{"id":2801,"date":"2026-06-02T20:28:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T20:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/06\/02\/john-carney-commends-nick-jonas-for-not-strong-arming-the-power-ballad-soundtrack\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T20:28:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T20:28:00","slug":"john-carney-commends-nick-jonas-for-not-strong-arming-the-power-ballad-soundtrack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/06\/02\/john-carney-commends-nick-jonas-for-not-strong-arming-the-power-ballad-soundtrack\/","title":{"rendered":"John Carney Commends Nick Jonas for Not Strong-Arming the \u2018Power Ballad\u2019 Soundtrack"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\t \t \t\t<\/svg>\t\tLogo text<\/span> \t<\/a> <\/p>\n

\tAt the beginning of John Carney<\/a>\u2019s Oscar-winning film Once<\/em>, Glen Hansard\u2019s 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\u2019s newest film<\/a>, Power Ballad<\/a><\/em>, Paul Rudd<\/a>\u2019s 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\u2019t pursue the thieves. This moment sets up Rick\u2019s own decision to reclaim what\u2019s his after former boy bander Danny Wilson (Nick Jonas<\/a>) stole one of his songs and turned it into a hit without crediting him. \t<\/p>\n

\tCarney \u2014\u00a0who used to play bass in the Hansard-led band, The Frames \u2014 continually finds new ways to tell music-centric stories. From Once<\/em> (2007) and Begin Again<\/em> (2013) to Sing Street<\/em> (2016) and Flora and Son <\/em>(2023), he enjoys representing his fellow musicians, but he admits that it\u2019s also a matter of necessity.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\t\u201cI struggle to raise money for something that doesn\u2019t have a musical vibe to it. I have not been able. Music has to be very front and center,\u201d Carney tells The Hollywood Reporter<\/em> in support of the film\u2019s theatrical expansion on June 5.<\/p>\n

\tFor Power Ballad<\/em>\u2019s original music, Carney reteamed with Gary Clark, his co-composer since Sing Street<\/em>. Clark, the former lead vocalist of the Scottish pop band Danny Wilson, lent his group\u2019s name to Jonas\u2019 character. Surprisingly, Jonas co-wrote only one song, \u201cSpectacular,\u201d for the Power Ballad <\/em>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. \t<\/p>\n

\t\u201cHe came into the project a little bit later, and he was like, \u2018If you need me to get involved [in the songwriting], let me know,\u2019\u201d Carney says. \u201cBut he was never like, \u2018I want a piece of this or a part of that.\u2019 I was actually quite grateful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tCarney elaborates on why he welcomed Jonas\u2019 tact. \u201cWhen actors or songwriters say they want [to get involved in the songwriting], it\u2019s often because my film, Once<\/em>, won an Oscar for best original song. [Begin Again<\/em>\u2019s \u201cLost Star\u201d] was also nominated for an Oscar,\u201d Carney says. \u201cYou can often feel that some people are around on the off chance that the song might really work. So I\u2019m grateful when people [such as Jonas] are like, \u2018If you need me, call me, but I\u2019m not trying to get my voice in on this project.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\tIf there\u2019s another collaboration down the road, Carney would invite Jonas to co-create a soundtrack from scratch, something he\u2019s currently doing with another mystery pop star.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI am doing a thing with a very cool star from that world, but I\u2019m not allowed to talk about it yet, which makes it sound really interesting,\u201d Carney teases. \u201cWe\u2019re going to work on the music together, but I can\u2019t tell you who it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tBelow, during a conversation with THR<\/em>, Carney also discusses whether a musical biopic is of interest to him.<\/p>\n

\t***<\/p>\n

\tI\u2019m 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?\u00a0<\/strong> \t<\/p>\n

\tI struggle to raise money for something that doesn\u2019t have a musical vibe to it. I have not been able. Music has to be very front and center. If I said, \u201cI want to make a straight-up drama with no music,\u201d it would be hard to raise the money to make that movie. And I quite like that challenge, actually. I quite like being told, \u201cHere\u2019s the goalposts today, and you\u2019ve got to get the ball in there. It\u2019s not as wide, but you do these things really well. What have you got?\u201d I quite like not having carte blanche to make any movie I want. It\u2019s not that I quite like it, it\u2019s just that it\u2019s good for me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\tIn those terms, I\u2019m like, How can I find characters and stories that I want to tell about the human condition in the musical world?<\/em> And if I\u2019m honest, there\u2019s no shortage of them. I know so many musicians at so many different levels and milestones on the road. It\u2019s a long, complicated world that you get into when you start to play music and certainly when you start to do it professionally.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t \t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>

