After many years of estrangement, twins Maggie (Kristin Wiig) and Milo (Bill Hader) lead separate lives on opposite sides of the country. When both feel that they’re at the end of their ropes, an unexpected reunion forces them to confront how their lives went so wrong. For Maggie, that means re-examining her marriage to sweet “nature frat boy” Lance (Luke Wilson) and her own self-destructive tendencies, while Milo must face the pain of an early heartbreak he never quite got past. As the twins’ reunion reinvigorates them both, they realize the key to fixing their lives just may lie in accepting the past and mending their relationship with each other. Craig Johnson’s The Skeleton Twins, co-written with Mark Heyman (Black Swan), proves — in case there was any doubt — that Wiig and Hader are very gifted dramatic actors in addition to being two of the funniest people on the planet. The Skeleton Twins won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, The poignant film also features Ty Burrell, Joanna Gleason, and Boyd Holbrook. I sat down with writer/director Craig Johnson just before the film’s release.
Danny Miller: I’ve always loved Kristin Wiig but I have to say I was completely blown away by her performance here.
Craig Johnson: I think she’s an extraordinary actress — dramatic, comedic, all of it, and I’m happy to hear you mention her in particular because her character is less out front than Bill Hader’s. Maggie is secretive, she’s withholding, she’s all about concealment and that’s tough to get across. One of the extraordinary things about Kristin is that there’s so much going on in her face — you can see all these things simmering just under the surface.
People who know comedy understand that it’s often informed by elements of anxiety and pain, but having two such incredibly funny people as your leads, did you ever worry that you might have to reign them in a bit?
I didn’t. It was so instinctual with the two of them. I’ll never forget when Kristin fell into my radar. She did this little bit in the movie Knocked Up where she played the undermining co-worker of Katherine Heigl’s character and I thought there was something so funny and understated about her performance. She just locked into my brain at that point which was long before Bridesmaids. I knew she could do drama.
What about Bill Hader?
My casting director had seen him do a dramatic table reading with Kate Winslet and suggested that we meet so Bill and I ended up having a beer together. I had only seen his larger characters but meeting him in real life, you immediately see that he has this incredible sweetness. I loved his natural voice and I remember thinking, “If he does nothing more than what he’s doing right now at this table he’d be perfect in this role!” I was never worried about either of them going too big, they were both so conscious about the tone of this movie.
It’s weird how even though I know them so well from other things I completely buy them as twins in this movie!
Kristin and Bill are dear friends and honestly, they have a brother and sister relationship in real life, that’s just how they are. I couldn’t invent that kind of chemistry. As a director, you can do your best to pull it out of actors but there was so much there from the very beginning, I was so lucky!
The rest of the cast was pretty amazing, too. Joanna Gleason’s small part as Maggie and Milo’s mother, for example, could have so easily been a one-note joke, but it had a lot of depth and poignancy. I really admire her courage in not trying to make us like her more. It was a chilling performance — and yet I also really felt for her.
I couldn’t agree with you more. I talked to Joanna about how critical it was that it didn’t feel like we were making fun of this woman and that it not feel like a New Age joke even though we knew that was part of her persona. I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of a very cold woman hiding under this warm New Age protective shield.
And watching her I would say not even “cold” but simply unable to be truly intimate with the people closest to her even though she was hugging everyone else that she met.
Exactly. Those nuances were really a testament to the high caliber of Joanna’s performance. She really understood this woman. We even ended up cutting some lines that she questioned, lines that she didn’t think were fair to the character.
I’ve never seen Luke Wilson better as Maggie’s husband, Lance. At first he seems like this annoying, clueless guy but then you start to really understand the big heart his character has.
Like Wilson is incapable of delivering an insincere line. Everything is rendered with absolute sincerity, which is what Lance is all about. He may not be the smartest guy in the world but he’s this kind of pure soul. He’s just there to have an awesome time, he wants everyone to get along, and he really doesn’t understand people who have all these complex gray areas.
I so felt for him over the course of the film.
Yeah, your heart breaks for Lance when he finally realizes things aren’t going to work out the way he wants them to. He needs to find a woman who’s far less complicated!
The scenes between Milo and his former teacher, Rich, played by Ty Burrell, were also incredibly moving. That was definitely risky territory you were wading into there. Did those scenes give you pause?
There was a lot of discussion about who to cast for Rich. That character could have easily come across as very unlikable — even a monster — and that is why you cast America’s most lovable dad, someone who is so warm and believable and good-natured. Then you find that you have more complicated feelings about Rich and his story. You can’t help but feel for how sad and miserable he is in his own life.
Is it true that you shot a sex scene between Milo and Rich that was cut from the film?
It wasn’t a full sex scene, but we did shoot a make-out scene that was great, actually. Bill and Ty did a wonderful job and Bill was bummed that we ended up cutting it. It was purely my decision — to be honest, I kind of screwed it up, I didn’t shoot it well! But it’ll be on the deleted scenes on the DVD.
It’s funny seeing how different critics categorize this film in such different ways. I see it as a drama with funny moments and I so appreciate that it’s not being pitched as a big comedy because of the actors involved. I think some distributors would have done that and created a trailer only emphasizing the funny scenes.
It was critically important to us that this film not be marketed as a broad comedy. We wanted to make sure people realized that this is a bittersweet and emotional film.