors
Craig McLean
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