Summary

Collider’s Steve Weintraub sat down with Alison Brie and Dave Franco for Together at the Sundance Film Festival 2025.

Real-life couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco star and produce in horror indie Together about a couple whose move to the country alters their lives completely.

In this interview, Brie and Franco discuss working with writer-director Michael Shanks, VFX, practical effects, intimacy on set, and past and future projects like Glow, Now You See Me 3, Masters of the Universe, and more.

Real-life couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco are no strangers to collaborating on and off-screen. The actors first played opposite each other in a rom-com entitled The Little Hours, and then proceeded to partner in the making of films like The Rental and Somebody That I Used to Know. Although they’ve received offers to star in projects together, they’ve been selective on what to work on next. It was only when they read the script for Together, a body horror indie about a long-time pair whose codependency is put to the test, that the two were immediately onboard. As both the leads and the producers in Michael Shanks’ feature directorial debut, the couple were fully invested in making the surreal story tick—even if it requires them to be intimate in ways they’ve never been before.
While promoting the film at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Brie and Franco stopped by Collider’s media studio at Rendezvous Cinema Center for a conversation with editor-in-chief Steve Weintraub. During their interview, the actors speak about the physicality of their dynamic in Together (with them even getting some bruises during filming), their collaborative experience with Shanks during their 21-day shoot, and the benefits of tackling a couple onscreen being one in real life.
The two stay busy, and in addition to celebrating Together, Brie also reflects on her fond memories on the set of Glow and teases her anticipated villainous role in the Masters of the Universe live-action. As for Franco, he teases Now You See Me 3 and what viewers can expect from his involvement in the adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s Regretting You. You can watch the full interview in the video above, or you can read the transcript below.
Alison Brie and Dave Franco Got Real Personal in ‘Together’

“We could not have made this movie with anyone else.”

Image by Photagonist

COLLIDER: Is Sundance like a second home for you two? Do you have a condo up the street?
DAVE FRANCO: This year, it feels like it because I’m lucky enough to be here with two films. I’ve been living a Groundhog Day where I’m going to the same studio every day. I mean, this is my second time seeing you in, like, 13 hours. But she’s been to Sundance seven times.
ALISON BRIE: This is my seventh. But it’s always new and exciting. It always feels different. It’s been over a decade, so it’s probably been 15 years of coming here. The festival is always evolving, and I’m growing and changing as a person, and the work that I’m bringing here is ever-changing, so it always feels new and exciting. It’s such a coup just to be here, and we love this movie so much.
Speaking of your movie, Together, no one watching this will have seen it yet. Who wants to bite the bullet and say how they’ve been describing it to friends and family?
FRANCO: We’ve got a codependent couple, not unlike ourselves. They’re going through some issues. They moved to the middle of nowhere to try to just kind of have a new start, but they encounter something supernatural that just kind of brings all the issues right to the surface.
BRIE: Some issues they can’t escape.
FRANCO: And it just goes full bonkers, body horror mania.
The thing about the two of you is that I’ve seen you guys together in person a number of times. You clearly love each other. I’m not trying to get personal…
FRANCO: Get very personal.
You work together. You write together. I am curious. What is it like to make a movie together like this, where you’re playing a real couple, using your own personal relationship?
BRIE: This was great timing, I think, to do this project. We have acted in some things together, and by this point, Dave has directed me in a couple of movies, we wrote a film together. Our shorthand has gotten shorter and shorter to where it’s like a mind-meld, eye-contact thing. We’ve been together over a decade, so has this couple in the movie. We’re very selective about projects that we will act in together. We read scripts quite often, where we would act together, and it’s all about which one makes the most sense, and this one did.
The script is so good. Thematically, all the set pieces in the movie are really tied into this exploration of intimacy and codependency. When do the joys of intimacy shift into the fears of codependency? How much do you lose your identity within a relationship? So, it felt like the right piece for us. If there was ever going to be a moment for a meta movie where we were capitalizing on our relationship, this was the project to do it. And at this point, we just know each other so well. We can just have fun together on set. This movie is very physical. The physical demands were, I would say, different from anything that we’ve worked on before. So to do that together with somebody, we trust each other so much, we know each other so well. It got to be really fun without any of the nervousness that might go into something like that otherwise.
FRANCO: But the intimacy goes to such an extreme level, not just sexually…
BRIE: But also sexually.
FRANCO: It goes to such an extreme point where we truly looked at each other at the end of each day, and we were like, “We could not have made this movie with anyone else.”
BRIE: Every day.
FRANCO: It would have been too weird. You just can’t get to that level of comfortability with someone that you just met.
BRIE: Also, it’s a 21-day shoot. This movie was so ambitious for such a short amount of time. The shorthand helped. We were thinking about how much time would be added just by trying to be polite and respectful. Not that we’re not respectful with one another, but you know what I mean. The amount of time it might take. We can just pal around together and go, “Hey, should we say this a little bit faster? Okay. Let’s go!”
Obviously, you are a couple. What is it like doing sex scenes in a movie? Do you want an intimacy coordinator?
BRIE: It’s hyperrealistic.
I don’t know if you want to talk about it or not, but what is that actually like?
BRIE: Well, this movie, it’s so specific. I wouldn’t say it’s a romantic sex scene.
FRANCO: It’s not an erotic thriller. These sex scenes are not playing out for, like, six minutes with drapes blowing in the wind.
BRIE: Disaster Artist-style. Also, there’s so much else at play in the intimate scenes in this movie. So, it was a real joke about hyperrealism. We’re not trying to channel that. I think we’re thinking about other things.
Michael Shanks’ Directorial Debut Had Several VFX Shots That He Crafted

