Three True Friends Bring Life to

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The premiere of Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s Me and Earl and the Dying Girl at this year’s Sundance Film Festival proved once more that, as with most things in life, timing is everything.  This quirky dramedy about an emotionally stunted teenager, his only friend and the girl they befriend, who’s been diagnosed with leukemia, struck a chord with audiences and those who run the festival as well as the movie was given the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award. From the title alone, you can tell that Gomez-Rejon’s film is not the usual fare as it takes an unusual approach towards a subject that’s usually the fodder of “Lifetime” movies.  However, the magic of the movie - and the reason audiences have responded to it as they have - is due in large part to the director’s approach in creating three complex characters at the film’s core and the fine work of the young cast he assembled.  

During a recent stop over in Chicago, I was able to sit down with Gomez-Rejon and the trio at the core of his movie - Thomas Mann, RJ Cyler and Olivia Cooke - and discuss how they approached the script, the making of the film and their experience at Sundance.  What became immediately apparent was that the friendship the three performers displayed on screen was hardly an act, as they have a natural affinity for one another, as seen through their good-natured kidding and the easy back-and-forth they have with one another as they lounged on a sofa in a downtown hotel.  Filled with such obvious joy and happiness by just being with one another and being of such a young age, I asked how they could relate to a premise laced with tragedy.

Photo by Chuck Koplinski

RJ Cyler, Thomas Mann and Olivia Cooke let their hair down while talking about "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl."

Photo by Chuck Koplinski

Mann, 24 years-old, the most vocal of the group and failing in his efforts to contain his enthusiasm for the project, as he couldn’t sit still, revealed that his method of becoming emotionally invested in the film’s premise. “I had grandparents pass away but this obviously was something else,” he said.  “I’m not the kind of performer who thinks of something from their past and applies it to the performance. I think the key for me was just getting to know Olivia. I knew I just had to apply myself to this story and I became so wrapped up in it.”

Cyler is, much like his character in the film, is the most reserved of the bunch, yet that didn’t prevent him from opening up about his experience. As this was his first movie, he was startled by how many of his impressions about filmmaking were changed. “I was surprised by literally everything,” he said as he shook his bowed and shook his head, a pleasant smile spreading across his face. “From the cameras to the rigging to the actors, all of my preconceptions were broken. I found out that I could make movies every day as long as I got Chipolte and Fresca. It wasn’t hard work because Alfonso  made it so much fun. I was so lucky.  I was making a good film with great friends. I though the role was easy because mostly all of the stuff that Earl would do is like things I would say and do.  I was lucky that way and it all just clicked. At the end, I said, ‘Thank you Lord for giving me this opportunity.’ ”  

Cooke, 21 years-old and possessing an unassuming grace mirrored in the lithe English accent she speaks in found that her role took a more personal approach in order to do the part justice. “When I first read the script the thing that leapt out at me was Rachel’s strength and sensibility,” she recalled. “Even though she’s deteriorating, she’s the strength in the movie and I don’t remember ever seeing a film constructed like this.”

Courtesy Fox Searchlight Pictures

Thomas Mann, Olivia Cooke and RJ Cyler at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival

In order to get more in tune with her character, she took her director’s advice, consulting cancer specialists as well as getting to know young women afflicted as her counterpart was. “I met a girl who was 16 and had leukemia like Rachel and had had several rounds of chemo and a bone marrow transplant,” she remembered quietly.  “And just seeing her, so still in her bed with no hair, and posters of “One Direction” on the wall.  She was just this regular girl. At one point she asked me if I was going to shave my head.  I hadn’t even thought of that and I suddenly felt like such a phony. At that point I wanted my performance to be as honest as possible, I didn’t want to phone it in.  That was so hard and the way doctors spoke to me about children and how teenagers die…he did it in such a matter-of-fact way…it was really rough.”

When I asked why they thought Earl had been so well-received by audiences, Mann and Cooke offered up similar observations. “I hope they think that the emotions they feel are earned and that they don’t feel manipulated,” said the young actor.  “I think that the characters are fun, you want to spend time with them and in the end that makes it all the more tragic.  I think that’s it - you get to feel everything…that’s life.”

Cooke agreed but offered something more. “I like to think that we did something that will have some life, that people will learn something and be moved by it long after we’re gone.  There’s a lot of satisfaction in that.” What was overwhelming was that at Sundance after the screening, people came up to me to shake my hand and thank me for the film and some were crying and that was really surprising.  I don’t think of what I do as being important, actually it’s quite silly so I didn’t know how to handle it.  I didn’t think I deserved this sort of response.”

Courtesy Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Rachel (Olivia Cooke) gets to know Earl and Greg (RJ Cyler & Thomas Mann) in "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl."