It Takes Two: James Sweeney and Dylan O’Brien Talk ‘Twinless’ [VIDEO INTERVIEW]

“You’re gonna make me cry, I’m not even kidding,” says Dylan O’Brien through a laugh.

He’s responding to my congratulations over his performance award at Sundance earlier this year where his new film Twinless world premiered and a jury of his peers chose his dual performance as the festival’s standout. “I don’t think I’ll ever get any kind of acknowledgement that means more to me than that award.” The laugh comes from the other part of the question/comment, asking if when he started his YouTube page under the name moviekidd826 he knew he’d be where he is today. It’s a softball question, of course, meant to allow him to reminisce about that time, how he didn’t have many friends (“any,” he says) and that it was his sincerest form of connection with other people.

In my conversation with O’Brien and triple threat writer/director/actor James Sweeney (Straight Up), we explore what inspired Sweeney to delve into the world of twins, the longing for interaction and the lengths we go to have it, how one of the film’s best lines almost didn’t happen, and what their favorite Mary Kate & Ashley movie is.

Roadside Attractions will release Twinless only in theaters on September 5.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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