First Look: Twinless

After a member screening of Twinless, James Sweeney, writer, director, producer, and co-star, took the stage with Dylan O’Brien, co-star and executive producer, for a conversation in the Cinema with Vanity Fair’s Richard Lawson. The film, which won the Sundance Audience Award earlier this year, arrives in theaters September 5.

Excerpts from their conversation have been transcribed and edited for clarity and length:

Richard Lawson: James, I’m curious, in the writing of the film, how conscious were you of trying to strike this balance of comedy, but also with deep empathy? I think you pull it off really well. Was that hard in the writing—to kind of not tilt too far into sentimentalism or just kind of mockery?

James Sweeney: I think keeping an eye on that modulation was absolutely a guiding compass for finding the tone of the whole film. Going back to Roman’s character for a second, even trying to figure out who he is in a way — Roman is fractured in so many ways. The more research I did into twin psychology, I wanted to make sure that he felt like somebody who was shifted by the disparate lives that Rocky and Roman started leading when they had a falling out, and Rocky being someone who you know would, as [Dylan] said, gain all these worldly experiences, I think, that festered in Roman as envy and insecurity. Like the lesser brother. And even in the moments where Roman is confusing lemons with limes, or mistaking words, I never feel like we’re trying to make fun of him.

I always feel like what I try to write is humor that is character-focused. And I think that helps me, and honestly, was also a hard part of marketing this film, because a lot of the jokes don’t necessarily work as much out of context, I think that’s because it’s all rooted in knowing who these people are. So to answer your question, it’s a revising process. Writing is rewriting. I wrote it in the script, and then we rewrite it together when we’re performing it and producing it on set, and then you rewrite it again once you get to the edit. So it’s all trying to keep it cohesive. I try to hire people, both cast-wise as an ensemble, and the creative heads in each department to share and clarify this vision, but also people who have the versatility so that we can swing different ways. I think we built enough trust that you could go for a stronger comedic take, and trust that I’m not going to use it if it doesn’t make sense in the edit room.  I think that that latitude gave us the ability to to really find it once we were fine tuning it in the edit.

Richard Lawson: Dylan, as an actor in this piece, you’re playing two different characters. Given the challenge of the both of those roles, were there any particular sequences that you were kind of apprehensive to film, or felt daunted by?

Dylan O’Brien: I really felt confident in the language of both of these guys, and understanding that really deeply. I’d spent a lot of time with these characters in my head before we started shooting. I think as we talk about this more and more, I realized that went such a long way. They were like baking inside me for so long. And that really helped. James is so brilliant, and we and we have such a solid ground of communication, and get so much out of our conversations. And then our team, when we got into pre-production, drawing so much inspiration from everyone around—so I really felt like abundantly prepared for every day from the start, which was such a freeing feeling. And then also being in the hands of a filmmaker who I had such utter belief in, which is just a magic thing to hold and then be able to let the rest go. You know, so much times as an actor, you’re assessing what hands you’re in, which is just a reality of the business. These are vulnerable things to be performing and to be tapping into. You don’t want that to end up in the wrong hands. I certainly had a daunting days for sure. You know, the hotel room sequence was a thing that I sort of had to put in the back of my head, but it was like, circled on the calendar in my soul for four years. But it was also the page and the script, when I first read it that I was like, I have to do this. It broke me [when I read it] and, it broke me on the day, I didn’t know, I didn’t even know what was going to come out, you know, but I’m so, I’m so grateful that I got to perform a scene like that again and again in hands like this. I mean, it was the scariest thing I’d ever had to do as an actor, and it was and it was, and I’ve been doing this for fifteen years.

Richard Lawson: James, I’m curious: when you’re writing the film, directing the film, starring in the film, do you feel the burden to be like representative [of the gay community]? How do you approach that?

James Sweeney: That’s a really interesting question. The short answer is no, because I don’t feel like I’m doing anything that’s like “the first.” So that kind of takes the pressure off of it. Also, this was a film that everybody in Hollywood passed on— over 100 financiers. So in some ways, it felt like I checking the representation boxes enough to get finance. And I don’t mean that in a denigrating way. I just mean it’s a risk in a lot of respects. And along that process, I would see other films get green lit, and I was like, Oh, I mean, if that can happen, sometimes it feels like there isn’t space for both.

And I’m so grateful that I got to make the film. It was made under the umbrella of CBS Paramount, but because they didn’t produce it internally—we produced it as an independent film—I had final cut. I didn’t have to answer to any studio execs. So what you see is really like my unbridled vision, which is rare in this industry. So yeah, I didn’t feel like I had to to make those sort of compromises.

I do love films that are incidentally queer. Somebody asked me recently why it is so rare to see a film like this. I bet there are hundreds of scripts out there that are an action comedy or a thriller that just happen to feature a gay lead, but just nobody is ponying up to make them because they think it’ll bomb. So I hope the future is filled with more queer films that don’t fixate on the coming out experience or have to be a romantic comedy, which, again, I love romantic comedy. I don’t mean to say that I don’t want that—but I think, to me, what is commercial or expansive about this movie is that it’s just a humanist film. I feel like it normalizes queer experience, because we all experience loneliness. We all have done something that we regret or wish somebody would forgive us for or wrestle with if we should forgive someone else for. So to me, these are universal concepts.

Name: James Sweeney

Hometown: Eagle River, Alaska

Current City: Los Angeles

Path not taken: Lawyer

Ideal workspace:  Hotel with a sunset view and a confident mindset

What is a metaphor to describe your creative process?  The Myth of Sisyphus

I tend to get my best ideas/creative breakthroughs: in the shower. 

Current read or listen: Promises by Floating Points

Something you discovered in the last year that you can’t live without: My aura ring

A person or work that has inspired your own:  Dylan O’Brien

Best part of the work I do: New friends

Biggest challenge of this role: Suppressing the need to be liked

How does it feel to have TWINLESS out in the world? Lovely

Something you’re looking forward to: My next movie

Life hack: Pen & paper

Name: Dylan O’Brien

Hometown: Springfield, NJ

Current City: New York City, NY

Path not taken: Dog Trainer  

Ideal workspace:  James Sweeney’s Airbnb 

What is a metaphor to describe your creative process? Bananas

I tend to get my best ideas/creative breakthroughs by: Being challenged but believed in. 

Current read or listen: Demi Moore, Inside Out

Something you discovered in the last year that you can’t live without: Chin strap to shut my fucking mouth while I sleep

A person or work that has inspired your own:  Vanderpump Rules 

Best part of the work I do: Learning from new people

Biggest challenge of this role: Differentiating Roman and Rocky in a way where you could still believe they were once indistinguishable. 

How does it feel to have TWINLESS out in the world? I’ve never been prouder of a piece of work and am thrilled to have it out there. And for everyone to know who James Sweeney is.

Something you’re looking forward to: Taking the film to Zurich, Switzerland

Life hack: Ghee

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