Amanda Seyfried continues to show us why we need her take on Joni Mitchell songs
There are a subset of women who learned how to feel thanks to Joni Mitchell. Yes, I stole that from Love Actually but it is a true statement. Joni Mitchell’s music speaks to the soul and it is a gift to us all. Which is why I really want to see Amanda Seyfried’s take on the musician.
Seyfried was, originally, approached to play Mitchell in a biopic and started to learn how to play the dulcimer. She took on the instrument when she was working with Mitchell’s manager, Elliot Roberts, was someone leading the charge on the project before he passed away in 2019. But Seyfriend’s connection to the musician continued.
During a stint on The Tonight Show, she played “California” by Mitchell on the dulcimer and it went from there with fans longing to see her take on the artist. But during a career retrospective with SAG-AFTRA, Seyfried shared the story behind her journey with the film.
“She was like, ‘Do you play any other instruments?’ And I was like, ‘I play the dulcimer.’ Because I studied Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue’ album for a potential movie that never happened…Mainly from my perspective, I had met with her on the best nights of my life in Beverly Hills. Her manager died. I don’t think I’ve ever told this story because it’s like it’s tricky because headlines are obnoxious and never really correct, but I don’t want it to but undermine her or you know put a shadow over anything that anybody else is doing right now because they are making a movie about it, and I think it’s a my full support,” Seyfried said.
She is referencing a Cameron Crowe film that is set to be about Mitchell’s life starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Meryl Streep. “I love that there that he’s making a movie about her, and before that movie came along, there was this movie, and then her manager died. And, yeah, it felt halted. And so…He was like the machine behind it. He was so in love with the script and so in love with me playing her. And I had the whole pandemic to learn all these songs.”
During the chat, she shared how difficult Mitchell’s songs are and how you have to tune each one differently on whatever instrument is prominent in it and so on and so forth. But she said that studying the music “enhanced me as an artist entirely.”
Which is relatable as someone who has often connected to Mitchell’s music and I love seeing her honor Mitchell in this way. I do need to hear Seyfried’s cover of “A Case of You” though.
(featured image: Brianna Bryson/WireImage)
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