\t \t\t\t\t\tCo-writer\/actor Peter McDonald as Sandy and Paul Rudd as Rick in Power Ballad.<\/em> <\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Lionsgate<\/cite> \t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\tThe inspiration for <\/strong>Power Ballad<\/em><\/strong> 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?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tYeah, there were a few people that we thought about, and then we abandoned the movie when they didn\u2019t 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<\/em> because the other thing didn\u2019t happen. And he very quickly said, \u201cI\u2019m in. I\u2019ll make that movie with you. Tell me where to be and where to start.\u201d 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\u2019s 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\u2019s the way I work, so Paul was certainly the one who set it off. \t<\/p>\n

\tHave you ever been in Rick Power\u2019s shoes? Have you ever felt like your work has been lifted in some way, shape or form?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tNo, but at various times in my career, I have been in his shoes where I felt, Am I being valued in this scenario here?<\/em> It was more ego with me. It was like, Are people respecting me? Am I being acknowledged enough?<\/em> 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].\u00a0<\/p>\n

\tActually, if I think about it, there\u2019s been plenty of times where I could\u2019ve said, \u201cWhere\u2019s the money that movie made? I didn\u2019t see any of that money.\u201d It doesn\u2019t help that I\u2019m Irish, but I\u2019m just grateful to be here sometimes. It\u2019s American friends of mine who are like, \u201cStop. You don\u2019t have to do that for free anymore.\u201d When I first came to America for a studio, I was like, \u201cOh, I\u2019ll sleep on my friend\u2019s couch out in Brooklyn.\u201d And they were like, \u201cNo, they\u2019ll put you up.\u201d And I was like, \u201cI\u2019ll swim out. I\u2019ll get a boat to America.\u201d And they were like, \u201cNo, they can fly out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\tSo there have been a few times where I\u2019ve felt that somebody is making some money on the back of a movie and I\u2019m not seeing it. But that didn\u2019t bother me as much as the idea that I wasn\u2019t being credited and acknowledged. There are some really good producers who have always been very good to me, and it\u2019s taught me to be good to other people when I\u2019m in collaboration with them. It\u2019s taught me that it\u2019s 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 \u2014\u00a0and respected, seen and heard \u2014\u00a0about what they\u2019ve done with me. With Rick, that\u2019s his battle. It\u2019s not really about the money at all for him.\u00a0 \t<\/p>\n

\tWith me, I know I have a couple of good movies in me. I just know it. I\u2019m not Chris Nolan where it\u2019s 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\u2019s a fun place for the Rick character to be. There\u2019s also a lot of deluded people who think that they\u2019ve been stolen from but actually haven\u2019t been. So we wanted Paul to play it in that funny place where it sometimes seems like he\u2019s crazy, and Paul\u2019s quite good at playing funny-crazy.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t \t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>

\t \t\t\t\t\tNick Jonas as Danny and Paul Rudd as Rick in Power Ballad<\/em>.<\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDavid Cleary\/Lionsgate<\/cite> \t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\tWhen 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 (\u201cSpectacular\u201d) that we hear bits and pieces of in the movie. Was he perfectly content being a passenger on this?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tWell, he wasn\u2019t 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, \u201cIf you need me to get involved [in the songwriting], let me know. \u201d But he was never like, \u201cI want a piece of this or a part of that.\u201d I was actually quite grateful for that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\tWhen actors or songwriters say they want [to get involved in the songwriting], it\u2019s often because my film, Once<\/em>, won an Oscar for best original song. [Begin Again<\/em>\u2019s \u201cLost Stars\u201d] 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\u2019m grateful when people are like, \u201cIf you need me, call me, but I\u2019m not trying to get my voice in on this project.\u201d\u00a0 \t<\/p>\n

\tActually, now that I know Nick, and if I was to do another musical project, I\u2019d be like, \u201cYou should totally come in early to build a soundtrack with me.\u201d I am [currently] doing a thing with a very cool star from that world, but I\u2019m not allowed to talk about it yet, which makes it sound really interesting. We\u2019re going to work on the music together, but I can\u2019t tell you who it is.<\/p>\n

