Dylan O'Brien Weighs In on Straight Actors Taking Queer Roles After Playing a Gay Character in 'Twinless'
Dylan O’Brien is sharing his thoughts on straight actors bring LGBTQ+ characters to life on the screen.
The 34-year-old Maze Runner alum took on a daunting double casting in his 2025 film Twinless. In it, he played twins Rocky and Roman — the former being gay, while the latter is straight.
In a new interview, Dylan shared his thoughts about bringing a gay character to life and where he thinks that some straight actors go wrong when taking on a queer role.
Keep reading to find out more…
Speaking to Dazed, the actor stressed that part of his willingness to play Rocky came from getting “permission” from writer/director/costar James Sweeney, who identifies as gay.
“James is a gay man, and coming from a place I could trust. We had a similar take on straight actors playing gay parts, especially in recent years: you started seeing straight actors playing a queer role completely straight,” Dylan said. “It started to feel inauthentic. It was nice to have his insight, support, and calibration. He’d be like, ‘Go crazy on this one. We can dial it back if it doesn’t feel real.’ ”
James also shared his thoughts on the matter, praising his costar for “making capital ‘C’ choices” as an actor.
“These are larger-than-life characters that feel so real because he brings so much pathos. In terms of him playing queer – I’ll take credit for giving him permission and pushing him in a direction to be fluid with the masculinity and femininity,” he explained.
He opined that “A lot of times when straight actors play gay, they don’t lean into that out of fear of being vilified by the public, and are like, ‘We’re all the same, so I’m just going to play myself.’ I don’t mean that as a denigration to other straight actors, but I felt for Rocky to be attracted to Dennis, he would need to be comfortable with both masculinity and femininity – in my experience of dating.”
Dylan previously revealed that James developed a “gay scale” that they used on set. He also weighed in on seeing himself in intimate scenes on screen.