Dylan O’Brien Explains Why Everyone Said No to His New Movie

Twinless is not only the most well-reviewed movie of Dylan O’Brien’s career; it’s also his finest outing as an actor.

Written and directed by James Sweeney, the dark dramedy centers on O’Brien’s identical twin characters, Roman and Rocky. The former ends up meeting Sweeney’s Dennis at a support group for twins who’ve lost their fellow twin, and they strike up a fast friendship to help each other cope with their own respective losses. The movie then takes a turn structurally and narratively to show the twisty final days of Rocky’s life.

Twinless began its decorated run at Sundance earlier this year, as O’Brien and his performance took home the dramatic special jury award. Sweeney’s film also received the dramatic audience award. Considering that the two collaborators endured mass rejection before eventually getting Twinless made, the exceedingly warm reception on and off the festival circuit means so much more.

“We’re in the safe-decision era. If something is financially bankable and predictable in terms of an IP, then that’s way more likely to get a green light than something like Twinless where you can’t say for sure if an audience is going to go along for the ride,” O’Brien tells The Hollywood Reporter in support of Twinless’ current theatrical release. “So I’m really proud that it’s gotten the response that it has so far, which is the antithesis of the response that it was getting when we were taking it out as a script.”

Twinless was financed by TPC and produced by Permut Presentations, in conjunction with Republic Pictures. The latter handled the post-Sundance sales to Roadside Attractions and Sony Pictures Releasing for U.S. and international distribution, respectively.

O’Brien returns to the big screen next month in Jan Komasa’s star-studded thriller, Anniversary. He’ll then return once more at the top of 2026 in Sam Raimi’s highly anticipated Send Help. Co-starring Rachel McAdams, the tonal mashup chronicles two incompatible work colleagues who crash land on a deserted island and have to find a way to work together for the sake of survival. The buzz around the film so far has been very strong.

“I spoke to Sam a couple of weeks ago, and he said something very funny and very Sam about it,” O’Brien recalls. “He was like, ‘I love the movie. It’s weird. It’s wacky. I think a lot of people might love it too. I also think some might not.’ And I was like, ‘Well, that’s great.’ To me, we’ve succeeded if that’s the case.”

Below, during a recent conversation with THR, O’Brien also discusses his showstopping monologue in Twinless, as well as the benefits of shooting the Rocky character first.

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You told me recently that you and James Sweeney faced years’ worth of rejection and that the entire town passed on making Twinless. 

Correct.

What were they afraid of for the most part?

A large part of it was the flaws of these characters, and whether or not their actions and decisions would be deemed forgivable. In terms of investment, a lot of people in this industry are operating from a place of fear and a place of, “Is this going to turn an audience off?” So that’s why we see a lot of these safe decisions being made. We’re in the safe-decision era. If something is financially bankable and predictable in terms of an IP, then that’s way more likely to get a green light than something like Twinless where you can’t say for sure if an audience is going to go along for the ride and forgive these characters. 

But that was so much of what I loved about the script initially, and I’m so thankful that we got to make it without having to compromise on any of those things. Through the reaction to the film so far, we get to show people that you can trust an audience a little more than these financiers or executives might think. 

People really respond to these human themes that we grapple with in this story, and it affords them a really deep empathy for these characters. At the end of the day, we really constructed an intimate and personal-feeling piece. So I’m really proud that it’s gotten the response that it has so far, which is the antithesis of the response that it was getting when we were taking it out as a script. 

You were never asked to take anything out in order to appease anyone?

Nope. We got to make exactly what we wanted to make. 

I know your influence helped get it made, but was there another unsung hero who pushed it over the edge? 

[Producer] David Permut has to be mentioned. David met James the year before I did and said, “I want to produce your next movie.” He saw James’s first film, Straight Up, just as I did, and anybody who watches that film sees the makings of a really brilliant filmmaker. David is an old-school producer who watches three-to-four movies a day. He does the work and follows his taste, not just the market or the business. So David was huge, and [EP] Miky Lee as well. 

Is David the one who connected you with Sian Heder and her follow-up to Coda, Being Heumann?

Jason Reitman had something to do with it as well. So I’m not really sure who got to it first, but David definitely threw my name in there and got a good word in.

I’m a fraternal twin, and there are dynamics between your identical twin characters, Roman and Rocky, that definitely hit close to home. Have you received some interesting feedback from other twins who’ve seen the movie? 

We’ve certainly heard from some twins, or at least one of the twins, at Q&As and things like that. There was this guy at Sundance who was the last hit before going into the premiere, and he was like, “This movie is my nightmare.” He’s exceptionally close with his twin. They’re tied at the hip. So how this movie is received by real-life twins is the thing we care about most. It’s obviously such a unique experience on this earth, and we just hope that we honored that existence and that relationship. Hopefully, it gets the stamp of approval from the people who are truly living that experience and actually know what that relationship feels like and understand what that loss or no relationship could feel like, potentially. 

You have the monologue of your career while sitting on a bed in a hotel room opposite James. Roman is talking to Dennis (Sweeney) as if he’s Rocky, and he’s saying everything he regrets not saying to Rocky when he was alive. What was the play-by-play on the day?

It was really quite simple. James showed me the shot, and we always wanted to execute it in one long take, so I didn’t have to conserve energy or emotion. It’s not like we had to account for different setups, and so James’ precision as a filmmaker really came in handy. I knew that this was the setup we were going to live in, and there was never going to be any second guessing about it being the one and only setup. That goes a long way.

But there wasn’t much conversation about it. I knew what to ask for and what I needed in terms of the space. It was quite a tight-knit room anyway. There was a pretty intimate skeleton crew. So the blocking was simple, and I think I said the words once as we rehearsed the speed of the camera move, but I didn’t do it in full performance. And I believe the first take is in the movie.

