Monica Barbaro admits on-camera singing terrified her: ‘I cried in my trailer’
Monica Barbaro opens up about singing on camera for One Night Only — and why that’s a whole different beast than simply carrying a tune.
On Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, Monica Barbaro said the leap from action to live music nearly broke her nerve. For One Night Only, she not only had to sing on camera, she had to do it in front of a crowd while playing piano — despite having no professional vocal training before taking on back-to-back music-heavy roles.
“I cried in my trailer before I had to sing Only You,” she said. “I was so so so terrified.”
Barbaro added that One Night Only shared the same assistant director as A Complete Unknown, which helped her settle in. Even so, performing as Allie required walking onstage and delivering a live song to an audience — no safety net.
“She’s so committed to that part; and she’s got a beautiful voice,” co-star Callum Turner said on Seen on the Screen.
Training to play Baez
For A Complete Unknown, where she portrays folk icon Joan Baez, Barbaro spent more than a year in vocal and guitar lessons. She worked to capture Baez’s unmistakable sound — from the tight vibrato to the high key — while building a singing voice of her own.
“We started with her iconic qualities, that tight vibrato, the high key, that angelic soaring voice, those very identifiable features,” she told USA Today. “It was hard for me since I didn’t have a relationship with my own singing voice at all. So really, I just aimed at trying to sound like her, even it is impossible to sound like Joan Baez.”
That preparation went beyond vocals. Barbaro also studied Baez’s intricate fingerpicking to play live on camera as needed.
From stunts to songs
Barbaro’s all-in approach tracks with her work in Top Gun: Maverick , where she performed her own stunts, including complex aerial sequences, and pushed through underwater training before cameras rolled.
- Top Gun: Maverick — performed her own stunts, including aerial work and underwater training
- A Complete Unknown — more than a year of voice and guitar study to portray Joan Baez
- One Night Only — sings and plays piano live as Allie, including performing “Only You” in front of a crowd
She described learning Baez’s guitar technique as “learning how to walk in your 30s.”