Nick Jonas Warns ‘Be Careful Who You Share a Blunt With’ as Paul Rudd Music Comedy ‘Power Ballad’ Rocks SXSW

Mar 14, 2026 3:11pm PT Nick Jonas Warns ‘Be Careful Who You Share a Blunt With’ as Paul Rudd Music Comedy ‘Power Ballad’ Rocks SXSW By Ethan Shanfeld Plus Icon Ethan Shanfeld @ethanshanfeld Latest Vince Gilligan Considered Making ‘Pluribus’ Cast Naked, but ‘We’re Not Working for HBO’ and ‘We Can’t Do That to All These Extras’ 3 hours ago ‘Buffy’ Reboot Dead at Hulu, Sarah Michelle Gellar Says: ‘If the Apocalypse Actually Comes, You Can Still Beep Me’ 4 hours ago ‘Ready or Not 2’ Brings Blood, Devil Worship and Exploding Bodies to Rowdy SXSW Premiere 20 hours ago See All Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas rocked SXSW with “ Power Ballad ,” the latest music-themed comedy film from “Once” and “Sing Street” director John Carney. The movie follows Rick Power , a wedding band singer who stumbles into a late-night jam session with former boy band star Danny and reignites his passion for songwriting. But Danny leaves not only with a newfound motivation — he lifts one of Rick’s songs, turns it into a No. 1 hit and claims it as his own. Rick then embarks on a quest to reclaim the recognition he deserves, sacrificing everything he loves in the process. The film features several drunken duets between Rudd and Jonas after the former offers the latter some of his marijuana. If there’s one takeaway from the film, Jonas put it like this: “Be careful who you share a blunt with.” Popular on Variety The Jonas Brothers singer behind solo hits like “Jealous” and “Close” said he boarded “Power Ballad” after he heard Carney was writing a script about “a wedding singer and a former boy band member turned solo artist trying to find himself.” In a nod to the obvious parallels between his character and himself, Jonas quipped: “I said yes !” “Outside of the more obvious themes … one of the things that I was really drawn to is this idea of how many rooms I’ve been in as a songwriter where it could have gone one way or the other — success and failure and everything between — and moments where your charact...