Tom Cruise is partly responsible for the best cast in a completely unknown film

In Completely Anonymous, the great Bob Dylan is presented as a singular force who stormed the Greenwich Village folk scene before becoming an international rock star. But his uniqueness in itself is not enough to push him to these heights. As James Mangold’s film shows, his rise was aided by some very important friends and supporters. By Edward Norton Pete Seeger (who was originally scheduled to be played by Benedict Cumberbatch), who champions Timothée Chalamet’s Dylan from the moment he arrives in New York, to Elle Fanning’s Sylvie Russo (a renamed version of Dylan’s then-girlfriend Suze Rotolo), the film is filled with supporters who help the emerging talent reach his full potential.

Although the film is ostensibly a biopic of Bob Dylan (covering only about five years of the musician’s life), if you listen to any interviews with the cast or Mangold himself, you’ll hear how they considered the project a “band act.” “Film. Indeed, the film is concerned not only with what it means to be a tremendous talent like Dylan, but also with how such a tremendous talent affects those around him. In this sense, Norton, Fanning, and the rest of the cast are arguably as important as Chalamet himself.

Arguably one of the most important figures in Dylan’s early career was Joan Baez, an established artist who covered many of Bob’s songs and thus helped him reach a wider audience. Baez, who plays him in “A Complete Unknown” directed by Monica Barbaro (“Fubar”), is further proof that, as unique a talent as Dylan was and remains, his rise to fame was far from a solo effort. Interestingly enough, Barbaro’s presence in the film itself seems to be evidence that Hollywood doesn’t differ from the popular scene of the early 1960s in one very specific way: it’s all about who you know.

Completely Anonymous goes out of its way not to “explain” Bob Dylan – a wise move on the part of James Mangold who seems to understand the importance of ambiguity in Dylan’s career. It’s also not afraid to portray the musician as, to use Sylvie Russo’s phrase from the film, a “hole.” And that’s something Joan Baez, played by Monica Barbaro, isn’t afraid to point out, too, with her version of the beloved pop star who drags Dylan out of her hotel room midway through the film after he’s endured too much self-indulgence.

Barbaro plays Baez as a proud, self-confident pop icon, and in the film Completely Anonymous review.Chris Evangelista described the actress as “absolutely luminous” in the role. Which is a good thing too, as none other than Tom Cruise himself was included in the casting during the casting process.

Yes, it looks like Mission: Impossible star Pete Seeger, who put in a good word for the actor after they appeared together in 2022. Back to the danger zone, “Top Gun: Maverick.” talking to Cinema BlindBarbaro explained how she wanted the role of Joan Baez after hearing about A Complete Unknown, and while she’s worked hard to earn her place among the impressive group, it’s always going to count when Tom Cruise has your back. The actress said:

“He’s also very generous, and he mentored (the cast of ‘Top Gun: Maverick’) and is still available to us. (…) I know he worked with James Mangold, and I know he told James I would do it.” Be a good person to work with, and that means the world to me.”

Expanding on her experience enlisting Tom Cruise’s support during the casting of “A Complete Unknown,” Monica Barbaro claimed that the veteran star actually worked behind the scenes with many of the “Top Gun: Maverick” crew, saying:

“That’s how any industry works (…) For Tom Cruise, communication is beyond that, and I know he did that for a lot of us. And he’s just an excellent resource. I feel like I can ask him anything, and he responds.” , which is also crazy, and I don’t know why or how he could have time to respond to me.

All of this raises the question of how many castings Cruise will endure. At least in this case, it worked, with Barbaro inhabiting Joan Baez in a way that rivals Timothée Chalamet’s subtle but effectively recognizable imitation of Bob Dylan himself. She also committed to the role in a way that justified her casting with Cruise’s help, explained in A.J feature That she didn’t even play guitar before she was cast and that the extent of her experience with music was that she would “sing in the shower.” However, in the film, she matched Chalamet’s live performance scores, playing and singing all the songs herself.