The last time Monica Barbaro spoke to ELLE, she was taking flight, figuratively but also literally, in Top Gun: Maverick. For the 2023 summer blockbuster, her preparation included piloting real planes, underwater training, and a full program crafted by Tom Cruise himself. For her latest role as Joan Baez in A Complete Unknown, the Bob Dylan biopic starring Timothée Chalamet, the training was a little different: hours of singing and guitar lessons took the place of airborne combat. Though she wasn’t flipping upside down in a fighter jet, it was still a daunting challenge for Barbaro, who had no singing or guitar background. But that was also part of the appeal.
“Getting to dive into a world that I hadn’t really known that much about on a personal level was just incredible,” she says. “Getting to learn guitar and learn how to sing and face [your] fears and sing in front of people, it’s a very intimate experience. It can feel very vulnerable to sing in front of people. I just feel really lucky that I got the opportunity to do that with this.”
Such nerves arose even when she was practicing at home. “Playing guitar, even just in my house, I was worried that my neighbors could hear me sound bad,” she adds. “It takes time to get through that. And yet, as an actor, you do that so much, it’s just a very humbling experience.”
Maverick was filmed six years ago, so Barbaro had some time between both projects. But the end of production on A Complete Unknown overlapped with filming the second season of FUBAR, her action comedy Netflix series with Arnold Schwarzenegger, in which she plays a CIA agent. “Those two characters couldn’t be more opposite. One is very anti-violence, and the other is completely pro,” she jokes.
To become Joan Baez, Barbaro would practice some days for hours at a time. During the SAG strike, she couldn’t meet with her coaches, so she had to rehearse solo. But it was an immersive way for her to research Baez, who was not only a folk icon who was instrumental in Bob Dylan’s rise, but also a prominent voice for social justice. “The more I was working on the voice and the more I was studying the way she sang certain songs, the more I found meaning in the way she sang the songs, because every translation of these folk songs is different depending on the artist,” Barbaro says. She even got to talk to the real Baez—but more on that later.
With the hard work that Barbaro and the rest of the cast and crew put into the film, A Complete Unknown is earning widespread praise. The morning of our chat, it was nominated for three Golden Globes, including Chalamet for his starring role as Dylan. “I’m just so proud of the film, and it’s so exciting that this is happening,” Barbaro says.
Below, the actress discusses her vocal training, Baez’s towering legend, and singing with Chalamet.
What was your first exposure to Joan Baez and her music?
I grew up in the Bay Area, and I went to lovely public schools with gardens and arts programs, and we sang Woody Guthrie songs. A lot of the folk songs that are in this movie were familiar to me, and that was most of my understanding of the folk world. I knew of Joan, but I didn’t have a comprehensive understanding of her or her background, really. When I first auditioned for the part, that was really my introduction to a lot of her interviews and documentaries, and I started studying her music and was just completely blown away. To learn that she had such a massive voice in so many movements in our recent history, that was so inspiring to me.
What was the process for training your voice and learning guitar?
I think I had a couple of weeks where I was just flying on my own and pretty terrified. But Searchlight [Pictures] gifted me the most wonderful guitar coaches and singing vocal coach by the name of Eric Vetro. The main thing with representing any iconic singer is there are certain qualities of their voice that they can be known for. And in Joan’s case, she has this steady vibrato. During this time, ’61 to ’65, she sang at a really high pitch in keys that I could not sing in. And so, [the training] was just about starting to work those basic pillars of her voice.
Similarly with her finger-picking, there are particular styles that I started to learn. It was, again, a very humbling, slow, and steady process. The pace I had to put my metronome to learn, to coordinate my fingers, to pick in the way that she did at a way faster pace was just so excruciatingly slow at first. And then, steadily, day by day, I could speed up the metronome and get to the point where I could play the songs that she played. That, for me, took months.
Do you have a favorite one of her songs that you performed?
I really enjoyed singing “It Ain’t Me Babe” with Timmy. That day we only had so many takes, because I literally had to run to my flight to go film my show, but I could have done that for three days straight. I just really enjoyed the song. It was vocally something that didn’t challenge me as much as some of the other songs, and so it was just fun; the spirit of the song and where it lands in the film is so fun. I still derive a lot of joy from watching it. I also really love “Silver Dagger,” which was only done in the studio. I couldn’t possibly pick a favorite Joan song, but I think “It Ain’t Me” was the best live experience.
I was going to ask about that, because the performance is really wonderful. I also watched clips of the original, and it’s interesting how much of that energy you captured; it feels a little fun and flirtatious for them, too. Capturing those kinds of feelings on stage—what was that like?
We saved our meeting until we had our first music rehearsal…It was all music related in a really wonderful way, because that’s how Bob and Joan met initially, in the music scene. She was at the height of her career, and he was very talented. So, when we got to rehearse together, that was one of the first times I sang live in front of a whole room of people. I just felt very supported by [Chalamet] and his voice and his work and all that he had put into his character. I had heard his pre-records, and I knew he was doing an excellent job tackling Bob’s voice and the lyricism and everything. To get to do that live with him was just a completely magical experience.
James Mangold is such a brilliant director. We were filming scenes where we were in more of a contentious space early on—because that’s a little bit easier to play, in a way—and saved the more intimate scenes for later in the schedule. The last scene I filmed was the “Blowin’ in the Wind” scene in Bob’s apartment. And even though that’s not the order of events in the film, it was the perfect way to do it, because we had been performing together, and we had this comfortability. The intimacy that we experienced in that scene was just a very natural progression of our relationship and getting to sing together and collaborate throughout filming.
From the research you’ve done and the conversations you’ve had with Joan, what is your interpretation of what she and Bob found in each other at that time?
