Against the backdrop of 1960s New York City, James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown opens with an undocumented version of Bob Dylan, a 19-year-old boy from Minnesota who existed in the realm of anonymity. While most biopics span decades, Mangold chose to stay within the years of 1961-1965, using Elijah Wald’s 2015 biography Dylan Goes Electric! as the catalyst for his portrait of the enigmatic musician. Charting his arrival in New York City and pivotal introduction to the musical icons of Greenwich Village up until his divisive performance at the Newport Folk Festival when he famously ‘went electric’. 

Timothée Chalamet stars as Dylan in one of the most anticipated performances of his career, shapeshifting into the musician, adopting his grit and verbal dexterity. Dylan’s ascent onto the global stage came at a pivotal time: The Cold War loomed, the Civil Rights Movement was gaining traction, and JFK’s assassination was fated; all of which rippled into Dylan’s lyrics, and those of his contemporaries. As much a story of Dylan as it is of the people who surround him, we’re introduced to the likes of Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and most notably, the Queen of Folk, Joan Baez. Monica Barbaro takes on the role of the incredible American singer-songwriter and activist opposite Chalamet, building the dynamic of two musicians who navigate the push and pull between conflict and admiration.

Ahead of the film’s release, we spoke to Barbaro about her preparation process for the role, watching Chalamet’s transformation in real-time and her serendipitous phone call with Baez herself.

Ella Joyce: Your performance in this movie is incredible. How did the project first come into your life?
Monica Barbaro: Thank you! It was March 2020 when I first received an email about this project and immediately I was interested. I was a huge fan of James Mangold and Timothée Chalamet, and I knew of Joan’s music. I didn’t think I could necessarily sing like her, but I felt like I could take a stab at who she was. I grew up with that kind of music at my elementary school, I knew these Woody Guthrie songs and I understood the essence. I studied a lot of her interviews, went in, auditioned, and they were like, “Great. We’d like you to meet Jim [James Mangold] sometime next week.” And then, as everyone knows, [the Covid-19 pandemic] completely overhauled the world. I didn’t meet with Jim until 2023 and that was when he gave me the part and I got to work. [laughs] I kept listening to her music throughout that time, and it was like this North Star of a project that I wanted to do so badly. I’d start to play guitar, but then to protect my own feelings I was like, “If this doesn’t go my way, I’ll be so broken-hearted…”

EJ: Self-preservation kicked in… [both laugh]
MB: Then when I got it, I was like, “I wish I’d learned guitar, why did I do that to myself?!” I I give Jim a hard time too, because he likes to say, “It was always yours. As soon as I saw your audition, it was you.” And I’m like, “Well, you could have told me that!” [laughs]  

EJ: You touched on studying Joan’s interviews, what was the rest of the preparation process like for the role?
MB: I was combing through all of that evidence. She wrote about herself a lot, and she’s really honest. She doesn’t hold any punches, even when she’s just talking about herself and her intentions, she has a sense of humour about herself and all of those things made her a very approachable person to understand. Also, the music preparation, having not been a singer or guitar player, diving headfirst into that was a way of connecting to the journey she went on as a fourteen-year-old. We had a brief phone conversation at one point and she said to me that she’d fall asleep with her guitar in her bed and then wake up and play it the next day. I was like, “Oh my God, I did that too!” Those sorts of things naturally connect you to a character so it’s not quite as cerebral, it’s about letting that go when you get there. I was an advocate for certain things about her in the script, where I was like, “She didn’t drink at that time,” or, “She believed this, not that. People assumed she believed that, but really what she was saying was this.” Jim was always telling us that we’re not playing biographies, at the end of the day, he wants to see real people in real life and not be too heady about thinking of them conceptually or being too much of a perfectionist about them. I read an interview that Joan did where she talks about her illustrations, and she talks about intentionally steering away from perfection because if you’re trying to seek perfection, you rob the art of what makes it live and breathe and creatively special. So, I was like, “Oh, I think that’s a bit of a permission to have this be an interpretation of her, and not so much an attempt at a carbon copy.” 

“She doesn’t hold any punches, even when she’s just talking about herself and her intentions…”

EJ: We’re first introduced to Joan when she is singing House of the Rising Sun, it feels like quite a humble introduction, I wondered what significance that first introduction and song held for you. 
MB: Well, she released an album that was absolutely massive. But before that, for years and years, she would perform in coffee houses throughout Boston and New York, and her superpower was that she was this solo act. She was playing guitar and singing and the entire room listened. Her voice is so exceptional, the dynamic shifts she’d have within those songs and the relationship with the lyrics, she could sit completely still. Albert Grossman says in the movie, she sits completely still and semi-looks at the floor, she engages with people but in complete stillness. The entire room would lean into this songbird voice and her performance. It’s the perfect introduction to her because, yes, she was on the cover of Time and her album was selling out, but where she wrapped people in and transformed them was with this magnetic essence she had in-person, in these coffee houses. It’s also just the perfect way for Bob to see her for the first time.

