How John Carney convinced Bono's daughter Eve Hewson to sing in Flora and Son
The Irish director talks to Q’s Tom Power about his new comedy-drama film
When John Carney first met Bono's daughter Eve Hewson at a party with her parents, he never thought he'd one day cast her as the lead in one of his films.
Now, years later, Hewson is the star of the Irish director's new comedy-drama, Flora and Son, about a young single mother in Dublin who attempts to connect with her rebellious teenage son through music. And while Hewson has been acting since 2005, she felt nervous about taking on a role that required her to sing and play guitar — especially given who her dad is.
"I knew from the beginning that she was not going to try and put her hand in that handprint shape and sing like a goddess," Carney tells Q's Tom Power in an interview during this year's Toronto International Film Festival.
"[Bono is] one of, if not the, greatest rock voices of many decades. And she even said, like, 'I'm never going near my dad on that one, his shadow's long enough. I'm an actor.'"
For Carney, who's known for the musical films Once, Begin Again and Sing Street, Hewson's character didn't need to be the best singer or musician in the world, in fact it made more sense that she wasn't.
"What's it like to open your mouth and you're not the best singer but you've got something? What's it like for somebody to try and write a song who's never written a song? You know, they're the kind of stories now that are appealing to me," he says.
"There's something about the way Eve did it that was like, you could see in her face, 'I'm not going near that. Don't worry. Don't get your knickers in a twist. I'm not going to be trying to be Beyoncé. I'll make it nice and it'll be harmonious, but you know, I'm not doing a Judy Garland here."
After auditioning for the role, Carney could see that Hewson immediately understood who this character was.
"There was something about the way she pitched the movie back to me that made me see it from a younger person's perspective and see the potential in it," Carney tells Power. "Every director's dream is to have an actor who's telling them not how to do it, but what they're doing.
"I really think that a movie is only as good as the collaboration between the director and the lead man, or woman, or person in the leading role. It's only as good as that relationship, or friendship, or work relationship was — and our one was really great."
WATCH | Official trailer for Flora and Son:
The full interview with John Carney is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with John Carney produced by Catherine Stockhausen.