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As it turns out, Amanda Seyfried’s viral performance of Joni Mitchell’s “California” on “The Tonight Show” wasn’t a random occurrence — the Oscar-nominated actress was once set to portray the singer-songwriter in a biopic.
During an interview with British GQ, Seyfried disclosed that she taught herself to play Mitchell’s “Blue” album on dulcimer, piano and guitar during the COVID-19 pandemic as preparation for a biopic. “It was a movie about her and [manager] Elliot Roberts,” she told British GQ. “Then he died – but not before I met him.”
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She also met Mitchell, who invited Seyfried to her L.A. residence for a steak dinner. The pair ended up listening to “Blue” together. “I sat on the floor petting one of the dogs. She told me a lot of stories,” Seyfried said. “She’s like, ‘We’ll put on the album and light a fire.’ After we listened to the album, she’s like, ‘It’s sparse, isn’t it?’” Seyfried responded: “It’s perfect!”
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Seyfried also picked up the Mitchell staples “Both Sides Now” and “The Circle Game,” but the project ultimately fell through. Nonetheless, Seyfried takes pride in the musical achievement. “The day that I finished learning the last song on the album, ‘[The Last Time I Saw] Richard’, I fucking wept,” Seyfried said. “I felt like a bona fide musician, like I belong here. I felt like I had put my own flag on the top of the mountain. Because it was a fucking mountain, I tell you.”
“Almost Famous” director Cameron Crowe is now helming a different Mitchell biopic, reportedly set to feature Anya Taylor-Joy and Meryl Streep as younger and older versions of the singer. “Apparently a lot of people reached out to Cameron Crowe and were like, ‘What the fuck are you doing, dude?’” Seyfried told British GQ. “I don’t know what he said, but from my knowledge, his version is, she’s really young and then she’s older.”
After her “California” cover went viral in March 2025, Seyfried told Variety that it wasn’t her trying out for a role in Crowe’s biopic. “It was not an audition,” she said. “In fact, I didn’t even consider that, which is funny. What I know about that project is that I’m very, very much aged-out of [playing] young Joni.”
Read Seyfried’s full British GQ interview here.
Amanda Seyfried,
Joni Mitchell
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