4 Facts About Oscars 2025 Surprise Best Supporting Actress Monica Barbaro
Monica Barbaro is a surprise Best Supporting Actress nominee for the Academy Awards for her role as singer-songwriter Joan Baez in the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, especially since she wasn’t nominated for a Golden Globe. The nomination also came as a surprise to the actress, who was “literally floored upon receiving the news.”
Who is Monica Barbaro?
Barbaro began acting in 2010 with small roles in TV and movies. Her breakthrough came with a supporting role in Tom Cruise’s movie, Top Gun: Maverick in 2022. After, she starred in FUBAR, Netflix’s action comedy series starting in 2023. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who plays her dad on FUBAR, posted a sweet congratulatory message, writing, “Congratulations to my amazing FUBAR daughter on the Academy Award nomination. You may be surprised, but I am not!” via Cinemablend.
Barbaro is a Trained Dancer
Barbaro is a trained ballet dancer. She studied at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. After graduating in 2010, she decided to pursue acting instead, according to an interview with Vanity Fair.
She Learned to Sing and Play the Guitar for Five Months
Barbaro told Cosmopolitan that she learned to sing and play the guitar for five months. “I met Riley Keough at an event, and we talked about learning guitar and singing for roles. She was like, ‘Actually, around five months was when I felt like I started to have a proficiency.’ And so, throughout my process, I kept thinking of her and being like, ‘Okay, in five months, I’ll feel a little better about this.’ And I think that was true for me too.”
She Reached Out to Baez in Preparing for the Role
USA Today reported she reached out to Baez in preparing for the role including “shedding light on the nature of their split,” referring to Baez’s relationship with Dylan. Monica Barbaro said, “She told me there was a lot of love there, and a lot of disappointment. Not just in his walking away from her, but also, she just wanted to say something with her music and change the world and speak out about things.”
She added, “At first, he was that protest voice also, and then he didn’t want to do that anymore. She was also in love with his potential. But she did say that she so appreciates what he did do with his talent.”
Singing Live Caused Her Anxiety
In an interview with Screen Rant, Barbaro said performing live gave her anxiety. “My hat goes off to our sound department who was willing to roll [with] the punches on that one because it can be very challenging, and they didn’t overly curate the sound, which I think is a wonderful thing because it preserves a very folk-like quality. It was very anxiety-inducing to know that we’d be performing live.
However, she added that singing with Timothée Chalamet helped. “I got to sing alongside Timmy and that was just a wonderful experience that felt like, ‘Okay, we can do this.’”
