At the beginning of John Carney’s Oscar-winning film Once, Glen Hansard’s busker character is robbed mid-performance, resulting in a foot chase across the streets of Dublin to recover what rightfully belongs to him. In the Irish filmmaker’s newest film, Power Ballad, Paul Rudd’s wedding band frontman, Rick Power, witnesses an older busker being fleeced in similar fashion, only this Dublin-based street performer opts to shrug his shoulders when Rick asks him why he didn’t pursue the thieves. This moment sets up Rick’s own decision to reclaim what’s his after former boy bander Danny Wilson (Nick Jonas) stole one of his songs and turned it into a hit without crediting him.
Carney — who used to play bass in the Hansard-led band, The Frames — continually finds new ways to tell music-centric stories. From Once (2007) and Begin Again (2013) to Sing Street (2016) and Flora and Son (2023), he enjoys representing his fellow musicians, but he admits that it’s also a matter of necessity.
“I struggle to raise money for something that doesn’t have a musical vibe to it. I have not been able. Music has to be very front and center,” tells The Hollywood Reporter.
For Power Ballad’s original music, Carney reteamed with Gary Clark, his co-composer since Sing Street. Clark, the former lead vocalist of the Scottish pop band Danny Wilson, lent his group’s name to Jonas’ character. Surprisingly, Jonas co-wrote only one song, “Spectacular,” for the Power Ballad soundtrack, which is heard in fragments at a couple different points in the film. But other than that, Jonas, despite being one-third of the multiplatinum-selling Jonas Brothers, did not try to over-assert himself in the songwriting process.
“He came into the project a little bit later, and he was like, ‘If you need me to get involved [in the songwriting], let me know,’” Carney says. “But he was never like, ‘I want a piece of this or a part of that.’ I was actually quite grateful for that.”
Carney elaborates on why he welcomed Jonas’ tact. “When actors or songwriters say they want [to get involved in the songwriting], it’s often because my film, Once, won an Oscar for best original song. [Begin Again’s “Lost Star”] was also nominated for an Oscar,” Carney says. “But you can often feel that some people are around on the off chance that the song might really work. So I’m grateful when people [like Jonas] are like, ‘If you need me, call me, but I’m not trying to get my voice in on this project.’”
If there’s another collaboration down the road, Carney would invite Jonas to co-create a soundtrack from scratch, something he’s currently doing with another mystery pop star.
“I am doing a thing with a very cool star from that world, but I’m not allowed to talk about it yet, which makes it sound really interesting,” Carney teases. “We’re going to work on the music together, but I can’t tell you who it is.”
Below, during a conversation with THR, Carney also discusses whether a musical biopic is of interest to him.
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I’m impressed that you continue to find new angles on music-themed stories. Is there no shortage of possibilities? Or is it a struggle to find a fresh take each time?
I struggle to raise money for something that doesn’t have a musical vibe to it. I have not been able. Music has to be very front and center. If I said, “I want to make a straight-up drama with no music,” it would be hard to raise the money to make that movie. And I quite like that challenge, actually. I quite like being told, “Here’s the goalposts today, and you’ve got to get the ball in there. It’s not as wide, but you do these things really well. What have you got?” I quite like not having carte blanche to make any movie I want. It’s not that I quite like it, it’s just that it’s good for me.
In those terms, I’m like, How can I find characters and stories that I want to tell about the human condition in the musical world? And if I’m honest, there’s no shortage of them. I know so many musicians at so many different levels and milestones on the road. It’s a long, complicated world that you get into when you start to play music and certainly when you start to do it professionally.
Co-writer/actor Peter McDonald as Sandy and Paul Rudd as Rick in Power Ballad.
Courtesy of Lionsgate
The inspiration for Power Ballad came when you saw an aging, quixotic rocker put his kid in the back of a car. Thus, you needed a middle-aged leading man who could perform the music to some degree and help get the movie financed. Was Paul Rudd part of a very short list?
Yeah, there were a few people that we thought about, and then we abandoned the movie when they didn’t come up. We put it on hold for a while until Paul came on board. I had met him on Zoom for another project, and then I pitched him Power Ballad because the other thing didn’t happen. And he very quickly said, “I’m in. I’ll make that movie with you. Tell me where to be and where to start.” And once he came on board, the film got real. As a filmmaker, you have to have all these pots on the boil. I do anyway. There’s six or seven things on my laptop simmering at a low level, and I need an actor or somebody to activate one of them. That’s the way I work, so Paul was certainly the one who set it off.
Have you ever been in Rick Power’s shoes? Have you ever felt like your work has been lifted in some way, shape or form?
No, but at various times in my career, I have been in his shoes where I felt, Am I being valued in this scenario here? It was more ego with me. It was like, Are people respecting me? Am I being acknowledged enough? But it was never to the point where I thought I was actually losing money or people were making the money off the back [of my work].
Actually, if I think about it, there’s been plenty of times where I could’ve said, “Where’s the money that movie made? I didn’t see any of that money.” It doesn’t help that I’m Irish, but I’m just grateful to be here sometimes. It’s American friends of mine who are like, “Stop. You don’t have to do that for free anymore.” When I first came to America for a studio, I was like, “Oh, I’ll sleep on my friend’s couch out in Brooklyn.” And they were like, “No, they’ll put you up.” And I was like, “I’ll swim out. I’ll get a boat to America.” And they were like, “No, they can fly out.”
So there have been a few times where I’ve felt that somebody is making some money on the back of a movie and I’m not seeing it. But that didn’t bother me as much as the idea that I wasn’t being credited and acknowledged. There are some really good producers who have always been very good to me, and it’s taught me to be good to other people when I’m in collaboration with somebody. It’s taught me that it’s very important that everybody gets acknowledged fairly, paid fairly and credited fairly. The people who have anything to do with me, I only want them to go back to their families feeling good — and respected, seen and heard — about what they’ve done with me. With Rick, that’s his battle. It’s not really about the money at all for him.
