Winner of the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is the funny, moving story of Greg (Thomas Mann), a high school senior who is trying to blend in anonymously, avoiding deeper relationships as a survival strategy for navigating the social minefield that is teenage life. He even describes his constant companion Earl (RJ Cyler), with whom he makes short film parodies of classic movies, as more of a ‘co-worker’ than a best friend. But when Greg’s mom (Connie Britton) insists he spend time with Rachel (Olivia Cooke) — a girl in his class who has just been diagnosed with cancer — he slowly discovers how worthwhile the true bonds of friendship can be. This beautiful film, written by Jesse Andrews (based on his novel) and directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, also stars Nick Offerman, Molly Shannon, and Jon Bernthal. I sat down with Thomas Mann to discuss his performance.
Danny Miller: You are so good in this movie and I have to say that I identified a lot with your character — someone trying to straddle all of the social groups in high school without really being a part of any of them. Do a lot of people tell you they personally relate to Greg?
Thomas Mann: Yeah. It’s always very moving to me when people come up to me and say how much they related to my character. I even had a mom come up to me and say, “You are my son!”
Was it challenging for you to do some of the more emotional scenes in this film?
I didn’t have any kind of process ready to go for that, I’d never been part of a film that required me to be so emotionally available. To be honest, even after I was cast I wasn’t sure that I could do it. I was very anxious about being able to deliver, but Alfonso was so trusting of me and made me feel like I couldn’t do anything wrong. It helps when you’re surrounded by so many talented people including Olivia and RJ. It wasn’t so much about recalling some past thing in my life to get me to an emotional place, it was more about going through this journey with these characters and empathizing with them. It was a very profound experience and I became way more emotional than I’ve ever been in my life. Now I cry at movies in a way that I never really did before. I definitely grew up a bit making this movie.
I was trying to hold it together during my screening but it was a lost cause. Was it weird seeing it with an audience for the first time?
Sundance was the first time I saw it with an audience and I remember being really surprised by how often people were laughing. They were laughing at jokes that we didn’t think were that funny. I think when you are enjoying spending time with characters in a movie, all of your emotions open up more. This film packs such a punch.
I always wonder when I see actors in such emotional roles what it does to you inside. Your body doesn’t really know that you’re acting, does it?
No, it doesn’t! It’s like turning on some kind of valve that you can’t really turn off. It takes a while to recover from that — it’s a really weird place to be in. Sometimes I’d start getting emotional for a scene and start crying and I kept on going after the camera stopped rolling. Alfonso was always crying with us and wanting to feel the things that we were feeling, he never wanted us to feel alone or vulnerable.
Did your own high school experience mirror Greg’s at all?
Not really, I wasn’t an outcast or anything.
Were you a drama kid?
Not in high school. I did drama in middle school but by the time I got to high school in Dallas, I was taking outside acting classes. Some of the people at my school thought I was a little pretentious about it and that that I thought I was too good for their drama program. And in my head I kind of was! I was thinking, “I’m going to L.A. and I’m going to be in movies!” Everyone thought that idea was crazy, but that’s what I ended up doing by the time I was 17.
I was so glad this movie didn’t depict the typical Hollywood mean high school setting. Kids can obviously be very mean but it often seems so artificial in high school movies.
No one is only mean — we’re all human beings with a range of emotions, That’s what I love about this film. It’s not just a comedy or drama. People keep asking me how I “balanced the tone” of the film and I’m like, I don’t know, I was just telling the story in the most honest way possible. Greg certainly doesn’t see high school as the most beautiful time in his life, it’s just awkward and uncomfortable.
You’re so good at depicting that kind of real-life awkwardness.
It’s easy to overdo it. Even self-deprecation can become grating and obnoxious after a while. I liked the fact that he was smart and intelligent and really had a lot of answers for himself but was just too stupid and selfish to make use of them.
Watching the film, we desperately want him to let people in. But I think most of us also remember when we, too, were very afraid in those scenarios.
I wanted people to see that part of themselves in Greg. I liked him and I didn’t want him to ever seem like some awful person to be around — just someone who has trouble connecting with others.
Did making this film affect how you see the rest of your career?
I definitely want to tell stories that I think are important, that I think will help people in some way. After this experience I think it will be very hard to go back to some throwaway role, it will have to be something that really resonates with me. I don’t have a dream role or a specific plan, but I really want to work with great filmmakers and actors.
I’m glad to hear that you’re not just focused on getting the next blockbuster.
No way. I don’t want to just be in a certain kind of “big” movie. I feel like a lot of those movies end up looking the same. Those actors are big for a couple of years and then they kind of go away because directors don’t find them interesting anymore. I just want to keep working. I’d be happy to do more starring roles but there are amazing supporting roles in a lot of movies.
Was it weird experiencing “fame” for the first time after Project X came out?
It’s still a little weird when people stop you and want a picture but there’s different levels of that and I can still live a normal life and go wherever I want. Every once in a while someone will say, “Hey, you’re the kid from Project X!” but that’s no big deal. So far, no matter what I do, I’m still the kid from Project X.
Oh, that’s about to change — trust me! Do you still cry when you watch this film?
Yeah. There’s one scene that gets me every time!