How many takes did you ultimately do?

I think we did three takes total, but the first one is the one that made it into the movie. I’m just so grateful that I got to do something like this once in my career and have it be supported so well. It just means so much to do something in the film medium that was so all about the performance. We’re never cutting into it or looking away. It’s so raw, and it was designed to be that way. It’s such a beautiful piece of writing, and I really didn’t want to change a word of it. So it was the first time that my preparation was solely about hitting it verbatim, and I never gave it a full rehearsal. 

There’s so many ways that we all approach acting, and I’ve always been somebody who feels better when it’s more fresh. You, as the actor, are always going to feel a little better about something when it’s in the rawer stages. But so much of this job a lot of the time is somehow preserving that throughout however many setups and however many hours you’re going to be doing it for. So this was one of those lightning-in-a-bottle moments, and I was so grateful to be able to save all of my energy and emotion for this one space. I got to live it and breathe it in a really condensed amount of time.

I’m guessing the movie scheduled itself around your mustache for Rocky and the removal of said mustache for Roman. If facial hair wasn’t an obstacle, would you have preferred to shoot Roman first so that Rocky felt distant throughout your time as Roman?

The mustache wasn’t the reason that we shot it in that order, but it was a bonus because we were shooting it in that order. (Laughs.) We were either going to start with Roman and tack on Rocky at the end, or we were going to start with Rocky and then do the rest of production. The details are escaping me now, but I know that we were waiting on the SAG strike to lift at the time. That timing was going to dictate who we started with, but I was fine with either as long as they were separated. 

I was fine to clear the Rocky stuff first, and then have the two-to-three-week holiday break before committing to Roman’s headspace. If anything, it helped to first establish that sequence with Rocky. The under-the-bedsheet scene is such a linchpin scene in the film, and so much of the emotional through-line relies on that scene working. 

In such a short amount of time, we really needed to feel how much love existed between these twin brothers and how unresolved things were when Rocky was lost. So I was so grateful that I was able to play the final diner scene’s emotional payoff as Roman, having already achieved Rocky’s under-the-covers scene.

Your casting director probably hired the entire identical twin population in Portland, and so it was only fitting that a pair of identical twins named Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen also appear on a TV screen. Do you know how that deal went down? 

I should know the details, but we somehow got the clearance because the footage is in the film. It Takes Two was one of my favorite movies as a kid. Same with James. It’s another one of those specific connections that harks back to lonelier times in childhood. Movies like that become so wholly representative of [millennial childhood]. Someone pointed out recently that Twinless is a millennial fest, and it was the first time we ever really realized it.

We spoke recently about Sam Raimi’s Send Help, and you were very curious how it was going to land, tonally. Well, the test screening whisper network has said glowing things about it so far. Have you only seen ADR scenes at this point?

I haven’t even done ADR yet, but I just got an email about it last week. So I haven’t seen anything yet, but I think Rachel [McAdams] was going to try to check it out soon. I spoke to Sam a couple of weeks ago, and he was like, “I’ll show you anytime.” But I was like, “I’m so fine with seeing it once it’s all tied up in a bow.” He said something very funny and very Sam about it. He was like, “I love the movie. It’s weird. It’s wacky. I think a lot of people might love it too. I also think some might not.” (O’Brien cracks himself up doing his best Sam Raimi impression.) And I was like, “Well, that’s great.” To me, we’ve succeeded if that’s the case. So I’m looking forward to it. 

Sam produced a movie for a directing team I spoke to last year, and they told me a hilarious story about how he stood up in the middle of a producers’ screening and started shadowboxing during a fight scene. 

(Laughs.) That’s really funny, and it doesn’t surprise me at all. He really goes for it in terms of commitment to bits, especially in front of an audience. He very much likes to perform for the crew, and he’ll come in with something that he prepped just to make the crew laugh. So he’s just an exceptionally funny human being, and that story doesn’t surprise me. 

I remain impressed with the shadowboxing that you did in David Stassen’s Maximum Truth. Have you done lots of speed bag work over the years?

I’ve done almost zero speed bag work in my entire life, and I remember being really sore after we did that on Max Truth. We just all of a sudden thought that it was really funny. It was so ridiculous, and it just encapsulated the character’s idea of what’s cool. He was so wholly committed to it, and not even for a second did he think that it was going to make him look like an idiot. 

I just saw the trailer for your 12th movie with Zoey Deutch. I believe you were shooting Anniversary when the strike happened, and you guys eventually received an interim agreement to continue. How would you sum up that experience? (Note: It’s actually their third movie together in the last three years, but who’s counting?)

(Laughs.) Well, first of all, any 12th movie that’s with Zoey is a pleasure. I can’t wait to see what it is. That one was a wacky swing, for sure. It’s been a while, and while I haven’t really connected with a lot of these guys in a bit, I remember us all having a really great energy making that film. Jan [Komasa] is a really interesting cat and filmmaker, so I’m curious to see that one.

I recently covered a cool New York thriller called Relay, and Thunder Road, the production company behind it, thanked New York Mets All-Star first baseman Pete Alonso in the credits. They’ve actually thanked him on several of their recent movies. 

What!? [Note: O’Brien is a devout Mets fan.]

I know that he just hosted a movie night/fundraiser at Citi Field, so he’s clearly got an interest in movies. But do you know if he’s quietly helping finance movies or anything like that?

I have no idea, but that is wild. I’ve gotta dive into this now. I’ve got some connects. I’m going to throw a text out, and if I get any intel, I will reach out to you. I’m so curious about this. Thank you for telling me.

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Twinless is now playing in movie theaters.