With a total of eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, A Complete Unknown has taken its place as a major Academy frontrunner— (Emilia Pérez, the most-nominated film, got 13, while Wicked and The Brutalist tied for 10). one of those eight was for Monica Barbaro‘s turn as Joan Baez.
Barbaro told Deadline of her shock and surprise shortly after the announcement Thursday morning. “This was really unexpected,” she said. “I was trying not to pay attention to it because there are so many phenomenal actors performances this year and I’ve just been like, I’m not going to overthink it. I’m not going to expect any of it.”
However, for Barbaro it was afternoon as she is currently in London shooting interiors for Crime 101, Bart Layton’s upcoming heist movie, also starring Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry, Barry Keoghan and Mark Ruffalo. The film is set in LA and exteriors were shot there. The action includes scenes on the Pacific Coast Highway, which has since been ravaged by the L.A. fires. “It’s going to be emotional to watch,” Barbaro said of those scenes, “even though that’s not necessarily the design of it.”
She also highlighted the importance of production continuing in L.A. now that the city needs it even more than ever. “I’m so glad so much of it has been filmed in Los Angeles,” she said, “and I really just hope there’s more space to have more productions filmed in L.A. I’m a resident there. It is the home of movie making, and I adore the beautiful theaters there that honor going to the theater and seeing film, and I just wish we also had that peace that is a lot of productions filming there again. That would be a beautiful thing, and I know a lot of people feel that way.”
Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez in ‘A Complete Unknown’
She added of the fires: “I am in closer proximity to the Eaton fire, and the smoke was really intense, but I’m so lucky that my house is still standing, and I have friends who have not been so fortunate, and so my heart goes out to them and everyone in Altadena, everyone in the Palisades, it’s just catastrophic devastation.”
Right after hearing of her A Complete Unknown nomination, Barbaro got in touch with director James Mangold and her co-stars. “Jim and I have texted back and forth, and I immediately texted the four of us. We were just in Rome and Paris and London together, so I just texted that group chat quickly.”
She also reached out to nominated costume designer Arianne Phillips. “I was mid-costume fitting when it happened, and I’m with her friend Jenny Eagan [costume designer for Crime 101], and so we sent her a video congratulating her.”
Barbaro is still playing guitar as she did onscreen as Baez, although less than before and says her finger calluses are somewhat diminished. She is also still in contact with Joan Baez and is currently hoping to make it to Baez’s upcoming San Francisco show. “She’s a legend”, Barbaro says, simply.
