‘A Complete Unknown’ star Monica Barbaro discusses meeting Joan Baez: “She seemed so free”

Posted On February 13, 2025February 13, 2025

It took five years for Monica Barbaro to finally meet Joan Baez. In 2020, the actor auditioned to play the folk singer in James Magold’s Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown. Though she spoke with Baez on the phone during the production, it wasn’t until this month that the two finally met in person. 

The film takes place in the early 1960s when Baez and Dylan were collaborators and romantically involved. Barbaro did extensive preparation for the role, learning guitar and mimicking the singer’s voice. Her performance has earned her an Oscar and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. 

When Barbaro spoke with Baez on the phone during filming, she said that the singer didn’t seem concerned about how she was portrayed. When the actor said she thought Baez deserved her own biopic, the singer simply said, “I’m just sitting in my back yard watching the birds. I lived it, I did it.”

However, Baez did see the movie and gave Barbaro her full support. “I loved what she did in the film,” she said.

Barbaro added, “If I didn’t think she was good at it, I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it in general. But she looked enough like me and she had my gestures down. You could tell who it was. She worked so hard. Kudos to her for taking the role on.”

Now, at long last, the two have met in person at one of Baez’s concerts in San Francisco. Speaking to Deadline on February 12th, Barbaro said that she was blown away by the singer’s performance. “It was incredible,” she said, adding, “She just had this very free spirit where she would just come out and harmonise a little bit and leave, and she seemed so free and so happy in her body. It’s just wild to be in the same room with her.”

After the show, Barbaro met the singer backstage. “We just had a lovely brief chat,” she said, adding, “I’m so grateful that in my lifetime I can say that I’ve heard Joan sing live. Getting to meet her was incredible, but to have also seen that was just life-changing, mind-blowing. I can’t think of the proper words.”

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