Joan Baez Actress Monica Barbaro first met Chalamet at Musikgenhør

• Monica Barbaro stars as Joan Baez in “A Complete Unknown,” which follows Bob Dylan’s early career.
• Barbaro told BI that she and Timothée Chalamet, who plays Dylan, first met at a musical audition.
• Barbaro did vocal training to sing as Baez and the duet with Chalamet’s Dylan.

In “A Complete Unknown”, Timothée Chalamet and Monica Barbaro inhabit two musical legends: Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. True to form, the actors met for the first time on the set for a musical rehearsal.

The film, directed by James Mangold, stars Chalamet as a young Dylan in the early years of his career, from his 1962 self-titled debut album through his controversial pivot to electric instrumentation. It features many of Dylan’s contemporaries from the era, including Baez (Barbaro), Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) and Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook).

The film’s greatest strength is its music, of which there was much recorded live on the set. Not only does Chalamet perform live as Dylan, but he duets in character with his collaborators. It led to the perfect meeting for the actors.

“We heard each other’s voices in recording studios because I would sing duets to his voice,” Barbaro told Business Insider. “The first time we met was a music audition and it was just the most beautiful experience for me.”

Like Chalamet, Barbaro also did vocal training to play Baez in the film, working to imitate the singer’s trilling vibrato while also researching Baez’s life and career. The actor told BI she knew the musical would be “the biggest hill to climb” and she knew Chalamet – who spent five years preparing to play Dylan – had been rehearsing. When they first met, she felt ready to stick, not only as an actress, but as a musician.

“Getting to play next to him and hearing the harmonies of our voices and the accompaniment complementing each other — that was a career highlight,” Barbaro said.

“I’m so glad we waited until that time to meet each other and work with each other,” she continued. “It was more true to a Bob and Joan version of the meeting, that we would have these musical skills, that we could collaborate and play together.”