By: debbie lynn elias
We’ve all heard about sibling rivalry, but what about sibling non-rivalry. When it comes to Mark and Jay Duplass, the latter is the operative phrase as a more cohesive unit of siblings one would be hard-pressed to find. Self-described by Jay Duplass as the brothers being “super close” and “uniquely non-competitive”, this is the very foundation which makes Duplass Brothers movies something extra-special, both in front of and behind the camera. “[W]e hold ourselves to a very high, high, standard. We function as one. A lot of people think it would be a disadvantage but it’s actually double the strength. Mark has a little bit more momentum and confidence than me. And I have probably a little bit more obsessive and discernment about certain things. So, we rely on each other for that. We count on it.” So, given that oneness, how do the Duplass brothers explain the magic of a Duplass film?
According to Mark, while it is his hope that this magic “is an empirical, absolute thing that exists in the world, if I had to pinpoint one thing that I think is ‘unique’ in our films is that, if we’re successful at all, it’s that we create the feel and tone of what we love about documentaries; which is that these are the feelings of real people that feel like me. This is not the problems of a George Clooney as much as it is a guy who feels like my next door neighbor, and a girl as well. But we put that inside of a very well structured narrative so that it can move and pace you at 90 minutes and barrel you towards a climax.”
Working well together since childhood, Jay reflects on their togetherness recalling that “We’ve been in bands together. We’ve made stained glass with Mardi Gras beads together. It’s just [what] we’ve always done. We’re just two cavemen who just make stuff.” However, whether all of their work qualifies as “good” is another story. “We never knew or even thought that we could be good. We failed a lot in our filmmaking early on. We did not have prophetic young films like some of the great filmmakers who came before us have. It took us a long time to find our voice and to find this specific unique thing that we do on film. . . Just learning how to believe in ourselves and stay true to what we felt we uniquely have to offer the world. But, we’re always looking up trying to find that next thing and scared to death that we’re gonna fuck it up along the way.”
With Mark emphatically nodding in agreement, Jay explains further. “In a weird way we force ourselves not to reference other people. Not to say that we don’t have a million references. It always seeps in there subconsciously. If anything, Mark and I watch documentaries together and because we are obsessed with truthfulness and obsessed with that feeling that anything could happen here in this moment, and that’s what we’re trying to infuse in our films. That’s why we employ improvisation in a documentary style of shooting, because we feel that the sense of chaos and the sense of uncontrolledness is how we experience life and that’s how we want our characters and our audiences to experience our movies.”
Without missing a beat, Mark is quick to point out ” There’s such a strong bedrock of how we make films right now. It’s very specific. We really believe in that process. So we’re a little bit in the ‘Cult of the Duplass Brothers’ right now, but you always take a little something away from every set that you’re on. When Jay is off making a documentary on his own, he’ll bring something in. I’ll be on The League and I’ll be like, ‘Oooh. I saw this little camera trick where they did three cameras and actually lit it from back and it looked like this.’ So, little tiny minutiae we’re constantly stealing from people, but the core of us pretty much remains the same.”
But what about the actors who are part of the Duplass process. How do they meld in the mix? During the recent press day for THE DO-DECA PENTATHLON, the film’s stars weighed in with their thoughts.
Mark Kelly, new to the world of Duplass, found that “It’s just so incredible. It’s hard to put into a few words. It’s something I’ll never forget and hopefully get more opportunities because it’s just an actors dream really. The reason being, they have an eye on a piece of art based out of story and honesty. It comes from performance so they really want to nurture that the whole way through. They won’t move on until they have what they want. You feel safe. More able to take risks that you normally get in other projects.”
As for Steve Zissis, an integral part of every Duplass film to date and hopefully, for every Duplass film to come, he has found that “They’re both super sensitive and compassionate. Mark is an actor himself. Jay studied acting for awhile. As an actor, you really appreciate that sensitivity on set because it makes you feel safe. You feel trusted. . . you feel like you can take risks. It pays off in a movie like this. You take those risks and you find gold sometimes.”
An interesting perspective comes courtesy of Jennifer LaFleur, also a Duplass veteran, who has the luxury of being able to compare a Duplass improvisational, intimate styling to big budget films, tv, soap operas and other indie projects. “When you work on larger projects, there’s such pressure to stay on schedule, get it right the first time, and move along quickly. I think there’s a lot of productions that would like each shot done in one take and moving forward. That can be really intimidating for an actor, at least for me, where you feel like you have to get it right the first time; that you can’t relax into it. Mark and Jay will let you have an entire week – if you need it – for one moment and luckily we don’t usually need an entire week. They get it right.”
So just how do you go about achieving this magical mix? As Mark Duplass has often said, it comes with support, particularly familial support, and in the case of Mark and Jay, that support was their father. Although not what one would describe as a supporter of the arts, the senior Mr. Duplass made up for it as a supportive dad. “It’s gotta come from somewhere. I believe that because there’s a moment I think when artists are struggling and they’re trying to find out who they are. And if they have a 45 hour a week day job, it’s gonna weed out 95% of their chances to actually break through and discover who they are. Our dad basically gave us a very minimal amount of money, but enough to live on through that period so that we could not waste our good energy waiting tables, but could waste our good energy making shitty art until we figured out what the good stuff was. So that 2-3 year period from 22-25 or whatever that is in your life, is very very crucial.”
With five movies in six years under their belts as writers/directors, the boys have “kind of run out of scripts. Luckily, we were loaded up when we started getting green-lighted. Right now we’re really in the process of writing. We’re both writing a lot together and just working on ideas and figuring out what we want to do next. . .and creating the next five movies.”
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