Why Paul Rudd Was ‘Nervous’ to Sing in “Power Ballad” with Nick Jonas, Despite Years of Singing in Comedies (Exclusive)

NEED TO KNOW

• Paul Rudd says he felt nervous singing seriously in Power Ballad alongside Nick Jonas and director John Carney

• Rudd plays a wedding singer whose song helps reignite a pop star’s career while sparking a rivalry between them

• Nick Jonas drew from his own experiences leaving a boy band to portray his character’s struggles in the film

Paul Rudd admits he was nervous to sing alongside Nick Jonas in their new movie Power Ballad.

“Yeah, I was nervous,” Rudd, 57, tells Jonas, 33, in a recent joint interview with PEOPLE. “I’d sung in movies before, but it was always silly — you get a lot of leeway. This was real, actual singing. I was doing it with you and [writer-director-producer] John Carney, who’s a musician himself. This job is always nerve-wracking. Acting, singing — you’re putting yourself out there, so you close your eyes and jump in the deep end.”

In Power Ballad, Rudd plays Rick, a “past-his-prime wedding singer” who performs at a wedding where Jonas’s pop star Danny is in attendance. The two bond over music during a late-night jam session, and when Danny turns one of Rick’s songs into a hit that reignites his career, Rick sets out to reclaim the recognition he believes he deserves — even if it risks everything he cares about.

Rudd points to the 2008 comedy Role Models as an instance where he improvised a song on screen, performing a comedic take on Kiss’s “Beth” for Elizabeth Banks’s character. Power Ballad, he says, is different: “It’s all serious singing from start to finish. So that’s what I did. But yeah, it was a little bit of a nervousness, for sure.”

“Well, you blew everybody away on set,” Jonas replies.

Jonas, of course, is a successful singer-songwriter and Jonas Brothers band member. In the movie, his character Danny is struggling with his life and career after leaving a boy band.

“I definitely brought some of my own experience to the role,” he told PEOPLE at a recent screening of the movie. “I think it’s natural that Danny, who’s going through some of the same experiences that I went through in 2014 or ‘15, you know, would be able to pull on that and kind of incorporate some of those experiences into it.”

“And I was thrilled [to play the role], you know,” he added. “It was a dream of a lifetime.”

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Jonas and Rudd costar in the film with Marcella Plunkett, Havana Rose Liu, Jack Reynor and Peter McDonald, who also cowrote the movie’s screenplay.

Power Ballad is in theaters now.

Read the original article on People