Monica Barbaro, First-Time Oscar Nominee, Is Plotting a Way to Meet Joan Baez

Finally, one of Tom Cruise’s star pupils from Top Gun: Maverick has made it to the Academy Awards. Monica Barbaro, whose portrayal of Joan Baez in A Complete Unknown elevated the biopic as a compelling romantic and industry foil for Timothée Chalamet’s Bob Dylan, is among the nominees for Best Supporting Actress at this year’s ceremony. (We’ll be thinking of her line delivery of “you’re kind of an asshole, Bob” for a long time.) Barbaro, a first-time nominee for playing the middle-finger-flipping matriarch of folk, joins a roster that includes Wicked’s Ariana Grande-Butera, The Brutalist’s Felicity Jones, Conclave’s Isabella Rossellini, and Emilia Pérez’s Zoe Saldaña. To her, it’s a seismic event at the level of headlining the Newport Folk Festival. “It’s beyond comprehension at this point in my career,” Barbaro said shortly after becoming an official nominee. “Every moment of this film has been one more completely life-changing experience on top of the next.”

I’m so glad you were the oil that rose above the water for this nomination. You were such a wonderful Joan.
My mind is blown. That means the world to me, seriously. Thank you.

Tell me all about your day. Were you trying to stay distracted?
Let me tell you, I’m in London shooting something right now, and I was mid-costume-fitting when I got the news. I was trying not to pay attention to what time the nominations were coming out. I was like, I don’t want to overthink this. There are so many incredible female performances this year. I was going to be happy for everybody. I had a feeling the movie, Timmy, and Edward Norton would get some love, so I was trying not to think about myself in it. So I was like, Yeah, why don’t we do a fitting right now? But I was still refreshing and refreshing. And when my phone started lighting up, I was on the floor. I had made peace with it potentially not happening, and that allows even more space to be more excited. How do I process this? I have no idea. I can’t feel my toes.

You’re in such a fascinatingly diverse category. I must have seen a dozen different predictions for who the final five nominees would be.
I grew up on Center Stage. I was a ballet dancer when that movie came out, and Zoe Saldaña is the North Star of feminine strength. I truly don’t know how you can narrow these kinds of things down to five people. I think the most exciting thing about this particular year is that it’s not just the competitive supporting actress category because that’s “all women get.” The leading actress category has also been supremely competitive. This year is stacked with excellent female performances. It gives me so much hope for women in film. To have my name among the final five is something I can’t even wrap my head around yet.

Are you hopeful this will spur your official first meeting with Joan?
I hope so. Physically, we’ve never been together. We talked on the phone while I was in production, and we’ve been recently texting.

Did she text her congratulations yet?
No, because I have no idea if she’s tracking anything about the Oscars. We’re texting because I’m trying to make it to this benefit concert she’s having next month in San Francisco. It’s a retrospective on her amazing career. I’m filming in London for the next few weeks, so I’m spitballing ideas to her, like How do I get a round-trip ticket, pop in for the night, and then run back to London to keep working? Where are my Sky Miles? She’s so cool and grounded about all of this.

What would be your perfect day out with her?
We’d have a lovely time drumming and dancing in her garden. I think that would be my pinnacle, pie-in-the-sky moment to share with Joan. What do we do for the rest of the day? I don’t know and I don’t care. If I could dance in a drum circle with Joan, I’d die right there.

Are there any nuances of her personality that you’ve absorbed since filming ended?
Even in her anxiety, Joan managed to soothe others so much with her voice, music, and beliefs. I was a kid who loved to be barefoot, and then the world came in and was like, You can’t do that all the time. And then I got this golden nugget of a chance to be barefoot all the time in production, because Joan talks constantly about how she wouldn’t wear shoes. I have continued to force people to let me be barefoot in their homes in any situation.

The Oscars won’t be doing Best Original Song performances this year, but in years past, there has been a precedent for one-off music moments for certain films. Would you have any interest in performing a song of Joan’s if given the chance?
Yeah, of course. I’m a person who gets absolutely terrified and leans into challenges that are presented to me. Thanks for that; I think that will haunt my dreams tonight. That would be another absolutely life-changing idea. One of my favorite experiences making this movie was when I realized I could play “Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right” to tempo. Having that as a life moment, I had full-blown tears. Being able to learn to play music, let alone for this — collaborating and performing with Timmy — and perform it live? I’m so lucky to have dabbled in the life of a musician, even just for a moment. I respect performing musicians more than I ever have before, which was already a lot. So I won’t take that performance suggestion lightly. I would be happy to know it’s happening if it did.

Do you have any theories as to what Timmy will perform on Saturday Night Live?
I have none! It’s not his first rodeo on SNL, but this is going to be a special one, for sure.

I’m hoping it’ll be one Bob song followed by a Timmy Tim original.
A little combo platter of all of the above. I wish I could be there, and I was actually trying to figure out how I could, but I’ll be watching with the rest of London the next morning.

Related

• Don’t Think Twice, Bob Dylan Acted Out the Entirety of A Complete Unknown
• A Short History of Joan Baez Calling Bob Dylan on His Bullshit