Losing someone close can feel like losing a part of yourself. Now, imagine what that loss is like for someone who has an identical twin, and loses the sibling they've known since they were in utero.
The film Twinless is a meditation on that grief through two main characters: Roman (played by Dylan O'Brien) and Dennis (played by James Sweeney).
Roman is straight, and his twin, Rocky, was gay. Dennis is gay; the twin brother he lost was straight. Rocky, a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy from Moscow, Idaho, and the wryly funny Dennis meet at a support group for twins left behind, and their banter is instantly awkward and funny.
The two form a deeply complex friendship that eventually unravels as the emotionally jarring twist that brought them together is revealed. Stars Dylan O'Brien and James Sweeney, who also wrote and directed the film, spoke to NPR about the humor and darkness that coexist in life's heaviest moments.
And don't worry — we've kept the spoilers to an absolute minimum.
A "cultural zeitgeist," loneliness and a fascination
James Sweeney wrote the first draft of Twinless in 2015. In his early 20s then, Sweeney said he was always "fascinated" by twins.
"I grew up in a generation that, I think, twins were imprinted on us in a moment of cultural zeitgeist. From the Olsen sisters to Sister Sister on the Disney Channel," said Sweeney.
Like his character Dennis, Sweeney had a particular "yearning for intimacy" that followed him through his formative years.
"A sibling who shares your face, shares your thoughts. Somebody who completes you," he continued. "I do have an older sister, but she's ten years older. And as somebody who hopped around growing up because my dad is in the Air Force, I think there was something very appealing about somebody who I could share my life with," he said, adding, "Then I also dated an identical twin in my early twenties, and I wrote the first draft of Twinless shortly after he broke up with me."
An acting challenge
Dylan O'Brien predominantly plays the quietly plain, straight character of Roman — the surviving twin who moves into Rocky's apartment in Portland, Ore., after his death at the start of the movie. O'Brien also immaculately transforms into Rocky — Roman's effortlessly charming and confident twin. His deft portrayal of the brothers is remarkable — despite having the same face and body, O'Brien manages to create radically distinct characters in every way.
O'Brien said there was a "multitude of stages in the process" of portraying the pair.
"First reading the piece initially, I felt really instinctively connected to the Roman character in particular, and he's the living twin. He's a little more repressed, he's a little more sheltered. And I had a very just sort of innate understanding of this character from a really human and emotional standpoint," O'Brien said. "And then in the case of the other brother, James and I spoke a lot about the differences that we wanted to prioritize between the twins down to their walk, their energy. And then at the end of the day, you just kind of have the end result."
O'Brien is a straight man playing a gay character in Twinless, and his performance is nuanced and far from camp. Rocky feels real, and when we see him smoothly hitting on a man, O'Brien makes every word and gesture feel genuine.
"I guess there's a lot of … in recent years … opinions surrounding an actor playing a character of a different sexuality. That was definitely something that we spoke a lot about. I think I received a lot of insight, encouragement, permission from James with regards to how I portrayed Rocky," he said.
"I think it's easy as a straight man to maybe feel slightly hesitant to put on the more effeminate feeling characteristics or features and [James] gave me permission to really lean into those parts of myself. And also, he's a wholly masculine feeling character as well. So, we really wanted it to feel authentic."
That authenticity is also very much helped along by the brilliant work of the film's costume designer Erin Orr who perfectly dresses the differences between the twins. She uses a closet of colorful patterned button-downs and pleated pants to make Rocky pop, while she accentuates Roman's sadness with the drab blandness of a straight guy who doesn't think much about what he's wearing.
An actor withholds judgement over his character
James Sweeney's Dennis is perhaps the film's most complex character, and not wanting to give away any plot twists, Sweeney enigmatically said, "What I will say is, as an actor, you try not to think too much about whether or not you're likable. You don't want to judge the character. I think you just try to play the honesty of each moment."
At some points in the film, Dennis reads as genuinely sweet, like when he's equally framed through a car's windshield, happily belting Evan And Jaron's "Crazy for This Girl" with O'Brien's Roman on the way to a hockey game. But at times, the camera also slowly and uncomfortably zooms in on his face, holding a stare that could make a slasher's blood run cold.
