{"id":583925,"date":"2026-04-05T14:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T14:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/583925\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T14:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T14:07:10","slug":"monica-barbaro-yesterday-i-went-home-thinking-im-a-terrible-actor-and-theyre-finding-out-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/583925\/","title":{"rendered":"Monica Barbaro: \u2018Yesterday I went home thinking I\u2019m a terrible actor and they\u2019re finding out\u2019 | Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI feel like I\u2019m imitating an American\u00a0accent, but it really is mine,\u201d Monica Barbaro jokes. The actor has spent the morning rehearsing in an English accent for her stage debut in\u00a0the\u00a0National Theatre\u2019s revival of Les\u00a0Liaisons Dangereuses. During interviews, she says, she switches back. \u201cI feel it\u2019s best to use my own voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Barbaro \u2013 Oscar-nominated for her portrayal of activist and folk singer Joan Baez in James Mangold\u2019s Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown<\/a> \u2013 is using that voice to reflect on a new chapter as a theatre actor. She\u00a0is\u00a0playing Madame de Tourvel, one of literature\u2019s most famous casualties of seduction and manipulation.\u00a0It\u2019s a daunting challenge, not least because of the role\u2019s formidable lineage, with Juliet Stevenson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Annette Stroyberg and Reese Witherspoon among those who have previously taken it on. \u201cSpeaking aloud in a theatre for this big of an audience is new for me,\u201d she says, apprehensively.<\/p>\n

For A Complete Unknown, Barbaro, 35, spent months studying Baez\u2019s voice and music, learning guitar and wearing prosthetic teeth to capture the singer\u2019s distinctive look. \u201cWe filmed it only a year and a half ago, and it was put out within months,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u00a0was\u00a0really intense. It took a long time for me to land afterwards and feel more like myself again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of all Dylan\u2019s relationships, it is his partnership with Baez that has lingered most in the public imagination. When they met, she was already a bona fide folk star and civil rights champion, while he was relatively unknown. Their relationship was shaped as much by their creative symbiosis as by its personal intensity, which made it all the more poignant when he ultimately eclipsed and distanced himself from her.<\/p>\n

Mangold\u2019s film included scenes of Baez and Dylan\u2019s performances in Greenwich Village and at the Newport folk festival \u2013 where the director bent the truth by using their breakup duet on It Ain\u2019t Me Babe as the backdrop to a love triangle. \u201cJoan and Suze [Rotolo, Dylan\u2019s girlfriend from 1961 to 64, a fictionalised version of whom featured in the film] were empowered women,\u201d Barbaro says. \u201cThey\u00a0were a huge part of Dylan voicing his opinions about political matters. They told him what was important to talk about, they were a huge influence on him. And the film honoured that in a way.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Bizarre love triangle \u2026 Barbaro with Timoth\u00e9e Chalomet in A Complete Unknown.<\/p>\n

The more Barbaro learned about Baez, the more she came to idolise her. \u201cI\u2019m just like: \u2018Then she marched with Martin Luther King, are we clear on that? Do people know that?\u2019 It was really nice to hear from a lot of people who watched the movie that they were intrigued to find out more about her.\u201d Another thing that deepened Barbaro\u2019s connection to Baez was their shared mixed identity (Barbaro is a quarter Mexican, and Baez is half Mexican). Barbaro has spoken of the challenges<\/a> of navigating an industry that tried to categorise her, and how reading Baez\u2019s memoir and its exploration of dual identities, of not belonging, felt \u201cso personal\u201d.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until last year that the two actually met in person, when Barbaro travelled to see Baez perform in San Francisco. The experience, she says, was \u201cso trippy. It was so strange to hear in person the voice I\u2019d been obsessing over for so long. There\u2019s a worship quality to it; I felt in complete awe of her. It was kind of a whirlwind moment. We\u2019ve kept in touch. I think now, with all the pressure off, it would be really cool to sit down with her for an afternoon and just talk. I can hear her songs again and not panic.\u201d<\/p>\n

