Glen Hansard

Not just music. Glen Hansard, the Irish singer-songwriter who died on July 29, 2026 in a road accident, also had a significant relationship with cinema. His work on the big screen wasn't particularly extensive, but it decisively shaped his artistic career, first as an actor and later as a soundtrack composer. The two defining moments are "The Commitments" (1991) and "Once" (2007), films that marked two very different phases of his life.

The debut with "The Commitments"

While he's struggling to keep his music career with Frames afloat, barely into his twenties, Glen Hansard is cast as Outspan Foster, one of the two guitarists in the soul band at the heart of the story in the film "The Commitments" (1991), the movie adaptation of Roddy Doyle's novel of the same name.
In the film, the band repeats its mission like a mantra: to bring soul to Dublin; the diet is "James Brown for breakfast, Otis Redding for lunch, Smokey Robinson for dinner and Aretha for snacks in between meals," and the battle cry is: "The Irish are the blacks of Europe, Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland, and the Northside Dubliners are the blacks of Dublin, so say it once, say it loud: I'm black and I'm proud!". The young Glen isn't convinced, fearing a premature break from his own roots, worried about losing his authenticity and cultural identity.
But the film is a worldwide hit, becoming a full-blown generational cult classic of the early Nineties. In a later interview he would say: "The film was a wonderful experience, very easy. We were in Dublin, we'd get up at seven in the morning, work all day and go home. And there was a car to pick us up every morning, so it was easy. It was a joy". But the joy, and unfortunately the money too, would soon run out: during the celebrations for the film's 25th anniversary, Glen admitted: "For some reason I think we all felt a bit burned out, not by Alan or the film company or anyone in particular, but by the experience coming too soon — we were too young for that kind of experience".

In the film's fictional story, the Commitments end up busking for money on the street, and in real life too Glen Hansard would soon have to take a job at a bar in New York to help cover the Frames' bleeding finances. "I need money desperately. I haven't become one of those musicians who live in luxury while everyone else takes care of business. Still, I'd rather work this way than rack my brains trying to figure out how to make money from music and let the business side take over".
Alongside the fond memories, though, a more bittersweet reflection would also surface. During the celebrations for the film's 25th anniversary he said: "For some reason I think we all felt a bit burned out, not by Alan or the film company or anyone in particular, but by the experience coming too soon — we were too young for that kind of experience".
Cinematic fame, in fact, didn't translate into financial stability. Like his character, who ends up busking on the street again by the film's finale, Hansard too had to weather difficult years: to keep the Frames afloat financially, he ended up working at a bar in New York. "I need money desperately. I haven't become one of those musicians who live in luxury while everyone else takes care of business. Still, I'd rather work this way than rack my brains trying to figure out how to make money from music and let the business side take over".

“Once”: the film that changed everything

The second, decisive chapter of Hansard's film career begins with his meeting with Markéta Irglová. The two met in 2001 at a music festival in the Czech Republic, where Hansard discovered the talent of the young musician, then just thirteen years old. After a number of live collaborations and the formation of The Swell Season project in 2005, they were brought on board by director Jan Hřebejk to work on the soundtrack for the film “Beauty in Trouble” (2006), for which they recorded the first songs they wrote together.
The turning point came when John Carney, former bassist of the Frames and now an independent Irish filmmaker, called Glen Hansard to work on the soundtrack for the film he had in mind, “Once”. Glen brought Markéta on board, and thanks to the film's minuscule budget, the two ended up taking on the lead roles themselves. The film that brought them together is clearly autobiographical in nature: a young Dubliner who repairs vacuum cleaners and makes ends meet busking with his guitar on the street meets and falls in love with a single mother. She works as a street vendor selling roses and magazines, and their encounter gives rise to a delicate, fragile bond, steeped in deep mutual respect for each other's different life choices and diverging personal ambitions.
The special artistic partnership comes to a close with the recording of an album made together with other local buskers, before their paths part once again. The themes of street music and self-discovery filtered through a soulmate run through a fictional narrative that clearly mirrors real life. Many scenes were shot with hidden cameras, unbeknownst to passersby, some even inside Glen Hansard's own home.
The film was met with glowing reviews from critics and unexpected commercial success. The soundtrack, released by Canvasback Music and an essential element of the film's storytelling, features the songs written and recorded by the duo during the making of the film, including a couple of Frames tracks.

For the two of them, it was the start of a love story that would first lead them to perform live some 250 times around the world over two years, and eventually to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2008; the two musicians, visibly moved, could barely contain their emotion during the ceremony: “This means so much, not only to us, but to all independent musicians and artists who spend most of their lives struggling – said Markéta Irglová – The fact that we're here tonight, the fact that we can hold this award in our hands, just goes to show, no matter how far out your dreams are, it's possible.”

The film's success coincided with the birth of their romantic relationship. Over the following two years, Hansard and Irglová took The Swell Season on tour, playing around 250 shows worldwide, and released their second album, “Strict Joy” (2009). Shortly after, however, their relationship came to an end, echoing in real life the same bittersweet sense of separation that already ran through the ending of “Once”. Once again, fiction on the big screen seemed to mockingly foreshadow reality: Glen and Markéta's paths diverged, with her moving to Iceland, where she pursued her own musical career and became a mother of two. The Swell Season managed to release a second record in 2009, Strict Joy, which followed in the footsteps of its predecessor but carried a bittersweet flavor mirroring their own love story. Spin Magazine's review, while positive overall, noted: “If Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová's roles in the successful Irish indie film 'Once' unwittingly wrote the story of their real-life romance, their second album as Swell Season writes the story of their falling out of it.”

Beyond “Once”

In the years that followed, Glen Hansard kept a steady relationship with cinema, mainly through music. He wrote songs for several productions, including “Sing Street” (2016), returned to the screen in the documentary “The Swell Season” (2011), about the tour and his relationship with Irglová following the success of “Once”, and made a small appearance in Joe Wright's film “Cyrano” (2021). He also appeared in the 2012 TV series “Parenthood”, in the episode “Trouble in Candyland”.
Without ever really pursuing a full-fledged acting career, Hansard has built a small but influential filmography in which music and storytelling remain inseparable. If “The Commitments” opened the doors of cinema to him, it was “Once” that turned him into a landmark figure of contemporary independent musical film.

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