Wanting to capture the legacy of Bob Dylan, James Mangold took on the massive task of bringing the singer’s career to the silver screen. And on Christmas Day, the director watched that dream become a reality when A Complete Unknown hit theaters. Only out for a few days, the film already gained high marks from critics and fans. Featuring Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, and Timothee Chalamet, the actress who portrayed Joan Baez, Monica Barbaro, recently discussed what it was like to play the singer in the film and getting the chance to speak with her.
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Speaking about the film and working with stars like Norton and Chalamet, Barbaro opened up about portraying Baez with the Guardian. While not growing up with folk music, the actress found herself having to perform hit songs like “Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right” by Dylan. She admitted the performance was “the first song I sang and played in front of an audience and the hardest song to play, guitar-wise.”
Knowing she needed to film the scene a day before she stepped in front of the camera, Barbaro received some support from none other than Baez. Speaking to the legendary singer, she said, “I struggled with this feeling of just so much gratitude for everything she’s done… for being willing to speak to me, and how much I admire her.” Barbaro continued, “I tried to let that get out of the way and just have a conversation, but that’s hard.”
Monica Barbaro Insisted Joan Baez Deserved Her Own “Biopic”
With Barbaro spending a great deal of time studying Baez, it shocked the actress to be speaking with her. “Having studied her voice so closely – her speaking voice, every interview in the ‘60s – and then hearing Joan’s voice now in her 80s, in real time, speaking to me, was an incredibly emotional experience: really cool and kind of mind-blowing.”
Although worried about the film and nailing her portrayal, Barbaro insisted Baez didn’t seem bothered at all. “She was really not fussed about the film, truly. I think I was more concerned on her behalf than she was for herself. I was sort of saying, ‘You deserve your own biopic! So many biopics with different chapters of your life!’”
As for Baez, she knew the story of A Complete Unknown as she told Barbaro, “I lived it.”
(Photo by Kate Green/Getty Images for The Walt Disney Company Limited)
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