Alchemists of Dark Comedy, the Duplass Brothers Hit the Big Leagues

Jay & Mark Duplass, preparing to throw a wrench into the works. Image from Makingof.com

There’s nothing better than a hometown boy making a name for himself in the big leagues. We’re not just talking fictional heroes like Ralph Macchio's Daniel-san; we’re talking real life, flesh-and-blood success stories. When we were offered the opportunity to sit down with local filmmakers-gone-buzzed-about-Hollywood-auteurs Mark and Jay Duplass, we got excited, faint strains of Joe Esposito wafting through our minds.

If you keep up with independent film scene, especially in Austin, you've probably already heard of the Duplass brothers. Their films have been a big part of the genre known as mumblecore, aka the low-fi film movement. If you don’t follow the indie film scene, you might not be so familiar—while their previous flicks The Puffy Chair and Baghead were modest hits and received lots of kudos, they didn’t exactly make "Duplass" a household name.

That’s all about to change, as these guys are moving up the Hollywood food chain. At this year’s SXSW Film Festival and Conference, the Duplass brothers premiered Cyrus, their first “big budget film” (“big” being a relative word—it still probably cost less than Michael Bay’s dry cleaning bill on Transformers) starring John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei, and Jonah Hill.

Mark and Jay have always worked together on film—Jay directs, Mark acts, and they both write and produce. It may sound like a lot, but in fact, they do a whole lot more. They also shoot their own stuff and encourage the actors to improvise, resulting in a much more visceral, rough-around-the-edges product, which has come to be part of their signature style.

“It definitely was necessity being the mother of invention for us," said Mark. "We’ve got a camera. We don't have a lot of lights, so we're just going to light the whole thing. Where's that actor going? I'm zooming around to find him. And we were like, 'Wow, this is cool. There's an organic and kind of kinetic energy to this.' It's like a documentary. There are no pre-determined camera moves. They come directly out of the chaos of what the actors are doing.”

Their unique shooting style goes well with their unorthodox writing process. “It sounds corny, but the story process for us is like this oral tradition by the hearth, “ said Mark. “We start telling little stories back and forth to each other. It develops, and then at a certain point, it makes its way onto this stack of note cards that represents each scene. Once we’ve got that, we could pretty much go into the movie shooting.”

A rough outline and a stack of note cards is all they need because they only hire actors that they trust and let them work out the details.

“The way we approach it, is not so specifically, like, we want this character to be this way. It really comes down to what's happening on set," Jay said. "Is it weird? Is it interesting? If there's nothing really special about it, we'll be like, hey, let's throw a wrench in here. I'll take Jonah aside, and tell him a little secret. And Mark will take Marisa aside, and tell her a secret. And they won't know what's happening. They'll come into the scene, and we're like, ‘Whoa, that was the alchemy, that spark of something that felt really honest and real, and unpredictable.’ That's what we're looking for.“

We really like to work with those special weird people that come out of the wormholes of 78704, who are just like, "wow, how are you making your way in the world?"

That approach worked well on their previous films, but Cyrus was different. This was their first attempt at a “mainstream” movie, which means getting bigger name talent and (God forbid) studio funding.

“This was a script where you have to write it well and make it attractive to actors and to the studios so that they would want to greenlight it," said Mark. "We did spend a little time making it look pretty, putting the bells and whistles on it. We worked on it for maybe a year or so, on and off, before we actually got the green light.“

Their hard work has paid off. Cyrus sold out the Paramount Theater at SXSW and got an overwhelmingly positive response.

“We're fucked, basically, because the movie is never going to play as well as it did that night.," said Mark. "Ever.”

Jay agrees, “That was a peak experience.”

It’s no surprise that the Austin film-going community has embraced the brothers Duplass upon their return from L.A. These Austin boys may have moved to the big city but they left their hearts in the ATX.

“For our sensibility and our style,” said Mark, “we really like to work with those special weird people that come out of the wormholes of 78704. Like, those unique individuals who are just, like, wow, how are you making your way in the world? You're barely hanging on here.

"We love those people so much. They give the greatest opportunity for comedy, because obviously they're idiosyncratic and they're doing these crazy things, but in the end, it's all rooted in a very emotional kind of thing that they're going through.

"This is a very funny movie, but it's also about a 20-year old kid who's desperately trying to hang onto his mother, and the mother's trying to figure out if she screwed up her son, and how to move on. And a guy who feels like, 'if I don't find the woman I’m going to be with, I’m going to be alone for the rest of my life.' That stuff's not funny, you know? And when you're rooted in those things, you get a cool blend of that comedy/drama that we really just like a lot.”

Editor's note:Cyrus will open in Austin next Friday, June 25th. It is, in a word, darkly hilarious. We highly recommend that you see it. Check back next week for an interview with its stars, Jonah Hill and John C. Reilly.

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