Now that Oscar award selection is well underway, there are several reasons to revisit the Chalamet nose controversy.
By Sam Zeveloff
Ever since Timothée Chalamet was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actor for his portrayal of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, the discussions of his use of a prosthetic nose in this role have dwindled. Now that Oscar award selection is well underway, there are several reasons for this topic to be re-visited.
This particular prosthetic may have given him an unfair advantage in the nominating and award-granting processes. By the early to mid-Sixties, the era depicted in the film, Dylan’s nose already had a bit of a hooked shape. Yet by widening his nose while neglecting to hook it, Mr. Chalamet and the production crew apparently wanted to create a more attractive character. Sadly, this has resulted in a distortion of reality.
Other such prostheses have recently been in the news, most famously the additional material on Bradley Cooper’s nose in his portrayal of Leonard Bernstein in the biopic Maestro. Bernstein’s family actually defended this prosthesis, making an unprecedented statement about the justification of enlarging this organ for a motion picture. A much less contentious inflated snout adorned Helen Mirren’s face in her portrayal of Golda Meir in the film “Golda.” As of this time, there has been no statement from Golda’s family on the appropriateness of the additional putty. Dylan, as cryptic as ever, commented on Chalamet’s performance, stating, “Timmy’s a brilliant actor so I’m sure he’s going to be completely believable as me. Or a younger me. Or some other me.” Perhaps his reference to “some other me” was tacit approval of this filmic rhinoplasty.
While it may be sensitive and uncomfortable to speak about religion and ethnicity herein, one must not shy away from these issues. Indeed, nose shape and size and its connection to one particular group in “The Tribe” must be considered here. Indeed, each of the above icons, Lenny, Golda, and Bobby, are in all likelihood Ashkenazi Jews, a group that originated in Medieval Germany and spread to Europe’s interior. Except for Timothée, the other two actors are not Jewish. Does he therefore have more of a right have an altered nuzzle than they did? And more pertinently, should this modification affect his worthiness for an Oscar?
Then there is the annoying issue of the noses of the actors who played Joan Baez and the late Suze Rotolo (the latter was dubbed Sylvie Russo in the film to comply with Dylan’s wishes). Suze, who is famously on the cover of Dylan’s second album, “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, had a moderately-sized nose. Joan, on the other hand, has an intriguingly shaped proboscis, which has been characterized as “big” and “prominent.” Yet neither Elle Fanning who played Sylvie, nor Monica Barbaro who was Joan, were defaced with prostheses. Indeed, both have rather small noses, each of which is much tinier than those of the women they portrayed.
These matters raise at least two important questions: 1) Are males likelier receive enlarged noses in movies, and therefore become the victims of reverse sexism? (There is Golda’s protuberance, perhaps an exceptional snout that proves the rule.); and 2) Must it always be the Ashkenazis for whom a prostheses is warranted? This would be yet another example of anti-Semitism. To be fair, one must not jump to conclusions before a comprehensive examination of the history of prostheses in the cinema takes place. A master’s thesis seems to be most suitable.
Fortunately, there may be a solution on the horizon to this uneven and seemingly discriminatory use of prostheses, thanks to the imagination of Woody Allen. In his classic film “Sleeper,” the rebel leader Erno Windt was blown up and only his nose remained. Allen plays Miles Monroe, who with Luna Schlosser (portrayed by Diane Keaton) struggles to keep Erno’s nose from being cloned, to stop him from controlling the government. As any remaining Woody fans will recall, Miles steals the nose and destroys it by dropping it in the path of a road roller. When Woody made this film, nose cloning was but a twinkle in his eye. Yet given medical advances, noses should be slated for cloning in the not-too-distant future, alleviating the need for prostheses. Coincidentally, the movie era’s Bob Dylan and Woody’s Miles Monroe both heralded from Greenwich Village.
Dr. Sam Zeveloff is Presidential Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Zoology at Weber State University in Utah. He has studied raccoons for over 50 years and is regarded as one of the world’s foremost experts on this species. He is the author of Raccoons, a Natural History (Smithsonian Institution Press).
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