James Mangold Wanted to Avoid the ‘Laugh Track Version’ of Concert Scenes for ‘A Complete Unknown’

When director Damien Chazelle appeared on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast back in January 2023, he said that what separated great directors from good ones was their direction of background performers. “The way you can really judge a director isn’t so much whether or not Laurence Olivier or Daniel Day-Lewis gives a great performance, because they’re always going to do that,” Chazelle said. “It’s what’s going on behind them.”

By this criteria, James Mangold‘s “A Complete Unknown” represents its maker at the peak of his talent, since every corner of every frame is populated by utterly convincing background acting (as well as meticulous crafts work in terms of hair, makeup, and costumes). The folk scene of the early 1960s is rendered with dense, vivid detail from protagonist Bob Dylan’s initial arrival in New York through his rise as an icon, culminating in the film‘s tour de force Newport Folk Festival sequence at the climax.

That festival serves a vital function in the narrative, presenting a key moment in Dylan’s evolution as an artist and conveying the warring reactions to the once-traditional folk performer going electric. One of the many things that make the sequence extraordinary beyond star Timothée Chalamet’s spot-on evocation of Dylan is the sophisticated way in which Mangold depicts the crowd reaction; from the sound design (in which there’s a complicated interplay between boos, cheers, and everything in between) to the physicality of the extras, Mangold presents an audience at war with itself.

“I was trying to reflect what really happened,” Mangold told IndieWire, “which is some people liked it and a lot of people didn’t. Some were angry to the point of throwing things or walking out, and others were ecstatic.” The director was on guard against the usual cliché of crowds in concert scenes where everyone seems to be acting in unison. “Often when crowds are being directed, the AD will tell them, ‘When this happens, cheer, and when this happens, so this.’ So you get this unanimity, a kind of giant multi-headed hydra that reacts exactly the same way on cue. It feels like bullshit, frankly.”

To avoid what he calls “the laugh track version” of crowd response, Mangold had his ADs find different extras and give them different directions, along with other tricks he’s learned over the years on movies like “Walk the Line.” “You ask those with last names between ‘A’ and ‘I,’ ‘Do this,'” Mangold said. “But even that doesn’t work because you realize it’s too random. What there really would be are warring pods, because people come together to a show.”

Keeping that in mind, Mangold created conflicting groups throughout the audience. “The like-minded ‘We want ‘Tambourine Man’ people would be in a group,” he said. “Then the ‘We think this is awesome that he’s going full rock’ would be in another group.’ Then the background talent has to have the energy to really be on their toes and not phoning it in. That work is hard and requires a tremendous amount of patience.” Luckily, Mangold said his extras were up to the challenge. “We had great people on our show.”

“A Complete Unknown” premieres in theaters nationwide on December 25.