Image Via 30West

Michael, your director, I read in the press notes that he said he was really excited about being able to use the cinematic tools I’ve dreamed of since my DVD featurettes-obsessed childhood. What does that mean?
BRIE: X-Men 2.
FRANCO: He does like X-Men a lot. No, he’s truly a film nerd in the greatest sense. He watches everything. He knows everything. And he’s technically a first-time feature director on this one, but he’s been writing and directing web series and commercials and short films since he was a kid. So, coming into this one, he’s one of the most experienced first-time directors that you’ll ever meet. Where I think about other first-time directors, some people step on set that first day, and that’s the first set they’ve ever been on. He came in so confident and comfortable, and to this day, I’ve truly never seen him stressed out. It’s so impressive.
BRIE: It made for a really fun vibe on set. He is a bit of a jack-of-all-trades behind the scenes. I mean, when he talks about watching those DVD extras, that was the first time he realized, “Oh, I could do all this stuff. Here are the tools to do it.” And I mean, in this film, we had an amazing VFX team.
FRANCO: Framestore, who work on the biggest movies in the world, helped us out with our smaller film.
BRIE: We also do a fair amount of practical effects, which we all have a soft spot for that we love, and we had a great team doing that. Shanks himself, our director of this movie, while editing this movie, completed over 100 VFX shots in this movie himself.
I was actually going to ask about that if he had been here. It’s so interesting because there are a lot of directors, like Gareth Edwards and [Takashi Yamazaki], who directed Godzilla Minus One, who come from a VFX background, and they actually amplify their own work with their own experiences.
BRIE: It’s the only way we could make this movie. And going into it, I feel like we had a fair amount of discussions in terms, again, of how ambitious the movie was and how little time we had to make it, and is it even possible? Part of that sell was Michael Shanks saying, “It is possible. I will not sleep. I will do it myself.”
FRANCO: He was like, “I can’t cut any of these shots. I need all of this. I will do all the work, I promise you guys.” And it made everyone nervous, but at the end of the day, he pulled through.
BRIE: He did it.
When you saw the shooting script—you said it was 21 days—what day you both have circled in terms of, “I can’t wait to film this,” and what day was circled in terms of, “How the F are we going to filming this?”
FRANCO: Literally every day for both of those. Every single day, there was something intense, whether it was emotional or physical, to the point where most days we were showing up at 6:00 am, and from the very first take, we were flying. They’re calling action at 6:30, and suddenly we’re screaming our lungs out, we’re being flung, our bodies are flinging everywhere. It was full-on.
BRIE: There certainly were days when we would go, “Whoa, this is a big physical day. Let’s look at it. Let’s plan for it,” and then out of nowhere, the very next day, we’d be like, “Oh yeah, this weird set piece is today!” Even something that felt like a smaller moment in the movie is so heightened, and the emotions are so high.
FRANCO: Once this movie gets going, it’s so relentless and it doesn’t stop. Once you’re in that part of the movie, which is most of the movie, it’s at 100. You’re there the whole movie.
BRIE: But that is part of the fun of working with Dave, because we both love the physical aspect of it. We get energized by that, and then we also are exactly the same in the way that we’re like monks when we’re shooting. Both of us just go home, maybe watch 12 minutes of a show, put ourselves to sleep. We’re not drinking. On the weekend, we’re like, “Shall we have one beer?” Then we cheers the beer, and then we’re like, “What a Saturday night.” Then we’d look over our script and go to sleep. So it was fun, and it was nice to be living with your co-star. We got to utilize every second of the day. On the weekend, we could be running lines. No time was wasted, so we could always be prepared and ready to go.
FRANCO: And we had to because this shoot was so ambitious for a 21-day shoot. We had to come in hitting the ground running every single day, knowing we were only going to have one or two takes for every setup.