Where Dennis may sometimes lack tact or a sense of personal space, Sweeney was very careful to be authentic without overstepping boundaries in his research. That's why in preparation for the film, he purposely did not attend any support groups for twins who have lost a sibling.
"I did not attend a trauma support group. I didn't feel it would be appropriate. I tried to do as much research as I could in terms of twin psychology and twin bereavement and try to portray that as authentically as I could. One thing I did think that was interesting, that we sort of integrate into the storyline, is this idea that twins, who are extremely close growing up — I'm particularly referring to identical twins — often have easy access to building immediate intimacy, which I think is something that can have long term effects on all relationships in your life," Sweeney said.
"And I think that's something we see between Roman and Dennis: a strong sense of intimacy. I think they find solace in each other. I think for Roman, he sees Dennis as not a replacement for his late brother, but potentially an opportunity to build a relationship as an adult with Dennis in a way that he had lost with Rocky."
Some words shouldn't be changed
This far in the conversation, you might get the impression that Twinless is more drama and less comedy, but the film's pace is so thoughtful that nearly every episode of sadness is eventually, lovingly punctured by humor. It can come from Roman's deadpan ignorance or Dennis's biting sarcasm.
But the story's emotional core is still held together by moments like this one, where Dennis tells Roman to pretend he's Rocky, and to just tell him what he left unsaid.
Roman's raw response, delivered through deep, heart-wrenching sobs, reveals the real depth of his grief: He felt he'd lost Rocky long before his death.
"I'm sorry I can't control my anger. I'm sorry I blew up on you when you told me you liked guys. I'm sorry I called you a f****t. I wish I could take it back. Aw and your face when I said it. I know that's why you left. I think I was just scared that if you weren't like you and we weren't the same, then I wouldn't know who I was," Roman replies.
That short, utterly devastating monologue was verbatim from Sweeney's early draft, said O'Brien.
"Some things in the screenplay change[d] over time, but this was always something that word for word stayed the same. I, going into the day, wanted to honor it word for word. This is a really roundabout way of saying that I'm really trying to credit James here because so much of my inspiration and … what I had to pull out of myself was made easy by being so inspired and genuinely connected to what was put on the page for me — having the pleasure of coming in and reading these words, that broke me from the first time I ever read them," O'Brien said.
A special kind of friendship
There would be no movie without the examination of the special sibling relationships at the heart of the Twinless. After all, it's in the title — to have a twin, and to lose one. However, that part of the story can be viewed as merely an entrance into the world of male friendships, particularly between gay and straight men — a type of relationship that Sweeney said you rarely see onscreen.
Sweeney added that his character's budding friendship with O'Brien's Roman mirrors his own experience throughout the years.
"Whereas in my more formative years in my life, I tended to be more attracted to female friendships, which I felt were easier to navigate for me. I think that's very common for gay men. It's been surprising to me that in my late twenties and now in my early mid-thirties, that I've had such close relationships with straight men," Sweeney said.
"And I think one of the things that's surprising about Roman, which I think is also something that he is learning from because of the loss of his brother, [is] there is a surprisingly sensitive side to a character who in another movie he might otherwise be seen as somebody who is brutish. So I think there is something very admirable about the friendship and how they both at times lift each other up and when they see each other as vulnerable, try to be present. I think that's something that we could all use."
O'Brien shared a similar sentiment.
"Growing up as a straight man, I was very much involved in kind of conventionally straight things, surrounded by other boys who were being raised to be like boys, you know what I mean? But in my home life, I was very much so tied to my mother. My father is in the picture, too, but he was more so in and out with his work. So I, like James, have always related to an innate comfortability in female relationships, and it's interesting to sort of observe my male friendships. I can see them struggle with vulnerability a little more, you know, merely because very commonly it's just like not something that they're taught."
Both Sweeney and O'Brien hope audiences can learn a little bit about why this type of friendship might be more difficult to come by and thus why it can be so special when you find it.
Still, at the very least, they want us all to have a good laugh.
Twinless is in theaters now.
Copyright 2025 NPR