With me, I know I have a couple of good movies in me. I just know it. I’m not Chris Nolan where it’s hit, hit, hit, hit, hit, but I know I have a couple in me. And if I ever felt that somebody had taken one of them from me, I could imagine it driving me crazy. So that’s a fun place for the Rick character to be. There’s also a lot of deluded people who think that they’ve been stolen from but actually haven’t been. So we wanted Paul to play it in that funny place where it sometimes seems like he’s crazy, and Paul’s quite good at playing funny-crazy.
Nick Jonas as Danny and Paul Rudd as Rick in Power Ballad.
David Cleary/Lionsgate
When casting a pop star/actor like Nick Jonas, I have to imagine that many of them would want to be active in the songwriting. But I think he only co-wrote one tune (“Spectacular”) that we hear bits and pieces of in the movie. Was he perfectly content being a passenger on this?
Well, he wasn’t a passenger, but I know what you mean. He was definitely in the driving seat of his performance and story, but I hear you. He came into the project a little bit later, and he was like, “If you need me to get involved [in the songwriting], let me know. ” But he was never like, “I want a piece of this or a part of that.” I was actually quite grateful for that.
When actors or songwriters say they want [to get involved in the songwriting], it’s often because my film, Once, won an Oscar for best original song. [Begin Again’s “Lost Stars”] was also nominated for an Oscar. But you can often feel that some people are around on the off chance that the song might really work. So I’m grateful when people are like, “If you need me, call me, but I’m not trying to get my voice in on this project.”
Actually, now that I know Nick, and if I was to do another musical project, I’d be like, “You should totally come in early to build a soundtrack with me.” I am [currently] doing a thing with a very cool star from that world, but I’m not allowed to talk about it yet, which makes it sound really interesting. We’re going to work on the music together, but I can’t tell you who it is.
In general, what makes you more proud: turning a musician into a decent actor or turning an actor into a decent musician?
Well, as I was told in school, pride is a sin, my friend, but I know what you mean. I’ll change the word to what makes me feel a sense of satisfaction and a feeling of like, Fuck yes! That was the right casting decision. You can get it wrong, and I’ve gotten it wrong before where I’ve picked the wrong person. But when you get it right and they deliver, it’s satisfying.
Nick Jonas has star quality as a movie actor. He has some dark depth. He’s unknowable. You don’t quite know what’s going on with him in a very, very good way for cinema. Cinema works very well when you’re not sure how the character is thinking, and you have to start thinking for the character because it really involves you. He’s got that naturally. When you put a camera on him, you just lean forward. It’s weird.
Adam Levine, who I worked with [on Begin Again], had a bit of that as well. I remember sitting in the audience and being like, “He’s only in a few scenes, but he’s really the star of the movie. He makes himself the star of the movie.” Similarly, with Nick’s role of Danny, he could have just been a character that turns the plot and then disappears before we’re all looking at Rick. But Nick didn’t allow that to happen, which was really cool. It wasn’t like he wanted more limelight. It was like, I want to be as interesting a character as the straightforward good guy. So there was a slight feeling of satisfaction even though I knew from Zoom that he could do it. I’ve done it a few other times.
Yeah, unlike Nick, Glen Hansard had no acting experience going into Once.
That was more challenging. As soon as Glen saw a camera or a clapper board, he got freaked out. Whereas Nick doesn’t even see it. He’s so used to all that stuff. So I had to hide the cameras with Glen, and I didn’t front-load the takes because it would make him nervous. I also didn’t have a boom mic; I had radio mics. I would get him and Markéta [Irglová] to walk away and come back ten minutes later without telling them I was rolling. I’d call him on his cell phone and say, “Just start into the scene in about a minute.” And I’d hang up the cell phone because we didn’t have walkie-talkies on the film. It meant that he was really relaxed coming into it.
In terms of pride, as you said, that made me feel like it was the best directorial move I ever made. I had an instinct to get this guy to deliver what I knew he had for the specific role, and I had to think on my feet. I was happy with that. Often, as a director, you will find yourself going, “Oh my God, this is the wrong person.” If you look at Woody Allen movies, he just fired people all the time, apparently. But that’s not the way I look at a movie. I’m like, I’ve got 22 days. I have to make this work. How do I make it work? And I love that. It’s nerve-wracking, and I’m sure I’ve got a couple of ulcers that I don’t know about. I’ve certainly had a bunch of neurotic lost nights of sleep, but I like that idea of being told, “This is what you’ve got, so do your thing with it.”
So I quite like the tension between actors and musicians. They wind each other up in an interesting way, and they both want to be each other.
Director John Carney and Paul Rudd on the set of Power Ballad.
David Cleary/Lionsgate
Music biopics remain all the rage due to their box office numbers. Is there one you’d want to tackle? Or are there too many cooks in those kitchens?
It’s very hard for me to know. I struggle to figure out which artist I’d be good at making a biopic about. Do I make a straightforward cradle-to-grave story? Do I take two days [out of their entire life]? I love the Beach Boys one [Love & Mercy] because it’s weird. The scenes in the studio are so well done, and it flashes forward between two areas of time. There’s mental illness issues in it, and it never becomes that straightforward. So I would do something like that if I got offered a biopic on somebody. I’d say, “Let’s take that one gig or that one day or that one relationship.” Musicians’ lives are so fascinating, so fast-moving and just so full of content that it’s very hard to do the whole of their life.
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Power Ballad opens June 5 in movie theaters nationwide.
