'I'm Not There' opens Nov. 21

By GLENN WHIPP>FILM WRITER

Six actors play Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes' impressionistic anti-biopic, "I'm Not There," but the heat out of the Toronto and Venice film festivals has been directed solely at Cate Blanchett, who plays Dylan during his thin-wild-mercury-sound, "Blonde on Blonde" days.

"I can't say I'm surprised at all the attention she's getting," Haynes says from Toronto. "When I was surprised was when it was happening last year. She went on `Letterman' to promote `Notes on a Scandal,' but they talked about Dylan for most of the interview.

"The whole concept of Cate playing Dylan was enticing," Haynes adds, "but what's fantastic is that her performance is so subtle and complex that it lives up to the hype."

And adds to it. Blanchett won the best actress award at Venice, with Salon Magazine calling her work "the performance of the year."

For the record, there are other Dylans, too, among them Christian Bale, Heath Ledger and Richard Gere. The multiple castings were Haynes' way of showing an artist who has lived his life shuffling his deck, refusing to be limited by others' ideas of who he is and what he should do.

"At times, there's a hostility in that, where he has to aggressively pull the rug out from preconceptions," says Haynes, whose last film was "Far From Heaven."

"Sometimes, I wonder if it was a survival mechanism. It's hard to be creative when the expectations are so blaring. His lyrics, his comments, everything he did was so analyzed for meaning with a capital M. How he survived and continued to create amazes me."

Haynes didn't talk to Dylan while making the movie. ("What could I possibly ask him in an interview?" he says.) He expects Dylan will eventually see "I'm Not There" - but Haynes won't be there in the same room.

"Oh, no, that would be too nerve-racking," he says. "But I would like to talk to him a week later -- or have a spy there at the screening."