A Complete Unknown actress Monica Barbaro has revealed that Joan Baez was “not fussed” about her portrayal in the film.
READ MORE: ‘A Complete Unknown’ review: don’t think twice about seeing this brilliant Bob Dylan biopic
The film, a Bob Dylan biopic that stars Timothee Chalamet in the main role, was released in US theatres on Christmas Day, with a UK release due January 17, 2025.
A Complete Unknown covers the early years of Dylan’s career, during which he meets a young Joan Baez, portrayed in the film by Barbaro. In an interview with The Guardian, Barbaro spoke about her experience playing the role – especially when she got to speak to Baez on the phone the night before she was due on set to film a performance of ‘Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right’ as Baez.
“[It was] the first song I sang and played in front of an audience and the hardest song to play, guitar-wise,” Barbaro revealed.
“I struggled with this feeling of just so much gratitude for everything she’s done and for being willing to speak to me and how much I admire her – I tried to let that get out of the way and just have a conversation, but that’s hard.”
Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez and Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan in ‘A Complete Unknown’. CREDIT: Searchlight Pictures
Barbaro continued, sharing the research she did in preparation for the role: “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.”
She added that Baez “was really not fussed” about her portrayal in the film. “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! And she said: ‘I’m just sitting in my back yard watching the birds.’ You know: I lived it, I did it.”
As for Dylan, he had a condition prior to approving the film’s production: he had to read the script. And he did it by reading aloud lines meant for his filmic self with the director James Mangold, as the film’s producer Peter Jaysen recently revealed in a podcast.
“At one point they sat there and they read the entire script out loud, with Jim Mangold reading every part and stage direction, and Bob Dylan only reading lines of dialogue for himself,” Jaysen recounted.
Timothée Chalamet in ‘A Complete Unknown’. CREDIT: Searchlight Pictures
“Through that process, [Dylan] sat there writing notes on the script. At the end of the last session with Jim Mangold, he signed the script and said, ‘Go with God.’”
Reviewing the movie, NME awarded it four stars and said: “So many of the performances in A Complete Unknown fizz with this kind of tense, gripping energy – whether it’s because Dylan and Baez are bickering through ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ or he’s managed to bottle the anxiety of an entire city awaiting nuclear armageddon in a Cold War protest song.
“The most important (and often trickiest) job of any music movie is to get the music right. And this nails that. If you’re a Bob newbie, you’ll leave the cinema ready to dive into his back catalogue. If you’re already a fan, the next few weeks will be spent making playlists of lesser-known B-sides or reading the lore around a scene you weren’t familiar with. And that’s why it was a good idea to make this film – a mad idea, but a good one.”
Elsewhere, Jaysen recently confirmed that he is set to turn his attention to films about Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett and The Mamas & The Papas‘ Cass Elliot.
BBC4 also recently announced plans to celebrate Dylan’s music ahead of the UK release of A Complete Unknown.
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