Twinless
Writer-director James Sweeney can’t pinpoint the exact time when he learned about the uniquely complex notion of twin loss and bereavement. But he can clearly recall what resonated with him the most before he wrote the first draft of Twinless in 2015. “It was the idea of this deep and singular form of grief, like a loss of self,” Sweeney remembers during a recent conversation with Filmmaker Magazine on his sophomore feature, which premiered in Sundance to rave reviews, and is opening theatrically on September 5 through Roadside Attractions. “It just seemed like such a multifaceted way to explore themes around identity.”
Also a producer and co-lead of Twinless, Sweeney plays Dennis, who meets Dylan O’Brien’s Roman at a twin bereavement support group. They both lost a twin, it seems (with O’Brien also playing Rocky, Roman’s twin, during some flashback scenes); dual tragedies that lead to a fulfilling friendship between the two men. There are twists along the way (it’s best to go into Twinless somewhat cold), with seemingly well-intentioned lies leading to heartbreaking consequences. And both on the page and on the screen, Sweeney navigates the story’s many surprising turns with intelligence and a sharp sense of humor.
Below, he talks about partnering with O’Brien, his cinematic aims and influences around the theme of duality, as well as the film’s open-ended conclusion. (The interview is edited for flow and clarity.)
Filmmaker: Dylan O’Brien navigates two parts here. Could you tell me about your collaboration?
Sweeney: Dylan and I met in 2020. It was a traditional casting process. He read the script and watched my first film, Straight Up. We zoomed and hit it off very immediately. He is so emotionally connected to the characters that it’s a filmmaker’s dream. You just want somebody who understands your script and gets your voice. He came prepared, and I just felt seen. Anecdotally, I had heard really positive things about his reputation on set and who he is as a person from the people I work with in the industry. And I can confirm all of it. Wearing all these hats myself—acting, writing, directing, producing—what I was hoping for was a partner in crime, somebody who I could share the weight of this boulder that we were trying to push up a hill for so many years. It’s been a lovely experience, being able to navigate together the ups and the downs of what filmmaking ultimately is.
Filmmaker: What was it like, having him as a screen partner? You two have several deeply vulnerable moments.
Sweeney: I feel like I learned so much about acting, doing this film. The idea of acting is trying to tap into honesty. And the ideal version is just believing what you’re saying. And what makes Dylan’s performance so great is, he is so dialed in to the worlds of these characters, to their inner life. I’m particularly thinking about the monologue in the hotel room—it flowed out of him. And that was honestly miraculous and a bit intimidating to witness for me. He’s such a present scene partner and so generous in that way. In a lot of ways, he made my job easier. One example was that final diner scene [between Dennis and Roman], which we had intentionally scheduled to be one of the last things we filmed, so that we could build into it. [That ended up] being one of the moments I’m most proud of. I can see that I’m really locked into who Dennis is. I guess that’s the high that actors chase, falling into another world.
Filmmaker: In your screenplay, how did you navigate the structure of the story, making sure you were revealing the right amount of information about what Dennis had been keeping from Roman.
Sweeney: I believe writing is rewriting and the perspective shift wasn’t present in the initial draft. It actually was an idea that was born partially out of the response to my first film, Straight Up, which is also a dual protagonist story. It does a bookended perspective shift. And selfishly, one thing that I enjoyed about equally weighted arcs between characters (other than the balance, the duality and the symmetry it brings to the story) is; it relieves me of the pressure to be the face of the movie. I can sell somebody else’s face who people already are endeared to. And that luckily, that happened to be Dylan O’Brien [laughs].
In terms of the process of decision-making as to when to reveal information: I enjoy going in blind to movies and being surprised when unexpected things happen. I think modern audiences are attuned to structural tropes and plot contrivances. On the one hand, I think we crave familiarity, and you don’t want to rewrite the rules completely. But I also operate from the assumption that audiences are sophisticated. And I had the added benefit of this being an under-the-radar script. I didn’t have lots of cooks in the kitchen, and I was able to unfold the story as I saw fit. I surrounded myself with people who championed me to tell the version of the movie that I wanted to tell. So I guess we sort of let our little freak flag fly in our bubble and took some risks that I’m happy we did.
Filmmaker: The duality and symmetry you just mentioned emerges in various different ways in the film. You use split screens, split diopter, similar costumes between the two main characters, and so on. You also use montages wonderfully.
Sweeney: I enjoy films that are world builders. And even though this is a grounded character study in many ways, I also wanted it to feel elevated and cinematic, all in service of moving the narrative forward. So to me, duality is emblematic of identity and how we reveal different parts of ourselves to various people. And it obviously relates strongly to the idea of friendship, companionship and intimacy. But it also relates to the lightness and darkness, both tonally and thematically.
In terms of visuals, Brian De Palma was an influence on me. I try to challenge myself to use the tools at my disposal to tell the story as majestically as I can. And [to do that], I think about the techniques that have proceeded me—for instance, I used a split diopter and split screens in my first movie, too. Here I had a larger sandbox to play in. And I tried to elevate things where I could. I wanted Twinless to be kind of a banger that people have a good time watching. And as for montages, I love the montage. The most obvious one is the friendship montage, which is where we’re living in Dennis’s perspective. Structurally, it’s a homage to the romantic comedy genre, which is very much ingrained in my formative DNA. In a classical filmmaking sense, I love the montage as an editing technique—you get the context without needing to see the full scene.
Filmmaker: You walk a very balanced line between comedy and drama here. That’s how real life works, too. Things can be awkwardly funny sometimes, even during times of tragedy.
