Meryl Streep has been confirmed to play Joni Mitchell in a new biopic that has been in development for several years.
Her casting in the film, set to be directed by Cameron Crowe, was confirmed by record executive Clive Davis at his annual pre-Grammy party in Los Angeles, reported Rolling Stone. Davis made the announcement while introducing Mitchell at the Beverly Hilton event on Saturday, bringing an end to months of speculation.
Although the project has been discussed for years, with several actors in the running for the lead role, this is the first official confirmation of the lead casting.
The Independent has reached out to representatives for Streep, Crowe, and Mitchell for comment.
Crowe first announced in 2023 that he was working with Mitchell on a film based on her life and career, and that it would be told from Mitchell’s own point of view rather than through an external biographical lens. “It’s Joni’s life, not through anybody else’s prism. It’s through her prism. It’s the characters who impacted her life that you know and a lot that you don’t know,” the Almost Famous director told Ultimate Classic Rock.
Rumours that Streep would be playing the singer-songwriter first surfaced in July 2024. Anya Taylor-Joy’s name too has come up, with speculation saying she will be playing Mitchell in her younger years, though that casting has not been confirmed.
Last year, during an appearance on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Housemaid star Amanda Seyfried played the dulcimer along with a pitch-perfect rendition of Mitchell’s 1971 classic “California”, which immediately led to speculation that she was throwing her name into the ring to play the 81-year-old music icon.
Seyfried later shut the speculation down, insisting that “it was not an audition” and that she was certain she had “very, very much aged out of young Joni”.
Another name that had been discussed was Taylor Swift, who was first considered for a film adaptation of the book Girls Like Us by Sheila Weller in 2012. The book studies Mitchell’s impact on the music scene, along with that of her 1970s contemporaries Carly Simon and Carole King.
In 2014, Mitchell claimed she had “squelched” the project and later said she had “never heard” Swift’s music.
“I’ve seen her. Physically, she looks similarly small-hipped and high cheekbones. I can see why they cast her,” Mitchell said, according to New York Magazine. “I don’t know what her music sounds like, but I do know this – that if she’s going to sing and play me, good luck.”
