Bob Dylan Refused to See a Movie He Starred in and Co-Wrote
In 2003, Bob Dylan starred in Masked and Anonymous, a movie he wrote with screenwriter Larry Charles. The film featured multiple big-name stars and was the fruit of an extended collaboration between Dylan and Charles. When it came out, though, Dylan told his co-writer point-blank that he would not see the movie.
Bob Dylan did not want to see the movie ‘Masked and Anonymous’
Dylan and Charles initially began collaborating on a slapstick comedy series for HBO. While the network green-lit the show, Dylan immediately decided he didn’t want to go through with it. Instead, he and Charles began working on a film.
The end product was Masked and Anonymous, which stars Dylan as a musician who has recently left prison to put on a charity concert. His co-stars were Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Jessica Lange, Luke Wilson, Val Kilmer, and Penelope Cruz, among others. Dylan was excited about the film, but when it came time to view it, he refused.
“Well, one of the first things he told me was, ‘I’m never going to see this movie.’ [Laughs],” Charles told Uproxx in 2023. “And I understand that in a way. I don’t really look at my stuff after I’m done either. It’s like, don’t look back. That’s his attitude, and I appreciate that because you can’t really do that much about it.”
According to Charles, Dylan eventually saw the movie and liked it. It took him years to sit down and watch, though.
“Supposedly 20 years later he did watch it, and I was told off the record that he loved it,” Charles said. “So that’s as much as I know about that. But he told me right off the bat, ‘The people will like this movie if they get a chance to see it, but the critics are probably going to hate it.’ And he was completely right about all that stuff.”
Bob Dylan movies have not been popular with critics
Dylan’s prediction about critics disparaging the film was correct. Critics hated the film, with Roger Ebert giving it half a star and calling it a “vanity production beyond all reason.” At this point, though, Dylan was no stranger to critics disliking his films.
Dylan has been the subject of a number of documentaries, but he has also stepped in front of the camera as an actor. In 1987, Dylan played a reclusive musician in the film Hearts of Fire to generally unfavorable reviews. One of his most hated projects, though, was 1978’s Renaldo and Clara. Critic Mark Jacobson opened his review of the film by wishing Dylan was dead. He gave further insight into his comments in 2001.
“The idea, I guess, was that even Bob dying would have been better than sitting through Renaldo and Clara twice,” he wrote for Rolling Stone. “Maybe in 1978 I thought this was some kind of joke.”
The musician’s co-writer said they put in equal work
Dylan’s hesitancy to see the film could have stemmed from any number of reasons. While working on the project, though, Dylan seemed more enthusiastic about it. Charles said they worked well together and put in equal effort.
“I sort of became Bob Dylan,” Charles said. “So there’s actually a lot of Dylanesque dialogue in the movie that I wrote. But again, it was inspired by and channeled from him. We had a very equal give and take.”
