Why Joni Mitchell Put Her Foot Down On Taylor Swift Playing Her In A Biopic

When there were rumblings of a Joni Mitchell biopic, some music enthusiasts were excited and others were a bit apprehensive about the news. Who could ever capture such a soulful presence like Mitchell? In 2012, to the horror of many, singer Taylor Swift was named the person who would most likely get attached to play Mitchell in the film adaptation of Girls Like Us.

A few years later and we still haven’t seen this film come to fruition. Now we know the reason why — Joni Mitchell herself stopped Taylor Swift from stepping into her shoes.

According to the Sunday Times, Mitchell explained what happened to the biopic that was supposed to bridge her impact on music with the careers of Carole King and Carly Simon. For Joni, it was Taylor Swift’s inclusion that made this a project she needed to stop very early on.

“I squelched that. I said to the producer, ‘All you’ve got is a girl with high cheekbones.’ It’s just a lot of gossip, you don’t have the great scenes. There’s a lot of nonsense about me in books… assumptions, assumptions, assumptions.”

Mitchell’s nixing of this project wasn’t apparent when people were still talking about it in 2012. That said, Taylor was hesitant in saying anything concrete since it seemed like negotiations were still going on.

When asked about the project, Swift said, “That’s actually not confirmed. I wish I could say it’s confirmed! But the thing about movies that I’ve learned is – I’ve been reading scripts for five years, and you just don’t know what ones are going to get greenlit and which ones aren’t, so I can’t talk about it unless it’s the real thing.”

In addition to Swift as Joni Mitchell, the only development that seemed solid was actress Alison Pill, who was already on board to play Carole King in the film. As far as whether or not the project will go forward, it seems like it’s going to fully sit on Joni’s shoulders and whether or not she greenlights a suitable actress to embody her, before production decides if that person is bankable. Although Swift would have seemed like an odd choice, there’s no mistaking that it would be easier to pull in money to the production end of things if her name was on the project.

Who do you think is a perfect choice to play Joni Mitchell?

[Image via Christian Bertrand / Shutterstock.com]