Interview: Dylan Sprouse & Callan Mcauliffe Talk The Duel and Masculinity

ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with The Duel stars Dylan Sprouse and Callan Mcauliffe about the “anti-buddy” comedy movie. Written and directed by Justin Matthews and Luke Spencer Roberts, Lionsgate/Grindstone will release the dark dramedy in select theaters on July 31 for one night only.

“Upon discovering that his best friend, Colin (Sprouse), has been having an affair with his girlfriend, Woody (Mcauliffe) decides that no modern form of revenge could possibly satisfy him. Instead, Woody challenges his closest companion to a classic contest of honor – a gentleman’s duel to the death. When two of their friends join the act, the once inseparable group of men inch closer to the day of destiny and test the bonds of their relationship until the moment of no return,” says the synopsis.

Tyler Treese: Dylan, I love that you just got behind such a unique and fun idea for a comedy. So what really caught your eye about this project, because it’s very off-beat, it’s very weird. It goes down a bunch of directions people won’t be expecting, but I just adore the premise. So, what got you onboard?

Dylan Sprouse: Well, similarly to what you just said, I think all of those things stood out to me. Both Luke and Justin, the writer-director duo, are long-time friends of mine. So the kind of impetus from me to executive produce was also in an effort to start making movies more with the people that I love, and try to create something for ourselves, a little home for ourselves.

So, that’s actually been one of the main reasons. But I think it always starts at the script, right? And the script was super strong. So that was the primary modus operandi there. And, of course, I am easily bamboozled by getting free Italian food, which did happen [laughs].

Callan, both men here are committed to dueling each other after Dylan’s character sleeps with your character’s girlfriend. It really just becomes this really interesting examination of the male ego and stubbornness. These people are just unable to talk it out and they just keep doubling down on this duel. What did you find most interesting about that aspect?

Callan Mcauliffe: I mean, I think it’s a fairly timely exploration of masculinity in an era when we’re all kind of having these discussions about what it means to be a man of what it ought to mean. To me, one of the beautiful parts of this movie is that it is both a celebration of and a condemnation of masculinity.

By the end of it, I feel like one of the things that I come away with is that perhaps we aren’t to be throwing the baby out with the bath water in a sense because there is a beauty to it, but there’s also a wild hubris to it as well. Watching Woody’s more pretentious side come out at the impetus of this thing, and then watching it find earnest footing as it gets closer and closer to the thing itself. It’s beautiful.

I’ve also been a long-time kind of… don’t wanna say fan, but I’ve had a long-time interest in dueling and its very historical iterations. So, for me, I just wanted to be a part of a movie that was wrought by people who share similar passions to me.

Dylan, I know this completely contradicts what Callan just beautifully said, but as a man watching this film, I’m still like, “Man, dueling is really cool.” There’s that inherent element where even though it goes into the worst of us, there is something appealing about just seeing two dudes with a gun facing off each other. There is that appeal to it, right?

Sprouse: Absolutely. By the way, part of the reason that we love this script so much and what happened in the screenings was there’s really no wrong takeaway. Dueling is cool.

Mcauliffe: It is cool. Yeah.

Sprouse: It is a very cool thing. It is cool to right the wrongs that you’ve made with your friends as a show of your love. You know, I joke often with people, but I do mean it, is that I think that this movie is a love story between friends. Like, this is a friendship love story. This is how far are you willing to go to prove that you love me as your best friend? And furthermore, even as ridiculous as it gets, is this something you can uphold for your word as a human being to me? That’s cool too, you know?

People walk away out of the screenings, and we’ve had very different reactions where they go, “This is a perfect movie on display about the ridiculousness of masculinity,” and then we’d have other people come out and go, “This is a perfect display of how cool it is. That dudes will follow something to its end.” And both are completely valid and right. I think the movie does a good job of placing those subject matters delicately, and also giving weight to both of them and not saying either one is wrong.

Mcauliffe: Yeah. There’s a real tendency to fall into false dichotomies when interpreting a movie, especially one like this. That ambiguity I think is important. Also, it’s cool to give a shit about something.

Callan, Ronald Guttman, he is the cartel leader in this movie, Rudolpho. He’s just so fantastic in this film. He is going so eccentric with his character. How is it acting opposite him? Because he really steals some scenes.

Mcauliffe: He was astonishing. I didn’t really know what to expect from the character. Of course, when I read it, various caricatures appeared in my head with various accents. But to see him work his magic was an astonishing thing. Because I think there were a couple of times, certainly one that I remember, where he was given on the day a whole new, almost like a monologue to deliver, and such was his level of professionalism that he turned around and said to the directors, “Gimme 20 minutes,” and then delivered one of the best scenes in the film. So, he was a hallmark for the rest of us. He really adds some much-needed color to the film.

Dylan, you mentioned being an EP on this project, so I was curious what was most rewarding about being involved in really forming this project rather than just acting?

Sprouse: Well, I think that the most rewarding part of being EP, I will say being an actor on a project, you get a lot less rewards than you would as exclusively an EP. An EP, your job is very much through the entire lifecycle of the movie. Whereas, as an actor, you’re kind of fixated at a certain point.

Honestly, the most rewarding part for me is seeing this movie come to fruition and watching all of my close friends, who were both in cast and crew, kind of live out their goals and it be accomplished in such a grand way. The movie is good. It stands on its own. I feel like I would’ve felt good, even if we made a bad movie, which I don’t think would’ve been possible. But even if we made something that wasn’t up to the standard, I would’ve been happy to see all my friends work together and to see them achieve their first time directing [and] writing, even in the case of our directors. But we all made something great, and that in itself is, is a major gift and something that I definitely want to continue to pursue.

Callan, this is a director duo of Justin Matthews and Luke Spencer Roberts. I wanted to ask about that experience of having two directors here. I would imagine that kind of lends itself to a more collaborative experience, just inherently. How was that working with two directors?

Mcauliffe: Well, of course, they wrote it together as well, so they, at least from a kind of a foundational level, they were speaking the same language, which was very helpful. Because there were never any sort of conflicting directions given to me. But I did find that it was a beautiful thing because if I wasn’t responding to a certain iteration of their direction, the other one would come up, and put it in different terms that might better resonate with me. So between the two of them, there was always something helpful, and there was always something clear.

But they’re both so talented, and they both had such a united vision for what this movie was supposed to be that it had none of the pitfalls really to me of double directors and all of the gains. So, beyond that, they were both dear friends of mine prior to the shooting, and I was excited to work with them and to engage that friendship in a new environment.

Dylan, you have such a cool role in Kingdom Hearts III as Yozora. It’s very meta. You’re a video game character inside a video game. What do you like most about that role?

Sprouse: My friends know this about me. I do have a propensity to love edgelord characters, I find, and it’s genuine too, right? Like a lot of people like edgelords because they’re like [ironic]. I can’t. I do genuinely love, I think, and that character is certainly a bit of an edgelord. It’s the first one that I got to play, and that was actually not ironic, right? It was an authentic edgelord experience. So that, for me, I would say was my favorite part.

Thanks to Dylan Sprouse and Callan Mcauliffe for speaking about The Duel.