It’s no secret at all that Eve Hewson comes from perhaps the most famous modern family in Ireland. Being the daughter of the lead singer of U2 comes with a level of recognition. However, in role after role throughout her still young career, Hewson has carved out her own place in show business as an excellent young actor.
Before her wonderful new movie Flora and Son, Hewson had mostly played supporting parts or had been among equals in ensembles. But here, with John Carney’s latest film about the power of music in people’s lives, she gets a great full-bodied lead as the title character, a very young single mother with a wayward teenage son (Max, played exceptionally by Oren Kinlan) who she’s struggling to connect with.
On half a lark, Flora pulls a beat up guitar out of a rubbish bin, has it cleaned up and restrung and gives it to Max as a birthday present. When Max rejects the gift, Flora keeps it for herself and finds Jeff, an online guitar teacher on the other side of the world, and ends up helping him as he does her. In the process of learning music, she also finds a way to learn about her son, and perhaps just as importantly, about herself.
Hewson carries the film from start to finish in what should be a star making performance. In our conversation, we discuss the perils of motherhood, the two songs she co-wrote for the film (“Meet Me in the Middle” and “High Life”)Flora’s shockingly funny use of profanity, and what it’s like to find the perfect role and have it be so well-received.
Awards Daily: Flora and Son—absolutely terrific movie which is not a shock, because John Carney doesn’t make anything else. It’s a very Dublin story. Dublin is practically another character in the film. Did you get an extra kick about playing the lead and being in your hometown?
Eve Hewson: Definitely. I had just finished Bad Sisters, which was really great to be at home and play an Irish character. I was very much enjoying that and realized that working with Irish writers, Irish directors, and playing Irish characters was the thing I’d been missing in my life. I felt like there were a lot of characters in my head that I never ended up seeing on paper. I never saw them when I went in to audition for things. I never saw them in big movies. So I was out in America, getting a little bit lost and thinking I know I have this thing to offer, but maybe these parts will never be written.
And lo and behold, Bad Sisters happened and Becka was there. I was like oh, okay, that I know how to do. Then it happened with Flora in the freakiest way. It was like I was hit by lightning twice in the same year. It was really special to me to play this part, because she reminded me so much of people that I love in my life, that I’ve known since I was a kid. My friends are like Flora. I feel a lot like Flora, depending on the day. I’ve been raised by lots of Floras and my aunties and all of that. She is such a true Dublin woman. I just felt like I knew exactly what to do to bring her to life, and it had to be me, it had to be me, you know?
Awards Daily: You come from a very musical family. Not just your dad, our brother’s band, Inhaler, is also fabulous. You perform on screen as a singer and play guitar and you co-wrote two songs. Was there any nervousness of moving into that world when you have been establishing yourself as an actor?
Eve Hewson: I grew up obviously very musical. I played a thousand different instruments and always wanted to do music, but when I found acting, it was like acting was it for me. I couldn’t think of doing anything else, and I went fully into that world. I moved to New York. I went to Tisch. I studied it. I just immersed myself in acting and left behind music. Never would I have thought that acting would have brought me back to my childhood and to my love for music. But, I also felt scared. I felt challenged. I had a little band when I was 10 years old and we used to write tunes and so it felt good. I felt comfortable there. John said “You write some lyrics. It’s your perspective. It’s your character. I want you to feel like you really believe what you’re going to sing, so you write them.” I thought oh yeah, I can do that. I haven’t done that in ages, but I can do that. It’s been a beautiful marriage of my career and a big part of my childhood coming back together.
Awards Daily: It’s easy to look at this as a coming of age film for the character of your son, but I actually saw it as sort of a double coming of age film. Flora had her son so young and she really is kind of stuck in a similar way as her son–not being sure of what’s next in life. I think that plays out a lot when you see Flora listening to “Both Sides Now” and watching Joni Mitchell perform. Did you feel too that there was a parallel going on there?
Eve Hewson: Absolutely. I always felt like Flora was like a teenager in herself. They say when a big event happens in your life or a big trauma happens in your life, you kind of get stuck at that age. I feel like her having a kid quite young and having to do it on her own, she was stuck in the mentality of a teenager. I should be a kid. I should be going out and doing these things that my friends are doing. But here I am being a mom, and I’m not ready to take that on yet. And that carried throughout their lives.
The story is really about her accepting being a mother, accepting motherhood, accepting him and taking on that responsibility. They’re almost like brother and sister living in an apartment together. It’s like these teenagers fighting with each other. We really talked about that, John and Oren and I. It shouldn’t feel maternal yet. It should feel quite lively and quite sibling-like. Then towards the end of the film, you start to see her step into who she’s supposed to be. He gets to be the kid, and she gets to really be a mom.
Awards Daily: Speaking about being a mom, there’s a wonderfully honest line in the movie, which is funny but also cutting to a degree. Flora says that she kind of wishes her kid would go missing every now and then. That could come off really wrong if it’s not done right. But I think a lot of mothers feel that way at times.
Eve Hewson: I think a lot of parents do. (Laughs). That’s what’s great about John. He’s not afraid to write the truth, even if it sounds ugly. Other writers might say that would make Flora really unlikable. We can’t have her be a mean mommy, but John’s like no, this is true. Sometimes my kid drives me nuts. Sometimes I just need to get away. Whenever I’ve been to screenings of this movie, that line gets a huge laugh from clearly the parents who completely understand. Yeah, I’ve been there. I’ve had those days.
Awards Daily: Your facility with profanity is amazing. (Laughs). When you were reading this screenplay, were you like oh my God, I’ve got to say that? Or was it more like oh my God, I get to say that!
