August Rush Preview with John Ondrasik

At L.A.'s trendy Pacific Design Center, we were treated to a short sneak preview of the film August Rush followed by a live musical performance by Five For Fighting's John Ondrasik who has written several new songs for the movie.

We were shown a few DVD-style brief interviews with the cast over footage from the film which stars Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Freddie Highmore, Robin Williams and Terrence Howard. It's a great love story between Keri and John's characters. She's a classical musician, a cellist; he's an indie rocker. They meet, fall in love and she gets pregnant. Her father tells her the baby died when the boy (Freddie Highmore)is actually alive. "Freddie" grows up in an orphanage. He's a child music prodigy but doesn't have an outlet for his talent. He always knew his family was out there somewhere. Keri learns he's alive and starts looking for him. He goes to NYC to find his parents and also finds a way to express his music there when he's taken under the wing of a Fagin-style character called Wizard played by Robin Williams who takes in homeless, talented kids.

Grammy winner Mark Mancina is responsible for the film's score and also treated us to a live preview on piano while cellist Jen Kuhn accompanied. The film's soundtrack is a wonderful combo of rock, pop, classical and gospel. Later on, we listened to a ballad about the Robin Williams character called "King of the Earth" written, sung and played on piano by Five for Fighting's John Ondrasik whose song "It's Not Easy" broke chart records and was used in the "Smallville" series. John was accompanied by Kuhn and Mark. Great music! We also learned that John Legend performs a song for the film. From what we saw of the movie, it promises to be a heartfelt winner with a great cast!

After John's performance, we pulled him aside for an exclusive interview to learn about his involvement in the project, his own musical history and plans for the summer. He said he just got off jury duty. He had flattering things to say about hot Jonathan Rhys-Meyers' singing voice.

TeenHollywood: Were you a music prodigy when you were a kid?

John: No! Well, my mom was a piano teacher so she started me young. I was always around music. I started playing very young; two or three. I'm no virtuoso piano player. I'm definitely a songwriter but she did start me early enough and gave me the basics where I could have a career. She was very smart. When I was thirteen, she decided 'okay, you want to go skateboarding, you want to play basketball, you don't have to take piano lessons anymore'. And then, it became fun when I didn't have to do it. I started writing songs when I was thirteen and I've been doing it ever since so she really laid the foundation for me. I've met prodigies though, like Jamia Simone Nash who plays Hope in this film. She's a true prodigy and amazing. I have two little kids now, five and seven so a movie like this, everybody is going to love it. It's like a Wizard of Oz film. It's magical for the kids and adults and teens will love it. My kids are at that age where fairy tales exist so they'll love the film.

TeenHollywood: Hopefully, we never grow out of that.

John: I hope not. It takes a lot of guts to make a fairy tale, to make a musical; a musical fairy tale? Are you kidding me? But, I think, if you get it right, you can have a film that has a legacy like Sound of Music. Like all these films that have real songs and have a timeline over decades.

TeenHollywood: Can you tell me how you got involved doing some music for August Rush?

John: Well, people send me scripts and if I feel that I can contribute something or have an idea for a song, I'll write them. When I first read the script, I thought it would be impossible to make but I met with Richard [Barton Lewis, the producer] and after we started talking about the influences, I thought, 'well, it's a big swing but if I can help, I'm happy to'. It was nice to see him pull it off.

TeenHollywood: I loved your song "King of the Earth".

John: That's in the end titles. The cool song is the one I wrote and produced for Jonny [Rhys Meyers]. The film starts with Keri playing cello and Jonny in a rock club and he's playing my song. I produced his vocals from three thousand miles away. I was in a studio in Capitol and I'm like, 'this is so surreal. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers is in New York singing my song and I'm trying to produce it from here'.

TeenHollywood: Can Jonathan sing?

John: The only problem with Jonny was he could actually sing too well. He's supposed to be an indie rock singer. I had to pull him back a little bit. I'm like 'Dude, don't sing so much'. Those indie rock guys, it's not about perfect pitch, it's not the notes. It's about attitude. He was actually such a good singer from some of his pervious experiences that we had to pull him out of that a little bit. 'Hey, it's rock 'n roll, man. You don't need to be tuned. You can pull back' and he did. It's amazing. We got it right. I was blown away.

TeenHollywood: So the players and singers aren't faking it in this film?

John: It was important to Richard and me. It was crucial to have someone who is really singing, people who are really playing not lip-syncing to people's words. That's why I thought that the movie was so hard to make. I didn't think you could find people who could pull it off. And Freddie is amazing. The movie lives or dies on the reality of the music and Freddie. Some of the guitar stuff he did in a short time was amazing.

TeenHollywood: What's up with you now?

John: My band Five for Fighting has been on the road for like a year so I'm going to be daddy for the summer and I'm starting writing for my next record. We'll do some touring and I'll probably do a few more songs for Richard and hopefully, they'll put a concert together where we can get Johnny and everybody together. And a few little film projects. I'm happy to be home.

You can see August Rush in October.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.