Timothée Chalamet channels Bob Dylan for his Saturday Night Live performance. His past SNL appearances explored

A Complete Unknown has released and is gearing up for the Oscars with eight nominations. Lead actor Timothée Chalamet, who is in the Oscar race for a Best Actor trophy, is currently busy with the film's promotional tour. As part of promoting the film, Chalamet, the actor plays the central role of the legendary Bob Dylan, did double duty this past weekend, as the host and featured musical guest (alongside James Blake) on Saturday Night Live (SNL).

The 29-year-old phenomenon, who has risen to Hollywood A-list thanks to his roles in the Dune franchise and Wonka among others, hosted SNL for the first time since 2023 and left fans in awe with his impressive range as an artiste. Timothée is known to have spared no effort in preparing for his all-consuming dream role of American folk icon Bob Dylan in the film.

Method Actor's Delight

In a December cover story of Rolling Stone Chalamet shared:

“It was something I would go to sleep panicked about, losing a moment of discovery as the character — no matter how pretentious that sounds — because I was on my phone or because of any distraction."

The actor added:

"I had three months of my life to play Bob Dylan, after five years of preparing to play him. So while I was in it, that was my eternal focus. He deserved that and then more."

Chalamet continued:

"God forbid I missed a step because I was being Timmy. I could be Timmy for the rest of my life!” The Oscar nominee and fan favourite went on: “I had to push the preparation, the bounds, almost to psychologically know I had pushed it."

On SNL, he opened the show with three musical pieces played to near perfection, and went on to show his acting chops with comedic skits. He was introduced by SNL and Hollywood star Adam Sandler, in response to a joke made by Nikki Glaser at the recent Golden Globes.

Chalamet also had a promotional piece for SNL featuring his lookalikes, a trend that has become viral among young stars on social media at the moment.

Past Appearances

This was Timothée Chalamet’s third appearance as show host, and the first time he has featured on the show as a musical guest. In his past appearances, too, Timothée was consistently solid when it came to his comedic chops.

While there have been several highlights, his most famous performance on the show is still the XXL Rap Roundtable skit in December 2020. In the hilarious parody, a host moderates a panel on hip-hop featuring Questlove, Queen Latifah and a new age rap duo made up of Timothée Chalamet and Pete Davidson. This was followed up by the Museum of Hip Hop Panel sketch during his appearance in 2024. In this iteration, the host convenes over a panel on hip-hop featuring legends Mary J. Blige, and Rick Rubin, SNL lifer Kenan Thompson and, of course, Timmy C.