Eve Hewson: It was oh my God, I get to say that! (Laughs). But yeah, I was shocked and laughing and just so jazzed with the idea that these words were coming out of this woman. It just made me fall in love with her in a completely different way, and I really, really like being bold. I really like shocking people on camera. I like pushing it to the edge. I was so excited to do that scene with Ian and we had so much fun doing it. Oh my God. We laughed so hard that day.
Awards Daily: The sequence (and I can’t even repeat it), but you know when you talk about a sex act that the new girlfriend of your ex-husband probably isn’t all that adept at, I couldn’t laugh because my mouth was hanging so far open. But I think I’ll be able to laugh on the third viewing.
Eve Hewson: Yeah, I know. It’s pretty intense, but it’s kind of genius. It’s also a really good insight into who she is. She’s so many different things. She’s confusing him, and she’s turning him on, and she’s also insulting him. That’s the joy of Flora. She can do all these things at once, and then she’s like alright Max, come on, and then she’s off like it never happened.
Awards Daily: There’s the other relationship that’s really significant for Flora in the film, which is with Joseph Gordon Levitt’s character, your online guitar teacher. There’s a couple of very clever cheats in it, but a lot of the chemistry that you and Joseph have to develop is the way we’re talking now right through a laptop. Did you find that challenging at all?
Eve Hewson: I really did at the beginning because it was just like a technical thing. We had a day in the studio where we wrote the rooftop song, “Meet in the Middle”. We had good time together, sitting next to each other writing lyrics and singing to each other, getting that comfortability with each other. Then we had to go in and it’s like we’re on Zoom. He’s in the next room and I had an earpiece. It was challenging at the beginning to get that chemistry and to just actually be able to hear everything he was saying. Once we got into it, it was quite helpful because there’s a tension there. What I like about it, that makes it so romantic, is that they can’t really be there with each other. It’s morning for him. It’s night for her. She can’t reach through. She doesn’t know what he smells like or anything, you know? It’s sort of exciting, I think, to see on screen. These people really fall for each other, but they’ve never been in the same room.
Awards Daily: Carney specializes in giving you a bittersweet conclusion of a sort. His films are more about a person finding themselves than necessarily ending up in a place that a more conventional movie might end up. Did you have any concern that people might not respond to this because a certain level of romance doesn’t occur?
Eve Hewson: No, I wasn’t worried about that. Some people I know were like she didn’t go to L.A.? But I think the whole point of it is that she’s got this money saved up. She wants to go. She wants to do this for herself. She thinks it’s the right thing to do. But the choice that she makes to give the money to the court to get her son out sooner from the juvenile facility he’s in is so significant because that’s her choosing him. That’s her choosing being a mother over being a woman or a lover or all of the things that she’s used to being. I actually think it was a really strong storytelling device. I loved how it ends and that question mark of would she go maybe one day or how would that be? But really this, at the end of the day, is a story about a mother and son.
Awards Daily: John Carney has sort of become a genre unto himself. I admire so much how he can make every movie have the theme of people connecting through music, but feel like legitimately different movies. He doesn’t feel like he’s repeating himself. That’s how you and your son in the film find each other and I think it’s how a lot of people find each other but don’t think about it that way. It’s a beautiful thing that Carney does in showing how art brings people together.
Eve Hewson: We all have those movies that we watch for the first time with that person, or we went to that concert, or went to that restaurant even, and the memories that surround all of that. Flora really likes this activity of music making– even when it’s just for Max’s little crush. They can be together, but they don’t have to talk about their issues. They don’t have to talk about their relationship. I think they’re more comfortable doing that and the time that they spend together and having fun. He says that was his best day–making that music video with my mom, because he gets to see her be fun and he gets to enjoy her in a different way. They don’t have to sit there and hash out all of their issues. I think it’s really smart. I’ve definitely had those moments too, with family or friends, where sometimes you just need to go and watch a movie together, and have a cry together, or go for a walk, or do something really simple. And then that’s the remedy.
Awards Daily: When your makeshift group is playing the final song in the film, “High Life,” and you’re in mid-flow and the title comes across the screen, I think I melted in my chair. There’s this thing that happens when I’m watching a movie that I’m falling in love with where I start thinking oh god, please just stick the landing, please just end right. And it was just so perfect. Did you get that feeling when you watched it back? Did you think, oh, yes, that.
Eve Hewson: Absolutely, I loved that title sequence. I love when it opens as well, and we’re both walking over to Ian’s house, and it’s like boom, boom, boom, Flora. It’s so like her character actually, to just come out in all those different colors, and bam, here we go. And then, at the end of the movie, it’s so well timed. I think John Carney’s timing is really great. It makes me emotional too. That’s the moment where everyone kind of claps and goes wow, that was a journey. That was really a special 90 minutes of a character.
Awards Daily: This is obviously a really great chance for you to play a lead. Bad Sisters was so well received, and it’s an ensemble there, but this is you out front. This is your story. With the extremely positive notices that you’ve been getting, do you feel like you’re reaching a moment now in your career where you feel a sense of ascent.
Eve Hewson: It definitely feels that way. I mean, God knows what’s going to happen. I’ve been through the ups and the downs of this business enough to know that it’s never a sure thing, but the last few years have been really special. I’ve been so proud of the projects that I’ve been a part of too, which is what’s really nice. Sometimes you could do something that’s big, but you’re not really that into it. I really love the work that I’m doing. I hope that I get more leads. I’m definitely ready to go. It’s just a matter of if it’ll happen.
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