At the New York City screening of Power Ballad on May 19, Paul Rudd told E! News that his daughter Darby was visibly impressed that he got to meet Nick Jonas. "I think my daughter is impressed that I got to meet Nick Jonas," Rudd said, adding plainly, "She's excited about that."
The moment mattered because Power Ballad is not a small side project: the John Carney‑directed music comedy premiered at SXSW, carries an 88% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes and begins rolling into theaters at the end of this month — select dates on May 29 and a nationwide release on June 5. At the New York screening, Rudd leaned on his family to describe how fame looks at home. "They're like, ‘This is like dad's job,’" he said, explaining that his children are not loud cheerleaders but quietly proud.
Rudd and Jonas play characters whose lives collide over music. Rudd is Rick, a former touring rocker and now a wedding singer living in Ireland with his family; Jonas plays Danny, a pop boy‑bander who suffers creative crises. "There's a scene in the movie where we kind of first meet and hang out and start kind of jamming and writing together, and that was the first thing that Nick and I shot together," Rudd said, describing how the two actors connected immediately on set. Jonas framed the collaboration as almost a dream: "I think for both of us," he said, and then added, "we're such fans of John Carney, and all his films—Once, Sing Street—they just have this real sense of heartwarming storytelling, and make you feel good, but with usually a real message." He finished by praising the soundtrack: "I think this film has few messages that I really resonated with, and then on top of that, the music is just out of this world, amazing."
The context is straightforward: Power Ballad is a film built on music and nostalgia, a story that trades on ’80s and ’90s sensibility as much as the emotional collision between a has‑been rock singer and a modern pop star. The film had its world premiere at SXSW and now faces a commercial test as it expands from limited release on May 29 to a nationwide opening on June 5 — a schedule that will determine whether the positive critical reception translates to box‑office legs.
The tension at the center of both the movie and Rudd's comments is that the film demanded a kind of authenticity he does not normally claim. Rudd called the work "just kind of a little out of my comfort zone," acknowledging that he is not a professional vocalist. "I certainly love music, I like to sing, but I mean, I'm not a singer or anything," he said, while also admitting why he took the part: "But I liked playing this part, and I'm sure you know, on some level—we all dream of being rock stars." He complimented Jonas plainly: "I mean, he's the real deal," Rudd said, signaling that the film relied on Jonas's musical credibility as much as Rudd's comedic presence.
That contradiction — a non‑singer stepping into a music film alongside a bona fide pop star — is where Power Ballad's risk and reward meet. Critics have already been generous, and the chemistry Rudd described with Jonas is the movie's chief selling point. For Rudd himself, the personal payoff was simple and immediate: his daughter noticed. The answer to whether Darby was impressed is yes, and Rudd seemed content to let that small domestic verdict stand as proof the odd pairing worked. Power Ballad now heads to theaters on May 29 in select cities and opens everywhere on June 5, where audiences will judge whether the film's heart and soundtrack match the regard critics have shown.