She calls the Oscar nomination \u201ctotally surreal\u201d, but something she tried to process in advance. \u201cIt seemed embarrassing to want it, or celebrate it, and I needed to confront that it was something I\u2019d love to have. Then, when it happened \u2013 unbridled joy.\u201d It was a big shift for an actor who went into the film fangirling over the rest of the cast and the director. \u201cI had to constantly encourage myself to believe I could take up space. The\u00a0Oscar nomination was a nice reminder that I did that, I worked hard, I showed up every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

We meet in the labyrinthine tunnels of London\u2019s National Theatre during a break in rehearsals for Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Barbaro arrives in jeans and loafers, her hair unstyled and face free of makeup \u2013 a far cry from the glossy red-carpet photographs and magazine shoots that have trailed her recent ascent. Throughout our conversation she speaks thoughtfully, as if testing each answer as she goes, and seems most comfortable discussing the process of acting itself: rehearsals, character and the strange psychology of performance. She says she was drawn to the production partly by the chance to work with director Marianne Elliott (War Horse, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time), who has collaborated with playwright Christopher Hampton to revisit his Olivier-winning 1985 adaptation, placing greater emphasis on the women at the drama\u2019s centre.<\/p>\n

Few stories have proved as durable as Pierre Choderlos de Laclos\u2019 1782 novel. Denounced by early critics as \u201cdiabolical\u201d, it quickly became the most scandalous book in Europe. Even Marie Antoinette reportedly ordered a copy, requesting the binding conceal its author and title. Set among the corrupt aristocracy of pre-revolutionary Paris, the story follows the calculating Marquise de Merteuil (here played by Lesley Manville) and Vicomte de Valmont (Aidan Turner), former lovers who manipulate those around them for sport. When Merteuil proposes a wager, Valmont is tasked with seducing the virginal C\u00e9cile Volanges \u2013 and, more challengingly, conquering the\u00a0devout Tourvel. \u201cSex is back\u201d, proclaimed the London Standard\u2019s website in an article showing pictures of the cast in rehearsal.<\/p>\n

double quotation markAs a modern woman with autonomy and independence, the thing I fear most in\u00a0the world is dying of heartbreak<\/p>\n

But for Barbaro, the story\u2019s appeal lies less in its sexiness than in the darkness beneath it. \u201cI find it to be quite depressing,\u201d she says, laughing. \u201cYou can see the characters having fun with the games they\u2019re playing with people. You can see why that world would be enticing. And then at the end you realise: that\u2019s a horrific thing to do to somebody. It\u2019s a proper epic, like a Greek tragedy. The seduction is really just the means of manipulation. What it\u2019s about is power: systemic abuse, corruption and cruelty. Ultimately, you see patterns of abuse repeat themselves,\u201d she says of the story\u2019s enduring resonance. \u201cYes, Tourvel and Valmont die, but Cecile survives and essentially takes over Merteuil\u2019s role. That, to me, is sadly very true.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such a portrait of elite excess feels resonant. \u201cIt was about the corruption of a certain class who could operate with impunity, and fuck over anyone they wanted.\u201d Does she believe it\u2019s a story modern audiences will be familiar with? \u201cOh, completely. The Epstein files were released a few days before we started rehearsals. It felt palpable. Particularly [Ghislaine] Maxwell\u2019s role in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In revisiting his script, Hampton has leaned further into the position of women in pre-revolutionary France,\u00a0exploring the limited forms of resistance available to them. Merteuil \u2013 often cast as a villain \u2013 is imagined here as decades older than Valmont, her cruelty entangled with the precariousness of ageing in a society that prizes youth.<\/p>\n

For Barbaro, the play\u2019s enduring power lies in its emotional brutality. \u201cAs a modern woman with autonomy and independence, the thing I fear most in\u00a0the world is dying of heartbreak,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s what makes Tourvel interesting. She can\u2019t revive herself or escape the situation she\u2019s in, her life\u00a0is\u00a0essentially ruined. She is controlled by her own\u00a0shame, and that theme of shame is still relevant today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of the challenge, she says, has been making the\u00a0characters intelligible to modern audiences. \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0painful to watch Tourvel fall into Valmont\u2019s hands\u00a0because we know he\u2019s manipulating her. But to get through the play, you have to recognise some part\u00a0of\u00a0yourself in someone who would still say yes. You\u00a0can see someone at their game and still fall in love\u00a0with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acting aristocracy \u2026 Lucia Chocarro, Monica Barbaro and Aidan Turner in rehearsals for Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Photograph: Sarah Lee<\/p>\n

