Director John Carney tells EW about casting a child of rock royalty in his latest musical drama.
When you’reBono’s daughter, people have a lot of expectations about what kind of musician you might be.
And she’s right because he is one of the greatest rock voices of many, many decades."
Eve Hewson in ‘Flora and Son’.apple tv +
She didn’t need to be a great singer, but she can hold a tune.
She’s got a perfectly nice voice.
But I don’t think the movie is about her being a fab singer."
Director John Carney on the set of ‘Flora and Son’.Apple TV+
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: All of your films have ties to music, but what inspired this one?
And there was an amplifier, a small little practice amp that somebody was throwing out.
I took it home, fixed it up, and I played it and it worked.
Orén Kinlan and Eve Hewson in ‘Flora and Son’.Apple TV+
That struck a chord with me, if you excuse the pun.
Zoom and virtual communication are central to the plot.
Was that inspired by COVID-19 and the lockdown experience?
Eve Hewson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in ‘Flora and Son’.Apple TV+
It wasn’t inspired by COVID, but it was certainly facilitated by it.
You’d go online.
We became these weird people with these screens.
Was that why you wanted her for this role?
No, I didn’t really know that she was an actor.
I mean, I had met her once when she was a kid.
Then her agent rang me when I sent himFloraand said, “You should think about Eve.”
She made the Zoom call feel like anybody else coming after the Zoom call wouldn’t be her.
I got off the call saying, “Well, now it has to be her.”
She made good on that promise.
She really did choke the hell out of that part every day.
What did she do that made you feel that way?
She said from the beginning, “If I do this, I would do it really funny.
She’s f—ing hilarious, this character.”
It’s such an appealing thing to see.
People like Mark Ruffalo will say, “That’s not going to work.
Eve has that, even though she doesn’t have the experience of those bang out of actors.
She has a helpful sixth sense of,it’s not going to play.
Performers need to know, “I can’t sing that song.
I’m a rock singer.
I’m not going to try and do a jazz ballad in the middle of my set.
I know what I can do, and that’s not going to play.”
To your mind, do your characters exist in the same world?
Is there a universe in which Flora and Max will jam with the characters fromOnceorBegin Again?
No, I don’t think so.
I can’t see practically how their lives would cross.
Sing Streetwas supposed to open on Broadway right before the COVID shutdown.
Any updates on it coming back to either New York or London’s West End?
It’s hard to know right now.
After the pandemic, we were all changed a little bit.
People want to have the “Broadway experience.”
WithSing Street,we don’t want to give you the “Broadway experience.”
We give you an experience on Broadway.
But that’s what people loved aboutOnceon Broadway.
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