Interview: Glen Hansard

In real life, Glen Hansard quit school at age 13 to begin busking on local Dublin streets. 24 years later, with countless film and music awards, millions of records sold, and the staring role in his own movie, Glen is on top of the world. He took a moment out of his busy schedule to reflect on art, music, life, philosophy and bicycle repair…

In America, we went to 24 cities in 30 days, did TV shows and screenings, sat for magazine and radio interviews, and really gave it our all. And once it opened in America, there was such a presence everywhere that it was astounding. I didn´t even know the power of the media until then.

“I love New York for exactly the opposite reason than this.” (Laughs)

‘This is what you´ve always wanted, right?´

And of course as an artist, you always want to be respected by the public and your peers. But celebrity is a strange thing. At that moment, I wasn´t sure if I liked it. Being a star is a weird fucking thing. And then Markéta says to me:

“If you flirt with popularity, don´t be surprised if it offers you sex.”

(Laughs)

When we set out to do this film, we decided to make it with a conscious artistic mind to keep it away from the way many movies are made today. We did every scene differently so nothing would be done as a matter of routine.

I didn´t want to be an actor in the traditional sense. I see moves these days and most of the time, I just don´t buy it. When the hero goes to the dark side, do you feel empathy? When I saw Star Wars I, I just didn´t care about Anakin Skywalker because he wasn´t believable. He was a little prick. It ruined the films believability. And to me, believability is everything.

In the movie, I live with my father and I fix vacuum cleaners. In my real life, I lived with my older brother and fixed bicycles.

My character gets robbed on the street. I used to get robbed by the same guy every few weeks and I´d have to chase him down.

When I went to the bank to get money to record my first demo, the bank manager took out his guitar and sang a song.

When I formed my band The Frames in 1988, I drew from musicians I knew on the street just like my character in the movie.

The studio that we go to in the film is the same studio I took my first band into.

The party scene in the film takes place in my old flat.

In the movie, I am falling in love with Markéta. In real life, I introduced John to Markéta as we were becoming very close.

I was a daily busker from age 13 to 18 which is the same as this character. My relationship with the street is the same. Even the busking location is the same. Plus the guitar I use now is the same as the one I used then.

These were all stories of my life that John used. 

This is John´s film and every decision was his to make. I was not the original choice for the lead actor, but when John took me on board, I told him ‘I´m going to really want my own say on a lot of stuff.” So the three of us really ironed out the character together.

So we decided that if there would be a song in the film, it would have to be a full song. It would have to be live and it would have to be in a real situation. Let´s have it be real and not ask anyone to suspend belief. There is no lip-syncing in this movie.

We decided that we would never pander to the possibility of what people might want or expect. Let´s just make this film exactly the way we want to without compromise.

I´m an idealist in these sorts of situations. I say make good art, and pay absolutely no attention to how it is perceived. It´s none of your business what people think of you or your art.

Here is another idealistic concept: Fortune is an innocent and beautiful thing, almost like a fawn or a child. You can´t chase it because it will only run. It´s very fragile and it has to be attracted to you before it will come to you. And the only way to attract fortune is by sticking to your guns and ignoring it.