Joe Jonas on the pressure of acting in Devotion : 'I've got to show my worth'
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Joe Jonas was in charge of bringing the music of laughter to the Korean War epic Devotion (out Nov. 23). Directed by JD Dillard, and based on real events, the film details the relationship between Jonathan Majors' U.S. Navy aviator Jesse L. Brown and Glen Powell's fellow pilot Tom Hudner while Jonas portrays another airman named Marty Goode.
"The film is a true story about the first African-American naval air force pilot and his band of brothers," says Jonas. "I play Marty Goode, who is kind of the class clown, someone that breaks the intense energy of some of the conversations that are had between these different guys and the situations they're put into. But also he backs it up with experience, he's been in the navy for a long time, and he's got the experience, so he can make these jokes because, at the end of the day, he'd been through it before, and no one can really talk back to him."
Eli Adé/Columbia Pictures Joe Jonas in 'Devotion'
The actor has plenty of onscreen experience thanks to his music and TV career with the Jonas Brothers, but he admits to some trepidation while shooting his part in such a large-scale and dramatic venture.
"Yeah, there were nerves that would come into play here and there, but it's good to feel something like that again," he says. "It's been a while since I was putting myself in rooms where you're like, 'Oh, okay, I've got to show up, I've got to show my worth in this, and the pressure is on now,' and how do you bottle that up and utilize it and use it to your advantage, instead of letting it just eat you and take over."
Eli Adé/Columbia Pictures 'Devotion'
Jonas was particularly impressed by Majors, who will next be seen playing the MCU's new big bad Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
"Jonathan is just a young legend," he says. "I mean, he's already on top, but the sky's the limit for him. The way he immerses himself into roles is so inspiring. Day one, showing up to set, and there was the table read and Jonathan's in the flight suit. There's things from this experience, from working with this guy, that I definitely could see trying out in the future, but you can't obviously recreate his magic."
While the role of Goode is a "straight" dramatic part for the pop star, director Dillard did enlist Jonas to come up with a song to play over the closing credits. The result is "Not Alone"," which the singer co-wrote with Ryan Tedder and Bernard Harvey and performs with Khalid.
"I got to see the movie early on, and I brought my friend Ryan Tedder," says Jonas. "There was a grand piano that happened to be in the screening room, so we started working on the song and brought in a friend of ours, Harv, and I brought in Khalid, and we finished the tune, and that became 'Not Alone.' It really came down to the fact that the one thing [the characters] have is that they're there for each other, regardless if they are there for them physically."
Devotion hits theaters Wednesday. Watch the film's trailer and see the video for "Not Alone" below.
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