Sweeney: I would go even further in speaking about duality again: I don’t believe euphoria can exist without despondence. They are two sides of the same coin. It’s peaks and valleys. That is life, and it’s a spectrum. It exists in multiple colors. So for me, I feel more comfortable painting with the spectrum of emotions that films can make you feel. But maybe my next film will be more monochromatic, we’ll see. [Laughs.]
Filmmaker: You shot this movie both on film stock, and on digital. What were you hoping to convey through those two looks and stylistic choices, especially when it comes to the headspace of the characters?
Sweeney: I had a lot of conversations with my cinematographer, Greg Cotton. He developed this app called Filmbox, which is used by all the major post houses. And the idea behind it (although he can explain it much more technically than I can) is replicating the color science, the halation, of physical film. Our conversations mostly centered around, “What is it about film that I respond to so much?” And I’ve talked to different filmmakers, photographers and colorists, too. I do think part of it is memory. And I think that also plays into the idea of nostalgia. When Roman initially meets Dennis, there is a sense of solace and recreation, trying to build something new where something was lost. And, he is seeing pieces of his brother in Dennis. At the most basic level, it’s like, “Oh, he is a gay twin who lost his straight brother, and I’m a straight man who lost my gay twin.” But, you know, I think it delves much deeper than that. And film stock, for some incalculable reason, works on an emotionally resonant level for me. But then switching to digital, the idea behind it was playing with this theme of authenticity vs. artifice.
The digital segments use my cinematographer’s film emulation software, so hopefully the audience can’t quite discern why the visual language feels different. But if you’re paying attention to the fluorescent lightings, even with the emulation, it doesn’t quite capture light in the same way that real film stock does. So there are specific nuances. And we also left in some imperfections of film in the opening act, the specks. We intentionally left those in because we wanted those imperfections to remain [as] the vestiges of Roman’s childhood. So that was the reasoning behind those formal choices.
I got a little bit of pushback just because film is a more expensive, and logistically, shooting with two cameras is a challenge. But I felt really strongly about what I learned. I loved shooting on film for the first time—it’s a scarce resource, and you have to be even more conscious of how many takes you do. And you have to be that much more prepared. So it does change the mindset and the filmmaking process. It was like doing theater—there’s something different when you got one shot.
Filmmaker: I want to talk about one of my favorite characters, Marcie. At first, I admit, I was ready to write her off as a happy-go-luck type of person, perhaps not with a great deal of depth. But she has such an incredibly rich character arc. I just loved her.
Sweeney: This isn’t a secret: Marcie is my favorite character, and the secret weapon of the film. Perhaps weapon’s a strong word, because she has such a soft compass. She is a breath of fresh air. I do think there is [a false belief] that people who are chipper or optimistic, particularly women, [don’t have] a lot going on. So I was excited to slowly reveal her depths. Marcie has so many qualities that I respect and aspire to—her optimism, her empathy that she leads with. And I really respect her sense of morality. She knows who she is and what she believes. I don’t think she’s judgmental, but she’s also not a pushover. So it was important for me to de-layer her.
Filmmaker: And in terms of subverting expectations, you do that for Roman too. He ends up being a lot more complex and perceptive than we initially give him credit for.
Sweeney: I think a lot of Roman’s personality was formed based on his social circumstances and upbringing. And there is a self-fulfilling prophecy—part of the tragedy of Roman and Rocky’s relationship is, they had a falling out in their teenage years. And Roman fell further and further into this idea of being a lesser twin. Dylan and I talked a lot about intelligence, how there are multiple forms of intelligence. And maybe we are quick to prescribe attributes of intelligence to people who are articulate and verbal. But there are so many other kinds of intelligence and Roman possesses a lot of those. I think we are subverting expectations in particular about Romans emotional sensitivity. There is a side of himself that he is letting himself explore with Dennis, to open up in other parts of his life.
Also, something I found in my research that I tried to tie into Roman and Rocky’s backstory is, sometimes [a deep sense of intimacy] comes easier to identical twins, due to the nature of their relationship and their upbringing. It’s so natural from birth. But on the flip side, it can cause issues and so we see him needing to learn boundaries. It’s all about finding people who meet you where you’re at and fill those needs. And sometimes, if twins get all their needs met from their twin, that can also make it more complicated for friendships and romantic relationships. I don’t mean to make any sort of sweeping generalizations on twins as it’s not a monolithic experience. But that was something that I found interesting and tried to explore here.
Filmmaker: With the diner scene finale, the film leaves us on an open-ended note. I wasn’t entirely sure what was going to happen to the duo’s friendship. Was that open-endedness always your intention? Did you play with versions that redeemed Dennis more?
Sweeney: I always felt the ending was the hardest thing. And that was absolutely the equation we were trying to solve, even though it’s something that’s ultimately incalculable. And that’s why we shot it in the end. I’ll say in the screenplay, there was a different ending, leaning more into dark comedy. But I think the film revealed itself to be something with more heft. I always knew the diner scene could be where the film needed to end and I think people’s reaction to the ending is going to be very much a mirror of their relationship to forgiveness and how much they empathize with Dennis and Roman. In the editing process, it instinctually felt like the right way to end the film: not entirely neat or tied with a bow, but emotionally appropriate.
Filmmaker: So, what is your own relationship to forgiveness?
Sweeney: I believe in forgiveness. I think it is a powerful act. I think it’s uniquely human, and in practice, it’s so much easier said than done. I hope people will maybe reexamine their own relationship to forgiveness. And I mean that as much for themselves and for other people, because I think we are often our own worst critics.
