--- description: Joni Mitchell says she put the kibosh on a biopic that would have starred Taylor Swift. title: Joni Mitchell Squelched Biopic With Taylor Swift image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a7feb7f1ca257c2/69876af8cd6848eb9b0983cd/joni-mitchell-taylor-swift.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Joni Mitchell Says She Put the Brakes on Biopic Starring Taylor Swift  by [Eliza Berman](/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Nov 25, 2014 7:32 PM CUT  Left: Joni Mitchell; Right: Taylor Swift Left: Joni Mitchell; Right: Taylor SwiftGetty Images (2)  by [Eliza Berman](/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Nov 25, 2014 7:32 PM CUT All the major elements were lined up for a Joni Mitchell biopic back in 2012: a director (Katie Jacobs), a script (by John Sayles) and a star (Taylor Swift). Everything, that is, except for Joni Mitchell. The folk legend told the [_Sunday Times_](http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/music/article1485194.ece "undefined") this week why she put the kibosh on the project, an adaptation of Sheila Weller’s _Girls Like Us_, which examined the careers of Mitchell as well as contemporaries Carly Simon and Carole King. Though she insinuated that casting Swift to play her was little more than a physical choice (“All you’ve got is a girl with high cheekbones”), she criticized the screenplay, as well. “It’s just a lot of gossip,” she [says](http://www.nme.com/filmandtv/news/joni-mitchell-i-squelched-planned-biopic-starring-/364491 "undefined") she told the producer. “You don’t have the great scenes.” Mitchell also remarked that books about her are full of “assumptions” and “nonsense.” It’s a shame for Swift, who certainly would have taken the role seriously, had she received the opportunity. “I used to cry about Joni Mitchell all the time after a few glasses of wine,” she once told [_Rolling Stone_](http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/22-things-you-learn-hanging-out-with-taylor-swift-20140910?page=2 "undefined"). A biopic about the pioneering singer, should it ever happen, would certainly make for an interesting couple of hours at the movies. Perhaps this is why so many biopics are made posthumously — for better or for worse. ### Biopic Actors and Their Real-Life Counterparts  Meryl Streep plays Emmeline Pankhurst in Suffragette Focus; Topical Press Agency/Getty Images  Michael Fassbender plays Steve Jobs in Steve Jobs Universal; Bob Riha Jr—Getty Images  Ellen Page plays Stacie Andree in Freeheld Lionsgate; Tom Spader—AP  Joseph Gordon Levitt plays Philippe Petit in The Walk Sony Pictures; Dave Pickoff—AP  Johnny Depp plays James 'Whitey' Bulger in Black Mass Warner Brothers; AP  André Benjamin plays Jimi Hendrix in All Is By My Side Patrick Redmond—XLrator Media; Photoshot/Getty Images  Adrien Brody plays Harry Houdini in Houdini. History Channel; Hulton Archive/Getty Images  Chadwick Boseman plays James Brown in Get On Up. Universal Pictures; Gilles Petard—Redferns/Getty Images  Ashton Kutcher plays Steven Jobs in Jobs. Open Road Films; Tom Munnecke/Getty Images  Cate Blanchett plays Bob Dylan in I'm Not There. Weinstein Co.; Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images  James Franco plays James Dean in James Dean. Getty Images (2)  Meryl Streep plays Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. Weinstein Co.; Hulton Archive/Getty Images  Benedict Cumberbatch plays Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate. Disney; Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images  Anthony Hopkins plays Alfred Hitchcock in Hitchcock. Fox Searchlight; NBC/Getty Images  Salma Hayek plays Frida Kahlo in Frida. Miramax; Popperfoto/Getty Images  Gary Oldman plays Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy. MGM; Richard E. Aaron—Redferns/Getty Images  Denzel Washington plays Malcolm X in Malcolm X. Warner Bros.; Truman Moore—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  Leonardo DiCaprio plays J. Edgar Hoover in J. Edgar. Warner Bros.; Bachrach/Getty Images  Ben Kingsley plays Gandhi in Gandhi. Columbia; Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images  Michelle Williams plays Marilyn Monroe in My Week With Marilyn. Weinstein Co.; NBC/Getty Images  Joaquin Phoenix plays Johnny Cash in Walk the Line. 20th Century Fox; David Gahr/Getty Images  Daniel Day-Lewis plays President Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln. 20th Century Fox; Culture Club/Getty Images  Don Cheadle plays Miles Davis in Miles Ahead. Brian Douglas, Ton Pouw—AP  Demetrius Shipp Jr. plays Tupac Shakur in All Eyez on Me. Summit Entertainment; Raymond Boyd—Getty Images Joni Mitchell Squelched Biopic With Taylor Swift ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3605741/joni-mitchell-taylor-swift-biopic/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3605741/joni-mitchell-taylor-swift-biopic/"},"headline":"Joni Mitchell Says She Put the Brakes on Biopic Starring Taylor Swift","datePublished":"2014-11-25T19:32:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:06:54.396Z","description":"“All you've got is a girl with high cheekbones”","url":"https://time.com/3605741/joni-mitchell-taylor-swift-biopic/","keywords":["movies","Taylor Swift"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a7feb7f1ca257c2/69876af8cd6848eb9b0983cd/joni-mitchell-taylor-swift.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliza Berman","jobTitle":"Berman is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a7feb7f1ca257c2/69876af8cd6848eb9b0983cd/joni-mitchell-taylor-swift.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"FILE PHOTO: Taylor Swift In Talks To Play Joni Mitchell In Biopic Role","caption":"FILE PHOTO: Taylor Swift In Talks To Play Joni Mitchell In Biopic Role","creditText":"Getty Images (2)","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3605741/joni-mitchell-taylor-swift-biopic/","name":"Joni Mitchell Says She Put the Brakes on Biopic Starring Taylor Swift"}}]}] ```