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Since Bob Dylan’s rise to fame, the music legend has lived in you Townhouse in Manhattan, Malibu Villaand even one Estate in Scotland. But he spent the early days of his career in a cramped apartment in New York City. Of course the new biopic is, A completely unknown, Starring Timothée Chalamet, the Greenwich Village apartment becomes a central character. “We decided early on with (director James Mangold) that it would be fun to really recreate his apartment forensically,” says production designer François Audouy.

The production team had around 200 photos of the small space available for reference. These included original black and white negatives from famous photo shoots in Dylan’s apartment along with a few color photos that they used to match the colors of the walls, bed cover and other furniture. “He came to New York when he was 19, still a young man and a bit of a slut,” says Audouy. “It was very relatable when you looked at teenagers moving into their first apartment.”

In addition to the takeout boxes, empty coffee cups and ashtrays full of cigarettes, set designer Regina Graves and her team went to great lengths to find exact duplicates of Dylan’s ancient possessions – including the typewriter, record player and even a stuffed animal and second-hand stores.

The wingback chair was particularly hard to find “because of the channeled back, gold pattern, studded arms and cabriole leg,” says Graves. They eventually found it on Facebook Marketplace, at the seller’s grandparents’ house. Then they had it reupholstered, sanded, and ripped to make it look as worn as Dylan’s chair.

Other furniture and artwork, such as the oil painting above the fireplace and his desk, were custom-made. “It’s a relatively small space, but we had to get everything just right,” says Audouy.

Because the film, shot primarily in New Jersey, takes place over several years in the early 1960s, the apartment details evolve over time. When Dylan receives the Tom Paine Award from the Emergency Civil Liberties Union in 1963, it is displayed on his mantel. Things belonging to Elle Fanning’s character Sylive Russo, a painter, are also nearby when she lives with him. “We had paint splatters on the floor – signs that she was present in his life,” says Audouy.

While there are slight differences in the layout of the set and the actual apartment – double sliding doors rather than a single door lead to the tiny “bedroom” – the proportions are similar to the original room. Another generous difference between the sets is that they have more windows than the actual unit had. Some scenes near the windows were actually filmed in a real apartment in Hoboken, New Jersey, so the design team had to adapt these windows to the set construction.

“A lot of the film takes place in this apartment,” says Audouy. “I was impressed with the facilities, even more than I expected when we did it. It’s like the star of the show.”

The rooms are an extension of Chalamet’s performance, Andouy notes, helping the audience immerse themselves in his portrayal of Dylan. “Like a time machine, you return to this very specific moment and just enjoy it without distraction.”

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