She was at the height of her career. She was on the cover of Time magazine. She was well-known, not just in the folk world, but worldwide for this beautiful voice. She was bringing life to folk again. But she had a higher calling, I think, and she was this budding activist and wanted to say more with what she had at her disposal with this platform. As a creative, emotive artist, she wanted to speak to the issues of the time.
And then, in came this mess of a vagabond, an unknown. And yes, he was this charismatic, interesting, intriguing guy, but he also had the words to say what she was hoping to say with songs like “With God on Our Side” and “Blowin’ in the Wind.” He was speaking about human hypocrisy and political issues. He became this wonderful source of new songs and lyrics for her to be able to say what she was trying to say. Of course, they fell for each other in a very big way, but I think he really provided a voice to back her beautiful singing voice.
I watched I Am a Noise, her documentary. I don’t know if you’ve seen it, it probably came out after you were filming.
No, it actually came out while I was preparing for the film. Lucky me.
When she was looking back on their relationship, she mentioned that she was kind of maternal to him. Like, “I was a mother to him, he needed a mother.”
It’s interesting how relationships function like that. I think we all have experience with those different pushes and pulls in the roles we take in relationships. I’m older than Timmy—and I think that was, in a way, a concern when I was being considered for this role—but ultimately, it’s something that was valuable to the two of us, because I think you do read a little bit of that energy between the two of us. Not to say that I’m at an age where [I could] be his mother. And I’m sure, in ways, I would’ve played this very similarly in my 20s.
But I think it lent itself to that dynamic between them. While we don’t look necessarily different in age in the film, I think there’s sort of a groundedness that comes with growing older and maturing. And I think Joan was really ahead of her time, especially as a performer. We know she has performance anxiety, but outwardly, there was a sense of calm and confidence to her. That is probably some part of that dynamic between the two of them as well.
Something I’ve noticed in biopics recently is that there’s a woman behind the male genius, whether it’s Bob Dylan or Oppenheimer or Elvis. But those women are great too, and they’re so much bigger than the small roles we see them in. Considering Joan is also a huge social activist and legendary singer-songwriter in her own right and an abuse survivor, how did you try to tackle all of her in the context of this film?
I will say, Elle Fanning does an incredible job in this film, and I think her role is not simply love interest; she portrays someone who really gave Bob a lot of his interest in singing songs that had to do with political activism. Protest songs, to put it simply. I feel like that’s a big part of what Joan really fell for in Bob. So, in this way, I wish Joan and Suze could have had their own relationship. Elle and I laugh about this a lot, because I do think that’s so true. It happens with anyone. I mean, I’ve been so influenced by the partners I’ve had in life. And I think many men are really influenced by their counterparts.
In this instance, Joan introduced Bob to her already massive audiences. You see a little bit of that in the “Girl from the North Country” performance that is a representation of a moment in time where she invited him along with her and would introduce him to her audiences to sing things like “With God on Our Side”—and tell her audiences that this man has something to say, and you need to listen to him. And that was huge for him, in the way that Pete Seeger did as well. I think the film is beautifully about all of these people who propped Bob up. Obviously, he’s a genius of a writer, but it takes a lot of other people who have their own clout to recognize that in someone.
I read in Rolling Stone that when you spoke to Joan, she was in her garden watching her birds, and I think that’s so iconic.
It’s so Joan. [laughs]
What else can you share about the wisdom or memories she bestowed on you?
God, it was such a lovely conversation. The thing with Joan is she’s so forthcoming in her documentaries and her memoirs. She is someone who is not afraid to show all of who she is. So, getting on the phone with her, I didn’t feel like I had to try to break down any walls. It felt like she was very generously there to be honest and to share and talk with me. We had little moments of relating to each other. I was asking her about certain arrangements and her background with guitar, and she said that she would just train really hard and obsess over these songs until she got them. And she’d play her guitar so late into the night that she’d fall asleep with her guitar in her bed, and then she’d wake up in the morning and grab it and keep playing. And I was like, “Oh, my God. I did that too.”
I just felt a lot of connectivity there. And to get to hear her voice was one of the most beautiful experiences in my life. She said she had been hoping I would reach out. So, I felt validated in my decision. Like I said in the Rolling Stone interview, she doesn’t live or die by what happens in this film. She’s not waiting for us to give her something. She’s Joan, she has her career, and she has her honesty. And she’s done so much more than what’s encapsulated in this time period from ’61 to ’65.
As Timmy put it in reference to Bob, she’s already given us so much of herself. There’s no expectation there for her to respond to this in any particular way or feel any certain way about it. We all tried to do these musicians justice. But she’s just her own person. And getting to talk to her felt like it released some of that fear about getting her right. With her being in the garden watching the birds, I was like, “OK, I can have some fun with this and play a little.”
Do you feel like you’ve fully let go of whether she approves of the film or not, or whether she watches it or not?
I’d be crazy to pretend that it wouldn’t affect me at all. I just know myself. But I don’t have any expectations. I wouldn’t say I’ve let it go—I’ve put it on a shelf. That’s the best way I can put it. I adore her, and I admire her. And all I want in the world is for her to be happy and at peace, and whatever she needs to do, that is also the best thing for everybody else.
My fun last question for you: How often are you walking around barefoot now?
I love being barefoot! I was a barefoot kid. It was so fun. Every time it came up in [Joan’s] memoir that she was barefoot, and her feet were muddy, I was like, “Hey Jim, I think also this scene should be barefoot.” And he was on board. Arianne [Phillips], our costume designer, was too. She had wonderful period-specific shoes lining the shelves, and she was happy to throw them all away for the authenticity of representing Joan barefoot.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