EJ: Bob and Joan feel so intrinsically linked throughout the story. It’s undeniable that she was pivotal in his success. But, in your opinion, how do you see that Joan accented both his life and his career?
MB: She was at a place in her life where she wanted new music. She was this budding activist who wanted to say so much of what she felt about the world, and she wanted to do something bigger. I think she felt simply being in front of an audience and singing folk songs was not enough, and that she had a greater purpose. She wanted lyrics that were saying something, she would even interrupt her own songs and say that she was trying to vocalise things that she didn’t know how to put words to. There’s just so much suffering in the world, and she didn’t know how to contain it all and express it. Then in comes this mess of a vagabond boy who she recognises immediately as a genius writer and he has this charisma that Timothée captures so beautifully in the movie. She needed his lyrics, but also she was drawn to him and what he was willing to say. She introduced him to her already very large fan base, as did Pete Seeger, but there was a specific concert where her fans were not having it and she was like, “No, you have to listen to what this guy has to say.” And they played With God on Your Side, which is a very poignant song. She really leveraged his career in a massive way, and singing his songs along with the likes of Peter, Paul and Mary, put him in a position where he became known very quickly.

“…where she wrapped people in and transformed them, was with this magnetic essence she had in person, in these in these coffee houses…”

EJ: There is such a great dynamic between you and Timothée on screen, what was it like working opposite him?
MB: I admired his work so much before I signed on to this. I was a fan and I knew he would give this his all because he’s such a hard worker. It was kind of lucky for me that we didn’t meet until we were both musically proficient, because that’s also how Joan and Bob meet. [laughs] One of our first meetings was a music rehearsal and I had so many moments throughout this where I would get emotional because I was blown away by how empowering it feels to create music. To have the ability to do that is just an absolute gift. We were collaborating and complimenting each other in sound, in accompaniment, in our voices. It’s a career highlight for me and his transformation into this character is so incredible. It was a gift to get to watch that.

“She needed his lyrics, but also she was drawn to him and what he was willing to say.”

EJ: Was a role that allowed you to explore music something you’d always hoped to try?
MB: Definitely. The thing with me is that I want to try everything and acting is this wonderful excuse to dive deeply into one specific field for a while, whether it’s aviation or becoming a musician. I’d [previously] picked up a guitar and tried to teach myself but would be lazy, for me, it takes having deadlines and the responsibility to deliver to get me to learn the thing. Then I get to work, no questions asked. When you do something like this, you get access to some of the best coaches. It’s also funded training and everyone in your life understands that this is your job, so you spend hours and hours just singing, playing guitar, learning a new skill set. I loved every part of it. I mean, I also struggled and plateaued and cried, but I had happy tears too. [both laugh] 

EJ: You mentioned earlier how Joan was such a prominent figure in the 60s political landscape, what it was like tapping into that time period for a modern audience? I imagine it was interesting to learn more about her politics as well as her music.
MB: Absolutely. Another gift of this job is you get to do so much research and learn everything about a time period. I was very moved by all of what she did. The film itself is more a story about the evolution of an artist and of course, these things were happening at the time – Bob spoke to those things and then also didn’t want to anymore. I think in the biopic of Joan, there would be much greater political undertones or overtones. Within the context of this time, she was a performer on a personal journey, she had become so outrageously famous that she also wanted to push it away. She started to resist it, and she started to lean more into her activism, she really wanted to say something and use her platform to be a part of positive change. That’s where her career led, she would start to say that she was more of an activist than a singer, or that’s how she saw herself. 

EJ: James Mangold previously directed the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line, so he’s very well-versed in that genre. What was it like working with him?
MB: He’s incredible, he’s an actor’s advocate. He will not let you sacrifice authenticity for the sake of convenience. He’s like, “The camera can move, you walk where Joan would walk,” and there’s a lot of trust there. He’s willing to allow for that space, and that was a gift. I learned a lot from that. He’s a boisterous personality and he can be harsh, but there is always an undercurrent of love and care. I feel so lucky to have worked with him and to have portrayed Joan in his universe.

EJ: Bob’s life has been so well documented across the decades, A Complete Unknown is the thirteenth movie about him including documentaries and dramas. What do you think it is about his story that is so enduring?
MB: Wow. He’s a brilliant poet and lyricist and there’s always fascination in that. He had this ability to be completely charismatic but also throw up a middle finger at everybody all the time. [laughs] That’s an undeniably attractive quality, to have that push and pull with the attention you receive. He was willing to transform, to evolve and do what he wanted. 

A Complete Unknown is out in UK cinemas from January 17th.