Growing up, Barbaro knew a very different kind of privilege. She was raised in Mill Valley, just north of San Francisco, among steep hills, redwoods and the clean Pacific air. Her Italian-American father is a doctor; her mother, who is of Mexican, German and Nicaraguan descent, is a former nurse and dance lover who enrolled her three children in ballet classes. Barbaro trained seriously for years, studying dance at New York University\u2019s Tisch School of the Arts. Acting had captured her imagination earlier, though: she played Hermia in a school production of A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream at the age of 12. \u201cI didn\u2019t identify as a dancer, I\u00a0knew I wanted to act,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

After graduating she returned to California, picking up commercials and small television roles before a performance as naval aviator Phoenix in 2022\u2019s Top Gun: Maverick<\/a> transformed her profile. Salso wrapped Luca Guadagnino\u2019s drama Artificial, about the founders of OpenAI, alongside her boyfriend Andrew Garfield. Not unlike Les Liaisons Dangereuses, it turns on questions of power: who holds it, how it is wielded, and the damage done in its pursuit.<\/p>\n

One of the aspects Barbaro admired in Baez was her ability to \u201cgive her whole self\u201d for a performance, despite suffering from stage fright: the ability to be comfortable with imperfection, of \u201cnot self-correcting as you go\u201d. It is something she has tried to adopt for her stage debut. As a teenager she visited London frequently with her anglophile mother, seeing the Royal Ballet and wandering the galleries; performing at the National Theatre is a full-circle moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like going back to school. There\u2019s a part of me that wants to prove my worthiness, and prove to myself that I can do it in all forms. And the National is the ultimate space to break into the more traditional, classic side of this art form. I get to carve out a part of the practice that I haven\u2019t gotten to do yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

double quotation markWe ran scenes one through five yesterday, twice, and I went home thinking: \u2018I\u2019m a terrible actor and they\u2019re finding out’<\/p>\n

I think back to Tourvel\u2019s use of religion as a mechanism for self-protection. What is Barbaro\u2019s? \u201cMy\u00a0workaholism,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd my commitment to\u00a0my own independence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acting, she adds, has become its own form of therapy. \u201cI was, in a lot of ways, raised with the ideology to never embarrass yourself. But in the theatre, that\u2019s the number one thing you have to be comfortable doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

For her, the \u201cscary\u201d thing about this play is it being set in an environment where vulnerability and honesty are manipulated. \u201cThey say: \u2018Never show pity, especially to the vulnerable.\u2019 If you\u2019re subjected to horrifically toxic people, it\u2019s very hard to be shameless about who you are. I think societally, we\u2019re always trying to edge towards less of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Barbaro\u2019s relationship with Garfield has brought even more attention, the terms on which she measures herself remain internal: a daily practice of showing up, doing the work and confronting the doubt that comes with it. Despite the Oscar nod and the critical acclaim that followed A Complete Unknown, she\u2019s quick to tell me she \u201cstill auditioned\u201d for this play.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ran scenes one through five yesterday, twice, and \u2013 I probably shouldn\u2019t say this \u2013 but I went home thinking: \u2018I\u2019m a terrible actor and they\u2019re finding out.\u2019 I\u2019m so glad this [fame and success] happened to me at this stage in my career, rather than in my early 20s, and\u00a0thinking somehow I have some superiority or something. The scarcity of work in this industry has terrified me for so long, and it feels like a gift to not be in a state of desperation any more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before Barbaro returns to rehearsals, I ask her what\u2019s next. \u201cI honestly don\u2019t know right now, which is kind of a weird, exciting thing. It\u2019s nice to feel that and not feel like: \u2018Oh no, I\u2019ll never work again.\u2019 At least I know something will be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that, she hugs me, thanks me for my time, and\u00a0returns to the real work.<\/p>\n

Les Liaisons Dangereuses is at the National Theatre: Lyttelton, London, to 6 June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI feel like I\u2019m imitating an American\u00a0accent, but it really is mine,\u201d Monica Barbaro jokes. The actor has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-583925","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}