ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How did you come to cast each Dylan in each different section?
TODD HAYNES: I wasn't looking for physical resemblance; I was really looking for the best actors who could do something more interesting than a kind of superficial impersonation of Dylan, and really find something closer to the core ideas of that particular character. But I just wanted to pick among the best actors in that age. One is Cate Blanchett, who plays Dylan as a man in a character named Jude, who depicts Dylan in his famous 1966 guise, where he's basically riddled with amphetamines, plugging in electric. It's a totally fascinating and completely singular moment in his career that's very well known. And I wanted a woman to portray that Dylan before I even selected Cate, just because of Dylan's strange look at the time — a very different type of androgyny than you'd see later in the glitter era. I feel the shock value of it has been lost through how well known the image is, and I just wanted to re-infuse it with that very bizarre strangeness that I thought a woman playing a man might underscore.
How did you convince her to take this role?
It was hard. In fact, she was even more unconvinced than she let on. [Laughs] She was immediately interested in the idea, but I think she was just terrified, as she'll probably say herself. I met with her the morning of the Oscars, the day that she would win the Best Supporting Actress award [for The Aviator]. She was in L.A., and I was in L.A., and she said we could have breakfast, so I met her that day and gave her some material.... What's amazing about Cate — she has a really physical commitment to each part that changes radically. It's not just intellectual, it's not just her voice or her face — it's really just complete body commitment to the role she plays. And I think I needed someone with that kind of understanding for this role, in addition to everything else that she brings to the role.
That photo of her as Dylan drew a lot of attention when it was released.
It was really uncanny when she first did her transformation. I kind of knew something like this was possible with her, because I watched her on stage as Hedda Gabler, and kept kind of drawing in the Dylan hair and clothes on top of her frame, and her proportions. And I was like, Oh my God, I think this could really work. But when I saw it, myself and the crew alike were completely astounded. And when she would come back at the end of the day with her normal hair, I swear to God, we didn't know who the hell that was. We'd gotten completely used to Jude, you know? And all she was wearing were some eyebrows and some sideburns and a tooth guard to make her teeth look a little funkier. There was nothing else done to her. It was just her. What was really amazing was when she takes off the glasses, she looks more like Dylan than with them on, even. It's really remarkable.
So is this for Dylan fans? What about those who aren't so familiar with his work?
People who are the biggest fans have the hardest time watching it the first time, because they're playing this eternal debate in their mind about what we're using and what we're not using, what choice of song, who's doing this, where that line comes from. Whereas people who know less about Dylan just come to it with this very open excitement. And on that, the movie gives them so many angles and perspectives, and for the most part, it's been received so well for something this unusual. Mostly, I just wanted it to have this energy and the excitement and the fun of the '60s.
And what about the fact that people have called this movie peculiar and unconventional? Do you mind these descriptions?
Not at all. It's not like anything anyone has seen before, and you can't really say that a lot about movies coming out today. So if that distinguishes it from the pack, not only am I proud of that, but it's accurate: It's a new experience. It's very unusual to approach a famous person's life in this way. But I think it's full of so much fun stuff that I think most people will find something in it that they like.
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