Behind The Seen: Glen Hansard
Posted by Rob Ortenzi on 31-Aug-07 @ 11:01 AM
You may recognize GLEN HANSARD as the singer for Irish music sensations the Frames, but in the new Sundance Film Festival award-winning romantic comedy Once, he not only pens the soundtrack but also gets in front of the camera to tackle the biggest role of his life.Did you have any previous acting experience before starring in Once? I was in an Irish film years ago called The Commitments where I played sort of a background part, but I didn't enjoy it at all; the whole idea of pretending to be someone else was something I never cared for. When my friend [writer and director] John [Carney] originally approached me about Once, he had another actor playing my part and just wanted me to write some songs for it. That person ended up not working out, so John kept asking me until eventually I gave in. Your character in Once is also a songwriter. How much is he like you in real life? He's very similar in some parts. One of the first scenes we shot was one of the closing shots where I try on a suit and John was like, "Glen, you're fucking acting; I hate it." It took a couple of days until we got to the point where we weren't acting anymore and me and [co-star and the Swell Season bandmate] Markéta [Irglová] were just hanging out. A lot of scenes where the two of us are chatting is really just us chatting, so there are multiple takes of every scene with different dialogue. We all had to sit down at the end of it and decide which scenes made the most sense. Do you think you'd do any more acting in the future? I don't know if I'd do it again; but I've said that before and I was wrong. I've actually had four film offers since Once showed at Sundance and although I haven't read the scripts, it's nice for people to think I'm good enough to offer me other jobs based on this film. Obviously your career path has been pretty non-traditional, but would you have any advice for aspiring actors? I really wouldn't know what to say because I don't feel like I'm an actor at all. I feel like you just need to put as much of yourself into whatever you're doing, then it will have an authentic feel-and that goes for anything. -Jonah Bayer |
