‘Devotion’: Joe Jonas Describes His ‘Truly Special’ Experience on the Set of the War Drama
Joe Jonas rose to fame thanks to his family band, the Jonas Brothers, and his involvement in the Camp Rock movies from Disney. However, he has majorly focused his attention on making music. His recent endeavor in the acting industry is a Korean War film called Devotion, to which he also lent his voice. Jonas describes his “truly special” experience on the set of the war drama.
Joe Jonas stars as Marty Goode in ‘Devotion’
Joe Jonas appears in the Korean War drama, Devotion, playing Marty Goode, a real-life naval officer. The actor said in an interview that he felt a huge responsibility capturing the real Marty Goode, who joined the Navy at the young age of 16 and always found ways to reduce the tension among his fellow airmen through humor.
“When you’re researching a real person, it’s a different kind of pressure. You want to make sure that you’re not only playing the character on the page, but you’re doing the real person justice too,” Jonas said.
Devotion is an aerial war film based on the true story of elite fighter pilots Jesse Brown –the first Black aviator in naval history- and his friend and colleague Tom Hudner, who helped turn the tide in favor of the U.S. in the brutal battle in the Korean War. Brown and Hudner became the U.S. Navy’s most celebrated wingmen.
The film stars Jonathan Majors as Brown and Glen Powell as Hudner. Serinda Swan was tapped to play Elizabeth Taylor in February 2021, while Christian Jackson played Brown’s wife, Daisy. J. D. Dillard, known for his work on Sleight and Sweetheart, directed the flick while Jake Crane and Jonathan A. Stewart wrote the screenplay.
Joe Jonas had a ‘special’ involvement with the war film
Aside from appearing as Marty, Joe Jonas had another role in the movie. According to People, the singer co-wrote and sang a ballad titled “Not Alone,” dedicated to all veterans for the end credits. “We definitely spoke about the idea of shooting this video as a separation of my two passions from music and acting,” said Jonas.
The singer said they wanted the music video to “speak to the raw emotion of the song.” Jonas partnered on the track with renowned singer Khalid who Jonas said he’d been friends with for a while. “Having him part of this co-write and also his beautiful voice being part of this brought it to a whole new level,” the actor gushed.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, Jonas revealed that Dillard approached him to write the song, and he decided to bring on Khalid and other “incredible collaborators” (Harv and Tedder). He said, “What made this truly special to me was being able to bring my passions of acting and music together for this film. It was a truly special experience to combine the two, which are normally very separate hats for me, and I was honored to do so.”
“Not Alone” was co-written by Ryan Tedder and Harv, and its music video was shot at Hangar 21 in Fullerton, California, in front of the vintage warplane used in the movie. The music video was directed by Quran Squire and features snippets of the film.
‘Devotion’ has excellent reviews so far
Devotion premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 12, 2022, and hit theatres on Nov. 23, 2022. It holds an approval rating of 79% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 76 votes.
A Vanity Fair review stated that Joe Jonas shone in his scenes despite not having much to work with, while many critics praised Jonathan Majors‘ delivery of emotions as Brown.
