Joan Baez Had One Rule for the Bob Dylan Biopic—And It Might Surprise You

When Joan Baez found out Hollywood was taking a swing at the tangled, poetic chaos of Bob Dylan’s early years, you’d think she’d be first in line with red pens and receipts. After all, she lived it. But when her team got fired up, ready to fact-check A Complete Unknown like it was a thesis paper, Baez calmly waved them off. “Don’t bother,” she told them. Why? Because, as she puts it, “It’s a fun movie.”

Now 84, Baez isn’t losing sleep over whether she and Dylan lived in the Chelsea Hotel or just visited. “Details, details,” she laughed in a new Rolling Stone interview. What mattered to her was the feeling—Timothée Chalamet, as Dylan, nailed the music, the bad attitude, and even some of that signature charm. And Monica Barbaro? Baez said the actress worked “like mad” to embody her, and at times the resemblance was “startling.”

Sure, there were some moments that weren’t quite true—like the infamous middle finger scene. “Someone asked me, ‘Did you really do that to Bob?’” she recalled. Her response? “No, I did this,” and flashed a peace sign. But she was just glad the movie captured something deeper than facts: the emotional truth of a wild, beautiful, complicated chapter in music history.

And when asked why she and Dylan are still linked after all these years, she didn’t flinch: “There are worse people to be glued at the hip to.”