Blockbusters are great, but make sure you set aside some time this Summer to see Me and Earl and the Dying Girl [1], an indie that will very likely melt your heart. Yes, the Sundance sweetheart, opening this week, is about a girl with leukemia, but it's so much more than that [2]. We sat down with the stars — Thomas Mann (Beautiful Creatures), Olivia Cooke (Bates Motel), and newcomer RJ Cyler — and the director, Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, to get the scoop on the movie. Take a look below to find out what they can't wait for you to see, what excellent scene got cut (don't worry — it'll be on the DVD!), and what they need you to know about their movie.
POPSUGAR: What is the most important thing that you want people to know about your movie?
Thomas Mann: That it is a comedy! Well, it's mostly a comedy.
RJ Cyler: It's not too heavy. Some people see the title and they think, "Oh it's going to take me there, and I don't want to go there, so I'm afraid to watch it." Just don't judge a movie by the title.
Olivia Cooke: Yeah, and it's not a cancer movie.
PS: What movie would you say that if people like it already, they're going to love Me and Earl and the Dying Girl?
TM: Harold and Maude.
RJC: The Breakfast Club.
PS: Is there a scene that got cut that you wish didn't?
Alfonso Gomez-Rejon: Greg's big monologue at the end of the film where he addresses the student body. This is a guy that wants to be as invisible as possible, and all of the sudden [he's] under the spotlight in a student auditorium. It was the scene that Thomas was most worried about, because it's a big thing, but the movie at the end had to be a nonverbal kind of experience. I don't regret cutting it, but I'm glad people will be able to see Thomas's beautiful performance.
PS: What made you want to be in this movie?
TM: The writing and Alfonso's involvement. I knew it was going to be something different, not just going to be a teen movie; it was going to be a movie just about people that happened to be teenagers, and it was just really honest and I liked the way they spoke to each other. They were really blunt, the way teenagers are.
OC: It wasn't sentimental.
PS: Had you all met Alfonso before?
OC: Thomas and I had. We both got really close to his first movie, but we weren't together in that one. I'm glad we got this one instead.
PS: Even though it takes place during the school year, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl has a Summer sort of feel. What other movies remind you of Summer?
OC: (500) Days of Summer, obviously.
RJC: The Lorax. A lot of people watch that any time, but to me it just matches with the Summer.
TM: Lords of Dogtown. It was one of my favorites when it came out. I was a big skateboarder, and I loved it.
PS: You have some amazing costars, like Nick Offerman and Connie Britton. Who do you wish you had more scenes with?
OC: Molly Shannon. I only had one itty-bitty scene with her, and Thomas got to hog it all.
RJC: Everyone really. I would have wanted to work more with Jon Bernthal.
TM: I feel like I got to know Nick while he was there. I spent a lot of time with him.
PS: The main character is greatly influenced by the movies he watched growing up. Which movies did you watch as a child?
AGR: In the early '80s was when the VHS revolution started, and when you're a small town and you have one fourplex in the mall that only gets the big studio releases, you discover movies through VHS. A friend of mine lent me Apocalypse Now. I was overwhelmed by the scope of it, and around that time I also started to discover Martin Scorsese [3] and Blue Velvet.
PS: What part of this movie are you most excited for audiences to see?
OC: I can't wait for them to see the camerawork. I've never worked with a director that uses the camera like a paintbrush.
TM: The long takes. I'm really proud of those. It's so rare that you get to do that in a movie where they don't cut.
RJC: I like the humor that's between Greg [Mann's character] and Rachel [Cooke's character]. It's just very honest. Greg's trying to be funny, but it's not working, and Rachel just doesn't really care.