Being a Dad to Malti, 2, Changed ‘Everything’ (Exclusive)

Nick Jonas is seeing life differently.

While attending the Los Angeles premiere of The Good Half on Tuesday, Aug. 13, Jonas, 31, spoke to PEOPLE about how his perspective on life and grief has changed since he became a father to his 2-year-old daughter Malti.

“I think that, for me, becoming a parent changed everything in my life and my perspective on everything,” Jonas told PEOPLE. “That’s a natural thing obviously that will happen.”

“My daughter is the light of my world, and making projects that I’ll be able to watch one day with her, absolutely a goal. And this movie for sure is one of those,” he added.

Jonas shares daughter Malti with his wife Priyanka Chopra. The actress, 42, joined him on the red carpet as she came out to support him on Tuesday.

Jonas’ costars in his new film were also in attendance at the premiere, including Brittany Snow, David Arquette, Alexandra Shipp, Matt Walsh, Elisabeth Shue and director Robert Schwartzman.

The emotional movie follows Renn Wheeland (Jonas) as he travels home to Cleveland for his mother’s (Shue) funeral after avoiding the city for multiple years. New relationships are forged during the visit, such as one with a fellow traveler on his flight (Shipp), according to the movie’s synopsis.

At the same time, Jonas also works on repairing his relationship with his sister (Snow) while handling the difficult task of sorting funeral arrangements.

Jonas shared his takeaway from the movie to PEOPLE, “My main message from this film that I left with was this idea that there’s no right way to do it. … It’s not easy and there’s no question that loss as a whole is something that we all have to sort of go through at some point in our life, but there is a path forward and I think it’s all about trusting those people that love you.”

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While the movie focuses on the emotional journey of Jonas’ character and his grief, it also includes moments of humor.

Director Schwartzman, 41, told PEOPLE in June about the emotional connection he felt when making the movie after his father, movie producer Jack Schwartzman, died following a cancer diagnosis.

“It felt familiar to me to revisit this type of experience through the main character and to revisit this family dynamic,” he told PEOPLE at the time.

“I think these kinds of stories can be a welcoming experience to working through grief, especially with loss to cancer.”

The Good Half, which made its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2023, will be in select theaters starting on Thursday, Aug. 15.