James Mangold Details His ‘Surprising’ Talk With Bob Dylan About ‘A Complete Unknown’: ‘He Didn’t Think That Was Offensive’ | Video

The writer-director reveals during the first screening of the film Wednesday that “I hadn’t really boiled it down in my own mind” until his COVID-era meeting with the music legend

James Mangold and cast at 'A Complete Unknown' Screening
Sharon Waxman for TheWrap

At the first public screening Wednesday for his Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” writer-director James Mangold revealed that despite having written the script, he “hadn’t really boiled it down in my own mind” until he finally talked about the project face to face with the music legend himself.

Fortunately, Mangold said during a Q&A after the screening, once he figured out how to explain it, Dylan was onboard. “Bob kind of smiled at me and and… I could tell he didn’t think that was offensive to him,” Mangold said.

“I finished this script, and then it kind of freaked out some of the people in Bob’s world, because it was exactly the very things… they told him not to get involved with that I was getting involved into,” Mangold explained.

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