Joan Baez says she “cherished” how Monica Barbaro portrayed her within the Bob Dylan biopic A Full Unknown.
Talking with the Marin Impartial Journal, a neighborhood paper in Barbaro’s hometown situated simply exterior of Baez’s Woodside, California dwelling, the folks legend mentioned, “If I didn’t suppose she was good at it, I in all probability wouldn’t have loved it basically. However she regarded sufficient like me and he or she had my gestures down. You can inform who it was. She labored so arduous. Kudos to her for taking the position on.”
Within the Academy Award-nominated movie, Barbaro (herself up for Finest Supporting Actress) performs Baez across the ages of 20 to 24 as she meets a burgeoning Dylan and performs a task in his rise to stardom. The film additionally covers the pair’s temporary romantic entanglement, one thing depicted as being sparked in the course of the 1962 Cuban Missile Disaster. “It was pleasantly temporary,” Baez joked of the scene, which was a piece of fiction. She additionally famous her college-age granddaughter’s response: “She mentioned, ‘I don’t wish to see my grandmother making out in a movie.’”
Baez additionally spoke about her relationship with the real-life Dylan, notably when it got here to taking part within the activism on the core of the ’60s people motion. “I needed him to be within the marches and on the steps and no matter,” she mentioned. “He didn’t wish to and I couldn’t let that go. It was unfair of me to anticipate extra of him as a result of he was such an vital drive and people songs have been so unbelievable. It took me the subsequent 50 years to understand these songs have been sufficient.”
Referring to our 2024 Movie Performer of the Yr Timothée Chalamet’s position as Dylan, Baez famous his take was lots much less “scruffy” than the Dylan she knew, however the charisma was spot on. “I’ve to come back again to that’s the way it was — when he walked into the room, he took up all of the oxygen,” mentioned Baez. “And so my half was all the time diminished in his presence. And in that sense the movie is correct.”
As for Barbaro, she spent practically half a 12 months making an attempt to good her tackle Baez, studying all the pieces from her singing voice to her guitar fashion. The duty, particularly studying Baez’s “intricate, so particular” fingerpicking fashion, was “extremely difficult,” and the actor needed to “simply acknowledge that it’s completely unimaginable to good Joan’s voice, or to sound like her.” Talking with the folks singer and activist, nevertheless, eased a few of the “imposter syndrome.”
“I felt emotional listening to her voice on the cellphone as a result of I had been learning her voice in her 20s so intensely,” Barbaro informed the paper. “And I felt like I had a lot respect for her. However she was like, ‘Oh, I’m simply in my backyard listening to the birds.’ And I used to be like, oh, yeah, you don’t reside or die by what we are saying about you on this film. She’s lived her life… She wasn’t making an attempt to dictate in any means my response to her. She was like, ‘I’m right here, I’m open and out there for any query you’ve got.’ I used to be actually appreciative that she was so beneficiant with me.”
Ultimately, Baez appreciated the presentation of her life and songs within the movie. “I believed the music was unbelievable,” she mentioned. “I could also be blocking my emotions, nevertheless it’s an amusing film. It was enjoyable.”
A Full Unknown is up for eight Oscars this 12 months, together with Finest Image, Finest Actor, and Finest Director. Baez, in the meantime, just lately spoke with sondramedia to have a good time the sixty fifth anniversary of the Newport Folks Pageant, which performs a central position within the film, in our 2024 Pageant of the Yr retrospective.
