Amanda Seyfried reacts to Joni Mitchell’s approval of her ‘California’ cover
Earlier this year, Amanda Seyfried went viral for her cover of the Joni Mitchell classic, ‘California’, on the dulcimer. Now, the actor has revealed that Mitchell herself has approved of the imitation.
Seyfried joined Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show to discuss her next project, The Housemaid. The pair first bonded over her previous visit, which saw Seyfried break out into song for the short rendition of the 1971 Joni Mitchell hit.
“It was one of the most viral videos that ever came out of our show in the history of the show,” Fallon gushed, while Seyfried deemed it “surreal”.
Seyfried reminisced about the moment: “It was like my birthday, but 10,000 times my birthday! I couldn’t believe it! People reached out from, you know, five years I hadn’t heard from them…”
At that point, Fallon pulled out a screenshot of an Instagram post, which was uploaded by Joni Mitchell herself. He shared, “Joni Mitchell Instagrammed it and said, ‘A mesmerising moment’ and called it ‘a beautiful rendition of ‘California”.”
Seyfried gushed happily, “Joni approved!” as the audience cheered for the Jennifer’s Body star. Fallon deemed it “the biggest honour in the world.”
Fallon pulled out another screenshot, showing a trend in “Google searches for the word dulcimer,” which peaked the week that she was on the show. He shared more data, citing an article that revealed the song enjoyed an 800% increase in streams after Seyfried sang it on the show.
Seyfried said she’d happily do an entire Joni Mitchell album, before adding, “Listen, I have two movies coming out this month, which is crazy. They couldn’t be more different. One of them is a musical.”
She went on, “But I also feel like I have finally in my life stopped listening to myself with such a judgmental ear that now I’m just like, I’m gonna fucking sing. And I want to cover things.”
After the clip went viral earlier this year, Seyfried distanced herself from reports she was due to play Mitchell in a biopic.
In a podcast appearance on Just for Variety, Seyfried maintained: “It was not an audition. 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 young Joni.”
The biopic is being helmed by Cameron Crowe. While casting has yet to be officially confirmed, it was reported in August that Anya Taylor-Joy is set to play a younger version of Mitchell in the movie, and Meryl Streep will play an older version of the legendary singer-songwriter.
Crowe said of the film in October: “We start next year. It’s Joni Mitchell’s story from her point of view, and it’s been a delight because her music is already so cinematic.”
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