By the time my conversation with Dylan O’Brien and James Sweeney wrapped, I was still trying to figure out how to categorize “Twinless” — and whether I even wanted to. The film, out September 5 after premiering to buzzy acclaim at Sundance (and not without controversy, thanks to a leaked sex scene that derailed its digital run), is one of those rare cinematic experiences that hits like a jolt: unsettling, hilarious, devastating and tender, sometimes all at once.
That emotional rollercoaster is very much intentional, as I discovered while speaking with lead actor Dylan O’Brien (“Teen Wolf”) and writer-director-star James Sweeney. Sweeney explained, “there’s a support group” for all those feelings — perfectly in tune with the film’s tone. Even offering a brief summary feels like revealing too much. In fact, this interview contains some light spoilers, so consider yourself warned. Here’s what we can openly share: Sweeney plays Dennis, who meets Roman (O’Brien) at a grief support group. Both are coping with the loss of a twin — and O’Brien also portrays Rocky, Roman’s late gay brother.
What began as Sweeney’s personal rumination on identity, loss and the unique grief of twinhood evolved into a bold, genre-blurring narrative that avoids easy labels — both in plot and in tone.
But how do you promote a film that’s better left unspoiled? As it turns out, that question is one of many the duo navigated with humor, honesty and surprising vulnerability. Over the course of our interview, they opened up about everything from the film’s intimate emotional core to their unexpected off-screen bond — and yes, even their mutual failure to watch “Steel Magnolias.”
I’ve been thinking about how hard it is to talk about this film without giving too much away — even just writing about it feels tricky. How are you navigating that line during this press tour?
Sweeney: It has been a… oh, what’s the idiom I’m looking for? A tight needle to thread? [Laughs.]
O’Brien: A hard line to straddle?
Sweeney: Gosh, we’re both having a Roman moment. [Both laugh.] One thing that we discovered at Sundance was how wonderful it is for people to go in completely blind and we’re trying as much as we can to preserve that experience for audiences and be in a theater setting with the communal experience.
O’Brien: But there’s also a wide appeal that we obviously want to net from this. We really want as many people as we can to go see it. But then we’re also begging them to ask for no other information than that. [Laughs.]
Sweeney: Just trust.
O’Brien: A real tough sell.
If we’re trying to sell this story for wide appeal, we should talk about the sex scene, right?
Sweeney: I mean, that’s kind of what happened in January.
O’Brien: Yeah, it’s already out there. So that one we don’t have control over.
When a sex scene from the film was leaked online, causing Sundance to quickly remove the entire film from its digital roster, what did that feel like to go through in real time?
Sweeney: I think [Dylan] got more respect out of the situation than I did. [Laughs.] I wasn’t even getting named half the time.
O’Brien: On behalf of James, I think he shared a lot of feelings with me about it that I was sensitive to. I’m not really online, but it obviously saddens me. There were so many people too who were like, “Oh, I wanted to see your movie at Sundance, but they pulled it off.” I was like, damn, I really wish people understood, even just outside preserving the integrity of our film and the fact that it’s a spoiler and that it’s the best to go in completely blind. And that was tough. You try to look on the bright side and maybe, at least, it points people in the direction of our film.
Sweeney: It creates a liminal awareness.
O’Brien: Which we do ultimately want.
James, this film feels personal, as you wrote and directed it and also star in it. What sparked your creativity here?
Sweeney: I feel connected to all the work that I write, and there’s not always a role that I could play, but I guess that’s just kind of my writing process. It’s a combination of pulling from the personal and infusing it with the imaginative. This came from being very interested in twins and their psychology and identity. I think when I first heard about a twin support group, it did strike me as such a profound, deeply tragic loss because it is also about a loss of self, and that just felt like a really robust theme to explore in a film. And my boyfriend, who is an identical twin, had recently broken up with me and that kind of spurred some childhood memories of wishing I had a twin.
What was it like for you to direct something so emotionally complex, but also be so in the story?
Sweeney: The heavier moments are more challenging — they feel like they ask more of me emotionally. I’m particularly thinking of the climax scene in the hotel room. That was one where I did feel the strain between actor and director and being able to compartmentalize those two sides of my responsibilities.