\tIn general, what makes you more proud: turning a musician into a decent actor or turning an actor into a decent musician?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tWell, as I was told in school, pride is a sin, my friend, but I know what you mean. I\u2019ll 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<\/em>. You can get it wrong, and I\u2019ve gotten it wrong before where I\u2019ve picked the wrong person. But when you get it right and they deliver, it\u2019s satisfying.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\tNick Jonas has star quality as a movie actor. He has some dark depth. He\u2019s unknowable. You don\u2019t quite know what\u2019s going on with him in a very, very good way for cinema. Cinema works very well when you\u2019re not sure how the character is thinking, and you have to start thinking for the character because it really involves you. He\u2019s got that naturally. When you put a camera on him, you just lean forward. It\u2019s weird.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\tAdam Levine, who I worked with [on Begin Again<\/em>], had a bit of that as well. I remember sitting in the audience and being like, \u201cHe\u2019s only in a few scenes, but he\u2019s really the star of the movie. He makes himself the star of the movie.\u201d Similarly, with Nick\u2019s role of Danny, he could have just been a character that turns the plot and then disappears before we\u2019re all looking at Rick. But Nick didn\u2019t allow that to happen, which was really cool. It wasn\u2019t like he wanted more limelight. It was like, I want to be as interesting a character as the straightforward good guy<\/em>. So there was a slight feeling of satisfaction even though I knew from Zoom that he could do it. I\u2019ve done it a few other times.\u00a0 \t<\/p>\n

\tYeah, unlike Nick, Glen Hansard had no acting experience going into <\/strong>Once<\/em><\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tThat was more challenging. As soon as Glen saw a camera or a clapper board, he got freaked out. Whereas Nick doesn\u2019t even see it. He\u2019s so used to all that stuff. So I had to hide the cameras with Glen, and I didn\u2019t front-load the takes because it would make him nervous. I also didn\u2019t have a boom mic; I had radio mics. I would get him and Mark\u00e9ta [Irglov\u00e1] to walk away and come back ten minutes later without telling them I was rolling. I\u2019d call him on his cell phone and say, \u201cJust start into the scene in about a minute.\u201d And I\u2019d hang up the cell phone because we didn\u2019t have walkie-talkies on the film. It meant that he was really relaxed coming into it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\tIn 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, \u201cOh my God, this is the wrong person.\u201d If you look at Woody Allen movies, he just fired people all the time, apparently. But that\u2019s not the way I look at a movie. I\u2019m like, I\u2019ve got 22 days. I have to make this work. How do I make it work? <\/em>And I love that. It\u2019s nerve-wracking, and I\u2019m sure I\u2019ve got a couple of ulcers that I don\u2019t know about. I\u2019ve certainly had a bunch of neurotic lost nights of sleep, but I like that idea of being told, \u201cThis is what you\u2019ve got, so do your thing with it.\u201d \t<\/p>\n

\tSo 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.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t \t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>

\t \t\t\t\t\tDirector John Carney and Paul Rudd on the set of Power<\/em> Ballad<\/em>. <\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDavid Cleary\/Lionsgate<\/cite> \t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\tMusic biopics remain all the rage due to their box office numbers. Is there one you\u2019d want to tackle? Or are there too many cooks in those kitchens?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tIt\u2019s very hard for me to know. I struggle to figure out which artist I\u2019d 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<\/em>] because it\u2019s weird. The scenes in the studio are so well done, and it\u00a0 flashes forward between two areas of time. There\u2019s 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\u2019d say, \u201cLet\u2019s take that one gig or that one day or that one relationship.\u201d Musicians\u2019 lives are so fascinating, so fast-moving and just so full of content that it\u2019s very hard to do the whole of their life.<\/p>\n

\t***
Power Ballad opens June 5 in movie theaters nationwide.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Logo text At the beginning of John Carney\u2019s Oscar-winning film Once, Glen Hansard\u2019s 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\u2019s newest film, Power Ballad, Paul Rudd\u2019s 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\u2019t pursue the thieves. This moment sets up Rick\u2019s own decision to reclaim what\u2019s his after former boy bander Danny Wilson (Nick Jonas) stole one of his songs and turned it into a hit without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1665,164,60,1666,1667,274],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hollywood","category-john-carney","category-movie-features","category-movies","category-nick-jonas","category-paul-rudd","category-power-ballad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}