There is a particular kind of confidence that cannot be faked, and Monica Barbaro has it in abundance. The actress, who has spent years quietly building one of the most thoughtful careers in Hollywood, sat down with PORTER Magazine for a deeply personal conversation conducted by journalist Ellie Robertson. In the interview, Barbaro opens up about perfectionism, the vulnerability of ambition, and what it truly costs to keep rising.
Best known for her breakout turn in ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and her Oscar-nominated portrayal of folk icon Joan Baez in ‘A Complete Unknown,’ Barbaro is now preparing for one of the most daunting challenges of her career: a stage debut as Madame de Tourvel in ‘Les Liaisons Dangereuses’ at London’s National Theatre. It is a leap that she describes as both thrilling and terrifying, and she makes no attempt to hide the weight of it.
Reflecting on how her relationship with public attention has shifted over time, Barbaro told PORTER, “I used to be so nervous before interviews. Now I don’t know if I’m being complacent, or if I’ve just been through so many intense experiences, but everything feels… OK.” That hard-won sense of calm is evident throughout the conversation, though it is clearly built on a foundation of relentless self-examination rather than indifference.
Her background in dance, she explains, has been one of the most formative influences on the way she approaches acting. Movement, for Barbaro, is not just a physical discipline but a way of decoding human behavior. “Dance gave me a completely different way into character,” she shared. “People reveal themselves through their body language.” That instinct for embodied storytelling is what makes her such a compelling presence on screen, and what makes the leap to the stage feel both risky and natural at once.
Monica Barbaro photographed by Peter Joseph Smith for PORTER Magazine. 📷 pic.twitter.com/G800WZLPcL
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The role of Madame de Tourvel carries a particular emotional charge for her. Barbaro has described herself as someone who guards her feelings closely in her personal life, and taking on a character defined by romantic openness forces her to confront those defenses head-on. “I’m a person who’s been romantically quite protective,” she admitted to PORTER, “so I think it’s a very important character for me to look at and live with.” It is the kind of honesty that sets her apart from many of her peers.
Her time on ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ left a lasting impression, in part because of the real women she met while preparing for the role. Barbaro felt the responsibility of representing them with accuracy and dignity, recalling that “the women I met were extraordinary. I wanted to honor their strength and integrity.” That sense of obligation to the people behind her characters is a recurring theme in how she talks about her craft.
The Oscar nomination that followed ‘A Complete Unknown’ was, by any measure, a landmark moment, yet Barbaro keeps it in perspective. “It’s a huge honor but it doesn’t actually give my work more meaning,” she told PORTER plainly. Accolades, for her, are not the measure of a performance done right. The performance itself is. That philosophy extends to her current stage preparation, where the pressure she places on herself is considerable. Performing with a British accent in front of a London audience is no small undertaking, and she is adamant that the technical work must be invisible. “The accent has to be absolutely flawless so that it doesn’t get in the way of the more important thing,” she explained, “which is telling the story.”
What emerges from the PORTER profile is a portrait of an actress who refuses to let success define the terms of her ambition. She has been labeled a breakthrough talent, but she pushes back on the framing, noting that “it took years to get here.” The overnight success narrative, she implies, flattens something far more complicated and hard-earned.
As she stands on the edge of her theatre debut, Barbaro seems less concerned with how audiences will receive her and more focused on what the process will require her to give. It is that quality, the willingness to trade comfort for artistic truth, that has made her one of the most quietly compelling figures working today.
‘Les Liaisons Dangereuses,’ the 18th-century French novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos that inspired this stage adaptation, was so scandalous upon its publication in 1782 that Napoleon Bonaparte reportedly ordered copies destroyed during his campaigns. The National Theatre in London has been home to some of the most celebrated stage debuts in British theatre history, and its productions have launched the international careers of actors ranging from Judi Dench to Anthony Hopkins. Joan Baez, whom Barbaro portrayed in ‘A Complete Unknown,’ was the youngest performer to appear on the cover of Time magazine when she graced it in 1962 at just 21 years old.
What do you think about Monica Barbaro’s move from film to the stage — share your thoughts in the comments?
