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'Once' in a Lifetime

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You'd known Mar for a while, hadn't you?
I met her when she was 12. Mar's father, Marek, was a good friend of mine. He was a fan of the Frames, and he invited us over to play some small festival in the Czech Republic. Then he invited me to stay in his house for three months and write songs. Mar came into my life very similarly to how she does in the film. She was very young, but she came up to my room one day when I was singing one of my songs, and said, ''That song you're singing, did that really happen to you?'' And I said, ''Well, yeah, kind of.'' And she said, ''Did it, or didn't it?'' And I said, ''Well, it's kind of poetic license.'' And she was like, ''Well, why are you singing it, then?'' And I said, ''Well, as a songwriter you're allowed to do that.'' And she said, ''Well, I don't agree. I think you should be singing about what happened in your life.''

And how did you start playing music together?
While I was staying at Marek's place I was playing these shows and I'd get Mar to come up and play some piano and sing with me, because she was a great pianist. She was 13, 14 at this time. Over the next few years we started to do more and more songs together and eventually we did full sets together. Just as that happened, John came up to me with the idea of Once. That's the thing that clinched it for me — Mar was already cast in it. She'd never even acted before. So the idea of being in Once with her was an attractive option, because it documented my friendship with her. John had wanted a kiss scene and I insisted it couldn't be done, for a few different reasons, but mostly because I was uncomfortable with it.

And the irony is...
The irony is that Mar and I have been thrown in the deep end with each other, and it's developed into something else. It's like life imitating art, and art imitating life at the same time.

When did you two officially get together?
In April. I think we fell in love a couple of years ago, but nothing happened until recently. To be honest with you, I felt that even back then this girl had become so prominent in my life that she would probably be the girl I'd marry one day. But you keep that in the back of your head. That's why I'm so open about Once, because there are a lot of parallels in it to my own life and a lot of magic around it and my relationship with Mar.

Did this make it a fine line between you and Mar in real life, and the characters you played on screen?
I think John was clued in to the fact that there was something between us, and he kept talking about the chemistry. He said, ''There's something going on here and I'm really glad I'm getting it on film.'' He wouldn't let us watch the rushes. He said, ''No matter what it is that's going on, I don't want you knowing what it is. I want you to be natural.''

One of the refreshing and unusual things about Once is that even though it isn't strictly a musical, the audience hears entire songs played out rather than a verse and a chorus then a fade, or a snippet of something being played on a radio.
Exactly. And John is a real critic of that in movies, where a great song comes on and they use a bit of it and then cut to another scene. He's a real lover of music. And I said, ''But John, you cannot have nine full songs in a movie.'' We challenged each other in this area. We pushed each other to be braver. He'd say, ''Sing the full song.'' I'd say, ''Don't chicken out. Don't put a kiss scene in there. How boring would that be?'' We were all demanding more of each other.

Of course, back in 1991 you mixed music and acted by playing the guitarist in The Commitments. Is it true that you regretted doing the film?
I don't regret doing it. It was brilliant. I just regretted having to talk about it forever. It overshadowed my own band. We got to the States and it turned into this big indie film. I remember on my first day in America to promote it, I got out of a taxi in New York, where it had been raining, and there was a full page ad for The Commitments floating in a puddle. And I remember thinking to myself, ''There's a life moment. Don't take this too seriously.'' I spent the next 10 years in interviews talking about The Commitments and not talking about the band I was in.

After your experience in Once, is acting something you might now pursue more?
Well, playing a guy who writes songs and busks on Grafton Street in Dublin and falls in love with Markéta Irglová wasn't very difficult for me. There was very little acting going on. I won't say I've closed the door on acting. Since Once has come out there have been a few offers that sound interesting, but I don't have time to do them right now. The experience with Once and with The Commitments is vastly different. I wrote all the songs, it was written and directed by a very good friend of mine, and everything about it feels very personal. If someone was to criticize Once it would hurt, because so much of me is in it and the stakes are higher.

Posted Aug 27, 2007 | Order Article Reprints

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