A Complete Unknown is based on legendary figures who are still alive, so Monica Barbaro said she felt great pressure to play one of them.
During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actress, who played Joan Baez in a biopic of Bob Dylan starring Timothée Chalamet, said her foremost fear was getting the veteran singer’s on-screen character right.
“[Bob and Joan] could come out of the woodwork and be like, ‘This movie sucks. It’s nothing like me.’ You have no idea what will happen. And they’re vocal people, so who knows?” the 34-year-old noted. “I thought about that every day, trying to sing as Joan.”
Monica said she worked quite hard to sing like Joan, and the last year’s strikes in Hollywood also unintentionally helped her prepare for her character.
“I didn’t sing or play guitar or anything, and when Jim first emailed me telling me I had the job, I freaked out and then ran to get this guitar,” she recalled. “At that point, I thought I had five months, and I panicked. I was absolutely terrified.”
The Fubar star also remembered the call with the Diamonds and Rust crooner, saying, “It was just a funny moment where I kept trying to wave my white flag and be like, ‘This is all done out of respect. And yes, I’m singing as you, but I could never be you.'”
“Doing that whole dance. And she’s just like, ‘I’m just outside listening to the birds.’ She is Joan. She’s not so concerned with protecting [her legacy] or hovering over it. She signed over her songs [to the film], all her arrangements.”
“She and Bob are sort of similar in that they’re not so obsessed with dictating this idea of who they are and who they were. They’ve been in the public eye for so long,” she concluded.
