Flashback's Amanda Brugel Reveals What It's Really Like Working With Dylan O'Brien - Exclusive
Whether Dylan O'Brien's co-stars have worked with him for two scenes or 200, they're always on the same page: The "Teen Wolf" and "The Maze Runner" star is a delight to work with. Between the raw intensity that he brings to powerful scenes and the whimsical charm he adds to the more lighthearted moments, there's never a dull moment when the actor is on set. And that goes for the moments when the camera isn't rolling, too.
Of course, O'Brien's new mind-bending psychological film "Flashback" was no different. With such a short time to film the trippy movie's intense office scenes, O'Brien (Fredrick Fitzell) and co-star Amanda Brugel (Evelyn) had to find some way to lighten the mood between takes during the epic film. Fred Fitzell certainly goes down the rabbit hole, due to a drug called Mercury — and neither viewers nor Fitzell himself are quite sure what's going on.
Looper spoke to Brugel during an exclusive interview, where she gushed about working with Dylan O'Brien, revealed how he defied her expectations, and teased what hilarious thing they did between scenes.
Stanning a legend
Amanda Brugel was more than ready to rain compliments down on Dylan O'Brien, gushing, "Dylan is the best. I miss Dylan. I didn't know what to expect. I had seen a couple of the things that he had done, but I didn't know if I was going to get this like, too cool for school Hollywood, young, hot guy. He's so the opposite. He's so generous with his work, generous with everyone on set, and the crew."
That certainly tracks with the kindhearted reputation O'Brien has carved for himself. Brugel added, "And he's so funny. I didn't expect him to be that funny, and he really took the material seriously and really wanted to put everything that he could into it. I was so impressed with him, and I didn't really have a lot of time with him. All my scenes are with him, but I didn't. They blocked me out in such a short amount of time that I just, I still miss him." Honestly, who wouldn't?
On acting in such an intense, psychological film, Brugel assured us, "Dylan was a pro — I'll say that first and foremost. There were a couple of times we both accidentally changed into the wrong costume. We just had to run and change into something else. And that was stressful. But the parts where he would sort of break down and really spiral were some of the best acting I've seen."
Work hard, play hard
While flaming actors for bad acting is certainly common, it appears Dylan O'Brien has the opposite problem — he was too convincing. Amanda Brugel recalled a moment where she was legitimately worried for her co-star. "There was one part where I almost called cut because I was like, 'Is he okay?' Like not the character. Is Dylan okay? He really went for it. And [writer and director] Chris [MacBride] would let him sort of improv and let him roll takes and let him really get to the heart of where he needed to get. So it was exciting to watch. But if you care about your co-star, you are also concerned for their mental wellbeing." Hopefully, O'Brien got to blow off steam at a Mets game after filming for some much-needed R&R.
Yet, in between the intense scenes, the actors managed to find time to wind down. Brugel noted, "We would go outside and gossip about — I can't tell you what we gossiped about, but we have a lot of friends in common or some friends in common. And so it was nice to sort of just be able to discuss stuff outside of the heavy material that was the movie and also bond and get to know one another and trust one another. So when he had to go to those places, he had a friendly face in the room."
Oh, to be a fly on that wall.
After waiting over a year after its initial intended release, fans can finally tune into "Flashback," now available on VOD. So get ready for a wild ride.