A complete unknown is finally hitting theaters on Christmas Day (like a rolling stone?), but the cast is already making a big splash. Timothée Chalamet grabbed one Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of Bob Dylan, while Monica Barbaro just won the Breakthrough Performer Award at the Astra Film Awards. But when I sat down with the actress, I couldn’t help but flash back to the first day of filming December film.

Here’s something A complete unknownMonica Barbaro talked about meeting Timothée Chalamet and learning the guitar for the role of Joan Baez.

Monica Barbaro loved working with Timothée Chalamet on A Complete Unknown.

Monica revealed in a Rolling Stone interview that she met Timothée Chalamet a week before filming – and that he was already more or less in the role. “The first time we met was at a music rehearsal,” she tells Brit + Co exclusively. “So we jumped right in, which was nice because I admired his work so much from a distance and despite all the intimidation, that I might have had, I was able to just focus on music preparation, which was great.”

“It was a beautiful experience to hear our voices harmonize as characters and to hear the accompaniment of our guitars,” she continues. “And we were able to kind of anchor ourselves in the music and have a kind of exchange of ideas that was perhaps a little more similar to Joan and Bob because they had met in the music scene as already very competent musicians. So that was a…” beautiful, magical day. And then we started filming straight away.

Monica Barbaro (who you will recognize her by). Top Gun 2) stars musician Joan Baez, and although Monica had to learn to play the guitar for the role, you would never guess it just from watching the film. She performs with so much confidence and ease that I thought she had been acting her whole life. And the fact that her voice sounds like a Disney princess is just icing on the cake.

“I’m not a singer, I didn’t play the guitar,” she says. “So there was kind of an introductory period where I was just figuring out how to shape my hands, and I kind of thought about how she would have done that at about 14 when she first started.” But this was like a rework of everything – I mean, I put all my time into this training.”

She conducted her own research but also worked with vocal coach Eric Vetro, who she also worked with Ariana GrandeSabrina Carpenter and Shawn Mendes. “He encouraged me to think about what the lyrics meant to them,” says Monica. “Because the best musicians are storytellers and the best thing about interpreting these folk songs is that you can feel the story of the song.”

And that’s why focusing on the lyrics “was also part of the character development. So there were isolated things like voice, guitar research and then her speaking voice,” she says. “And then all these things started to kind of merge, you know. You have to act and sing and tell a story at the same time and do it from Joan’s perspective. And so they developed over time. “Somehow bridged over.”

But no matter how much preparation Monica, Timothée and Elle Fanning (who stars as Sylvie Russo) did for the film, they still had to shoot in the middle of New York City, which presented its own set of 2024-specific challenges. “It was interesting filming and seeing people secretly making videos and posting them on the internet,” she says, admitting that she “really tried to tune it all out as much as possible.”

The film highlights the tension between celebrity and fame, considering that we meet Bob Dylan just before he becomes, well. Bob Dylan. “It’s a privilege to have so much attention and excitement on a project, and I appreciate the intention, but you just shut it down a little bit and withdraw,” says Monica, “especially when you’re talking about it.” just a completely different kind of fame in the sixties.”

For a good laugh, read about 23 hilarious tweets about the Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest where Timothée crashed.