Original-Cin Q&A: Biosphere's Mark Duplass and Sterling K. Brown talk about being the last men on Earth
By Bonnie Laufer
Biosphere is a quirky new film from Mark Duplass and co-writer and director Mel Eslyn that had its debut at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.
Set in the not so distant future, it revolves around Billy (Mark Duplass) and Ray (Sterling K. Brown) , the last two men on Earth who must adapt and evolve to save humanity.
Our Bonnie Laufer spoke with Mark and Sterling about the film and about their fast friendship.
Biosphere opens in theatres an on VOD on Friday, July 7.
Sterling K. Brown and Mark Duplass discover they’re literally all alone in Biosphere
ORIGINAL-CIN: Mark, I'll start with you because - full disclosure - I am a Room 104 fanatic (the HBO anthology series set in a hotel, created by Duplass and his brother Jay).
I love that series and this to me had elements of that show. Where in your crazy mind did the idea for Biosphere come from?
MARK DUPLASS: I love small settings where a few characters work stuff out. That's one of my favorite things. This one stems from my existing love of examining intimacy between men and all these wonderful things that I've dealt with, with my brother Jay and with my own close male friendships.
I didn't know that those things were weird until I started putting them on screen. Everyone was like, “These are very interesting male relationships.”
This goes someplace else with that theme. I think we wanted to have a lot more fun with it this time. Let's take it into the realm of allegory and speculative fiction.
Not that this is a medicine movie by any means, but there's a lot of stuff going on in the world and we wanted to explore some things through that comedy in that fun way that we might not normally tackle.
O-C: Sterling, your characters are best pals who are now locked up in this Biosphere together. Did you and Mark even know each other before you started this project? And if not, was there a bonding process?
STERLING K. BROWN: We did not know each other but we were mutual fans of each other's work. Once we dove in we really got a chance to know each other on this film. We sat down and had dinner for a couple hours and just kind of kicked it and shot the breeze and quickly found out how much we had in common.
DUPLASS: Both of us have been in this business as long as we have, having two children and a lot of the same ideas and sensibilities. Both of us really like trying to figure out that work/life balance thing, but still give your most to your art.
BROWN: I was like, “Oh, this dude is the white Sterling.” That was really it for me. (Laughs)
DUPLASS: It wasn't like we came up with some system to build the chemistry. It was a little bit of that spiritual lightning bolt. I feel this person.
O-C: Who got on each other's nerves the fastest?
DUPLASS: (Laughs) To be honest, this whole process wasn’t long enough for that. We shot the movie in 14 days. I guess it could have happened because we would actually seal ourselves inside of the dome for sound purposes.
BROWN: Every once in a while, Mark just wanted to hang out and I would tell him, “I gotta memorize lines!” (Laughs)
O-C: Without giving away a certain plot twist, did shooting this movie make you in any way sympathetic to what your wives went through giving birth to your children?
DUPLASS: That's a really interesting question. Once you've had two kids, and if you're in any sort of an intimate relationship with your spouse, particularly if it's your wife, hopefully you have that already.
For me the extra level of growth I got in this movie was by bringing this sort of half-formed script to Mel Aslan, my co-writer and our director.
She runs my company and her saying that I have something good here was so gratifying.
I didn’t have it in me to get this thing to the 50-yard line. It was invaluable having her opinion and her ideas as a queer woman with different interests of science that I don't have the ability to research.
She took this thing and made it what it is and so I just learned that in order to be a successful artist, I don't have to do the whole thing. I just have to believe in my partners and give them something and it was really not only comforting, but I grew a lot.
O-C: Sterling, do you think Randall (his character in the series, This Is Us) would have been able to handle the biosphere? I don’t think so.
BROWN: Ha! No way! He would have freaked the shit out!