Mangold said Dylan had told him of the “loneliness he felt during this period of his life, that he felt alone writing the songs, alone in the green room before he went on, alone in the spotlight, on the stage, alone when he went home alone” and “alone with the public”.
He said Dylan “never asked for some fictional scene to be stuck in the movie”, adding: “Edward Norton, in an early interview, said that Bob asked for one untrue thing put in, but it was simply he wanted to change the name of his girlfriend from (real-life artist) Suze (Rotolo) to the character Sylvie Russo, (played by Elle Fanning), that was it.
Before the film starring Timothee Chalamet was released in UK cinemas, US actor Edward Norton – who plays folk singer Pete Seeger – said in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine that Dylan, who approved the script, had wanted one lie added to the screenplay.
James Mangold, the director of A Complete Unknown, has said claims that singer Bob Dylan wanted a fake scene added to the biopic are pure “fiction” which stem from a misunderstanding in an interview.
The director claimed that “Seeger needed him to promote the folk music world”, while US folk singer Joan Baez, played by Oscar-nominee Monica Barbaro, “could not write songs like him”, and “others, like (folk recordist) Alan Lomax, wanted him to support the movement at all costs”.
