The Many Faces of Bob Dylan
In 'I'm Not There,' six actors are tapped to play the iconic Bob Dylan.
Nov. 21, 2007 — -- The new movie "I'm Not There" could have been called "The Six Degrees of Bob Dylan."
Director and co-writer Todd Haynes cast six different actors to play the music icon, each portraying a specific phase in his life and career.
Haynes recently appeared on ABC News Now's "Popcorn" with Rolling Stone's Peter Travers to discuss the making of the film.
The inspiration for the film came when Haynes re-discovered Dylan, specifically the previously-unreleased "bootleg" recordings now available as the "Basement Tapes" on CD.
"That was a revelation. There were so many cool things that I was finding," he said. "This is a guy who would enter into a phase completely and just become identical to it and then exhaust it and move on, often to the seismic protests of his fans."
Haynes is quick to point out that other artists like David Bowie and Madonna have reinvented themselves to the delight of fans, but he said that Dylan's changes were about more than just his "look."
"There was a deeper kind of social repercussion to the change because people so deeply identified with each of the positions he held and they resonated in the political climate of the time and the social feelings of the time," he said.
And so Haynes cast six different actors to portray the star during his many changes.
"I just assumed that nothing like this had ever been proposed before and then of course if Dylan was going to say yes to someone making a movie about him it would have to be unorthodox," Haynes said.
Haynes then turned to Jeff Rosen, Dylan's longtime manager, and Jessie, Dylan's son, to pitch his idea. He didn't expect Dylan to agree with his ideas.
"Jeff said, 'Look, write it down on one sheet piece of paper, very simple, one line description for each of the characters ... but don't use the word voice of a generation and don't say genius, maybe don't even say Dylan,'" Haynes recalled.
The director wrote his proposal according to Rosen's standards (and maybe even beyond since he doesn't even mention Dylan by name in the movie) and waited.
Please click here to read Peter Travers' Rolling Stone review of "I'm Not There."
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