Dylan, you also have a powerful scene, where you tell Dennis what you wish you could say to your late twin brother. How did you approach that scene emotionally?
O’Brien: I had so much connection at this point to the story and to the role and so much investment emotionally to what we were making, and that scene was toward the end. It was also so beautifully written by James and I never wanted to change a word of it from the first time I read it. I don’t memorize word for word, but this is one I wanted to memorize and honor verbatim. I just thought it was so human and beautifully written in that way. It was the most in touch I’ve ever felt as an actor and one of the things I’ll forever be most proud of in my entire life, let alone career.
What kind of process was required of you to play both Roman and Rocky?
O’Brien: I think I’ve been different people at different times in my life, especially when you’re growing up and you’re figuring out who you are. Most people are really surprised to hear me describe myself as a really quiet and shy kid. So I have sort of that Roman internalism in me that I know so dearly. But I know very well that that’s not how I’m perceived.
I do also have these Rocky qualities, and I thought it was really interesting to sort of apply them to a gay character. We have these effeminate qualities that a lot of straight men don’t embrace in themselves or that you’re taught not to, but I’ve always been quite in touch with my femininity, and especially as I got into adulthood. So it felt quite natural to become both of these guys. And then I just had such an implicit trust for James, which was so freeing.
Wait, does that mean that if you have some similarities with these characters that you have not seen “Steel Magnolias” in real life?
O’Brien: At least you caught that. I feel like so many people miss that line.
Sweeney [ashamedly whispering]: I actually haven’t seen “Steel Magnolias.”
O’Brien: I haven’t either! [Both laugh.]
I like that Dylan was delaying until James answered.
O’Brien: I was sweating. [Laughs.]
Sweeney: I got shamed for it once, which is where that line came from.
O’Brien: We should watch it one night.
Where did the bond between you two start?
O’Brien: It hasn’t yet. [Laughs.]
Sweeney: Still waiting.
O’Brien: Any fucking day now. [Laughs.]
Sweeney: I’m just going through the chronology.
O’Brien: We want to give you a more interesting answer than one that we’ve been giving. We’re very different in so many ways, but we also have a lot of similarities in terms of experiences. We’ve both experienced loneliness in our childhood before. We’ve both experienced having to adapt to a new environment and being uprooted. We both value very similar things in our relationships and our friendships. I think we really kind of share such a DNA in so many ways that enabled us to just through effortless conversation talk about how we feel about the world and our life and friends and movies, whatever. We can talk to each other for a long time.
As a queer boy, hearing a straight guy speak so openly and tenderly about his friend feels like it would have been the dream. James, what makes your bond with Dylan feel special to you?
O’Brien: Growing up, I did gravitate toward more female friendships, but it’s been interesting how I’ve now grown into so many straight male friendships. As you were saying, it’s like when you’re young and you’re fearing rejection, from elementary through high school, a fear of exclusion, a fear of being identified as being gay or being called out for not fitting in the group or being one of the boys. I never felt like one of the boys and I’ve always felt more comfortable one on one. And it’s been interesting how that has evolved.
One thing I love about this movie is that it’s a friendship movie. I love bromance movies and comedies about friendship. And obviously this goes in different directions, but it’s something that I don’t think we see enough of. And I wouldn’t necessarily pinpoint Roman and Dennis as the ideal role models of male friendship, but I do think there are a lot of qualities that their friendship portrays that I hope people can think about and hopefully find in their personal lives.
Dylan, with “Twinless” coming out not long after “Ponyboi,” I’m curious — what draws you to work that is queer and is led by queer filmmakers?
O’Brien: I think it might follow a DNA of what I’m drawn to in the qualities of people in my friendships. River [Gallo, the writer of “Ponyboi”] became family to me. And again, they’re someone I can just gab with for hours. They are blood to me. I guess these friendships oftentimes exist in spaces I feel safe in. But both of these films are also two scripts I read and instantly was like, this is unbelievable regardless. I follow what my heart’s drawn to and spaces that I feel safe in and people that I feel inspired by, and if I can have any hand in going on that ride and empowering [people], that’s just a bonus.
