Oscar Isaac thought Timothée Chalamet’s Bob Dylan film was “a bad idea” until he heard his co-star sing and play guitar on the set of Dune: Part Two.

The Inside Llewelyn Davis actor, who is a big Dylan fan, wasn’t confident about Chalamet’s biopic, A Complete Unknown, but was ultimately convinced when his co-star whipped out his guitar and showed off some of his prep on the set of their sci-fi movie.

Honouring Chalamet at the Gotham Awards on Monday night, Isaac recalled Chalamet telling him and their co-stars Josh Brolin and Stephen McKinley Henderson about the project.

“My first thought was… sounds like a really bad idea. I mean, it’s Dylan. It’s the holy of holies for me. It just didn’t sound right. Then, Timmy takes out his guitar and starts playing Girl From The North Country,” he began.

“Josh, Stephen and I aren’t your average Timmy groupies. We’re grizzled movie vets; we’ve seen some s**t,” Isaac continued, reports Variety. “But to hear this kid, who had just started learning the guitar, who hadn’t done much singing, and who wasn’t all that familiar with Dylan’s music, approach these songs not as if he was learning something new but remembering something he’d already known, just rediscovering… The three of us just sat there watching this young man connect with something mysterious.”

Chalamet took to the stage with his A Complete Unknown director James Mangold to accept their joint Visionary Tribute prize.

In his acceptance speech, the Wonka star called Isaac someone “who I’ve tried to shape myself after” and called his intensive Dylan prep “the greatest education a young artist could receive”.

Elsewhere in the New York ceremony, Isaac and Chalamet’s Dune co-star Zendaya received the Spotlight Tribute for Challengers and their director Denis Villeneuve accepted the Director Tribute for Dune: Part Two, among other winners.

A Complete Unknown will be released in U.S. cinemas on Christmas Day and in the U.K. on 17 January.

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