Power Ballad stars Paul Russ and Nick Jonas as a pair of talented musicians at different points in their careers.
When Danny hops up on stage to jam out with the band during a memorable rendition of “I Wish,” Rick is shocked that the youngster is talented and fun to sing with. Soon, the pair are jamming out all night, trading songs and stories.
But, months later, when Rick hears a familiar tune on the radio, he wonders: Did Danny steal one of his songs? Has it turned into the kind of massive smash hit that Rick never enjoyed? What is he gonna do about it now?
Lionsgate will release Power Ballad in limited way on May 29, and in wide release June 5.
John Carney: I don’t know. I have no idea. It’s a weird. I’ve met a lot of actors who would love to scratch that itch they have about singing. I don’t understand why you would want to do it, because singing publicly is terrifying. But maybe that’s it. Maybe it’s to try the thing that scares them the most. You’re very exposed when you sing.
Paul and Nick are excellent performers, with charming real-world personas
Once they got their teeth into it, they’re like, “I’m not going to let anybody else near this movie. I’m going to make it my own film.” I think the great actors, from Bogart or Sterling Hayden, they were like, “There’s nobody else on Earth that’s going to read this line my way.”
Danny has a lot in common with Nick
Nothing changed in terms of the circumstances. It deepened, and it became more mercurial and mysterious as to why he would maybe take something that he knew didn’t fully belong to him. He made it more sympathetic, more involved and complex. And he made it like he didn’t need anybody else around him. The manager could have had a bigger role, but Nick could handle the movie and represent that side of the coin of this movie pretty well on his own.
Not a bit. There’s certain people that just know how industries work. It’s kind of weird, because I would’ve thought exactly what you just said. It never dawned on him. And he was right. It means that he knows how big a star he is, that people know enough about him to be able to distinguish between Nick Jonas and this character he’s playing.
Frank Sinatra always wanted to be an actor in the ’40s and ’50s. He was a very good actor, but he wanted meaty, deep parts, and a lot of producers felt like he couldn’t do it, but he knew he could do it. And as it turns out, he could do full roles in movies without any singing in which he was quite plausible and tough and interesting, and only he knew what he could bring and how big his star was. Nobody’s going to confuse or wonder when Sinatra’s going to start singing because they know who Sinatra is.
Paul Rudd brings his public persona to the role
Once Paul committed to doing it, it was like, “And now I see the movie, I get who this guy is. I started to look at Paul almost like, can you imagine if it was Paul Rudd and he wasn’t a famous actor, but he looked this well, and he was this nice, and how frustrating it would be for him, like “What went wrong that you haven’t made it?” That was very useful in terms of understanding that my character, who does have talent and looks and songs, “Why didn’t he make it? What weird other thing do you need?”
He put his family first, and that was important to him. I have seen a lot of musicians, and I have seen the point at which they went, “I’m going to do this deal even though it’s a compromise or it’s wrong because it gets me here on the board.” I find it depressing when that happens.
The songs that make up the Bride and Groove’s set list?
I’m not sure I picked any of the songs of the wedding band, ironically. I don’t think I ever wrote any of the song titles, because I felt that if I write that down now, it’s stuck on that. The whole beauty of him being in a wedding band is that we can pick from 500 songs whatever we want, so I would leave them open.
Sometimes it was Paul and sometimes it was Peter who would suggest certain songs. And it didn’t matter! There’s probably about 100 songs from that era of ’80s rock or late ’70s that are so good. We had ELO, and Huey Lewis and the News, and we had tons of songs that you don’t see in the movie that we shot that we did, and they’re all so good. I’m certain that Paul picked “Celebration” by Kool and the Gang.
It’s a classic wedding song, it makes you happy
There’s certain points at which I love other people to tell me what music to go in, because I don’t want to legislate for it yet. I certainly know that Peter suggested “I Wish,” and that was perfect. It’s got that funky baseline, and it takes courage as a wedding band to play that song, because you could play it badly. And it’s established that if they could play that well.
They’re really good wedding band, and they are serious. And for Nick to get up and sing that song? Nick takes the vocals onto a whole other level when he sings.
Jack Reynor as Danny’s manager, sort of American jackass
Jack was the perfect choice for it. He’s young, and he felt like somebody in “Entourage.” Jack has that swagger and confidence. Nick also was like, “I love that character, Brendan in ‘Sing Street.’ Is he around?” And I was like, “Maybe he is.” It was Nick that persuaded me to hire Jack for that role. I don’t think I thought of Jack for it, because I thought, I’ll get some American hotshot.
I had thought of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, but the role wasn’t big enough. And I thought Joseph would’ve done it in a more button-down, in-control sort of way, and he would’ve been a bit more old-school. Jack is good because these young kids rule that industry now. It’s not guys in suits. It’s these young, brash kids who look like they’re artists running this industry.
Apple bought “Flora and Son,” but you don’t get theatrical experience?
Truffaut said something like, “Each film in a director’s life is about the film they just made beforehand.” It’s not entirely true, but you put a film out and you see it, and then you react for what your next movie is going to be. Not necessarily to the subject, but just to the way the movie is received and where it lives.
Apple worked hard on that movie, but you don’t know how many people watched it. When I came back from that Sundance, I rang my agent quickly, and I said, “You know ‘Power Ballad’? The thing which we have on boil? That’s our next film. Let’s put everything in on that because it’s visual, it’s cinematic.” “Flora and Son” was a laptop with two apartments, very low-key in that sense. This is a bigger thing, it’s got more scope and travel.
How might “Power Ballad” inform your next film?
It’s already affecting my next film. I kind of want to wait to see this film get out into the world and see what people think and how it does. But I have two or three things that have some musical characters in them. They’re slightly less music-y, one set in Dublin, one set in LA and Paris.
If you could cast anyone in your films, who would it be?
I’d love to do something with Ben Stiller. He’s really interested in music, and he’s in that zone of comedy, where it’s just evolved into this lovely place where he is funny but sad. It’s not trying to be funny for the sake of being funny. It’s funny because he just is a funny guy, and there’s certain gallows humor and certain dark irony that I love in him. I feel it when I see his movies. Years ago, we talked about maybe doing something, but he’d be amazing, just because he’s a legend.
Paul Rudd as filmmaker
Paul has a filmmaker sensibility. He knows so well what a director is looking for that he’s almost sympathizing with you when you can’t get it.
Whereas other actors would be like, “I want to go to the trailer. Did you get what you need?,” he’d be like, “I know you didn’t get what you want.” And you’d be like, “I totally didn’t,” and he’d be like, “Well, let’s do it again.” But any actor should be looking behind the camera and go, “I want to know how that works.”
