Eve Hewson, Jack Reynor, John Carney 'Flora and Son' - Variety

Director John Carney and stars Eve Hewson and Jack Reynor discussed their film "Flora and Son" at an exclusive screening in London on Thursday.

The screening, which took place at London's The Cinema at Selfridges, was the latest of a series of special Q&A events curated by Variety in partnership with brand and culture consultancy BSBP targeted at awards body voters from BAFTA and AMPAS as well as influential players and tastemakers in the entertainment world in the U.K.

Variety and BSBP teamed up with Apple TV+ for this latest screening in the series, "Flora and Son," written and directed by Carney, the writer-director of "Once" and "Sing Street".

The screening was accompanied by a Q&A conducted by Variety critic Catherine Bray with Carney, Hewson and Reynor. The wistful heartwarmer, about a feisty young single mother determined to learn to play guitar, also stars Joseph Gordon Levitt, and premiered to a wave of warm reviews at the Sundance Film Festival. The Q&A in London was one of the first times since Sundance that the cast had been able to promote the project, due to the actors' strike.

Coming on board the project, Hewson was drawn to the script's "profanity and madness and unpredictability. I thought [Flora] was the one of the most interesting roles I'd read in a very, very, very long time. And I also really love that the movie was a character study about you know, this one woman. I feel like we don't see that enough. It was a real acting challenge to just play someone that the audience doesn't know at the beginning of the film, and then take them on a journey."

She added that one of the most intimidating aspects of the role was the singing: "it was absolutely terrifying, and I never wanted to do it. And then the character was so good that I kind of had to."

Carney revealed that the project itself would never have existed were it not for one of his actors. Lacking confidence in his original draft, he sent the first seventy pages to Reynor for an honest opinion. Reynor recalled: "John gave me a call and he said, 'Hey, I have this script, and I'm kind of on the fence about whether or not I'm gonna do it. Will you have a read of it and let me know what you think? I'm like, 'Yeah, sure'. So he sent me the script. And I read it there and then and I think I probably called you back about two hours later."

A crucial moment for Hewson's character is when she finds an old guitar in a skip in Dublin. Carney recalled the key plot point's basis in his own childhood: "If you went past a skip, you went into it and tried to find some that you could sell, which I had done numerous times, and found Scalextric and toys and CDs. I still do it, and I would do it if I won the lottery tomorrow." BSBP, which was founded by Bethani Stainfield-Bruce in 2016, is a brand and culture consultancy specializing in creating, executing and nurturing partnerships between brands and the film, music and entertainment industries.

"Flora and Son" is currently available to watch on Apple TV+.