Related

‘Together’ Review: Dave Franco and Alison Brie Are Stuck With Each Other in Bonkers Body Horror Rom-Com | Sundance 2025

The real-life couple have never been better.

So you’re going to shoot on Monday. How early, on Together, were you guys figuring out all your lines, rehearsing, and getting in that headspace? Was it when you first got to Australia? Was it before you left? How did that work?
FRANCO: We came on to this project a long time ago because we were producers on it, as well. We had just been living with the script for so long that it was kind of in us already. Once we got to Australia for pre-production, we had five weeks to just walk around Melbourne and run lines with each other, and I think that was when we really locked it all in.
BRIE: I don’t think we were there five weeks early.
FRANCO: I think we were there five weeks early.
Is this going to be the fight of the interview?
BRIE: Can I speak to you for a second?
FRANCO: I think this is the fight that could tear us apart. Yeah, I feel like this is totally worth ruining the relationship over.
BRIE: [Laughs] I do think prior to getting down to Melbourne, we had a series of sessions with Shanks where we weren’t rehearsing; we were just talking through all the scenes in the script. There’s a fair amount of Australian lingo because he’s Australian, obviously, and we shot the movie down there, which was incredible. Originally, the film was set there, as well. When we signed on, we were like, “We’ll just set it in America now and shoot it down here.” But it was little things like talking about the trunk of a car, which they call “the boot,” or things like that. So, we had all these sessions of talking through scenes with Shanks, and within those sessions, talking about the way couples talk to each other and things like that. Like, how often do you say your partner’s name? This is something we always think is funny. Like, “David.”
FRANCO: In a lot of movies, people see each other’s names so often, but in reality, we’re like…
BRIE: “Babe. Hey, babe?”
Did you actually edit that so that in the movie, you’re not saying each other’s names?
FRANCO: Yeah, definitely. A lot of “babes.”
BRIE: There’s a lot of babes. If you think it’s too many babes, you have no idea how often we call each other babe. But yeah, so that was fun to get to be a part of that script work with Shanks, and he was so open and collaborative with that. Then, once we got to Melbourne, we got to sit down in earnest and even sort of walk through some of the sequences with a stunt coordinator and things like that. It was a good amount of time to prep and even meet and work a little bit with Damon Herriman, who’s the other actor in the movie, and he’s incredible.
He is also a very talented actor.
BRIE: Oh my god.
He’s been at our Sundance studio in the past. He’s very good.
BRIE: He’s a real chameleon. He pops up in stuff all the time now where we’re just like, “Ah! It’s Damon!”
Yes, 100%. I believe he played Charlie Manson…
FRANCO: Twice.
Exactly.
BRIE: Both times, excellent.
I’m assuming you guys were very involved in the edit as producers. How did the film possibly change in the editing room in ways you guys didn’t expect?
BRIE: We expected it all the ways.
FRANCO: The truth is, it’s pretty close, if not just even better than what we always imagined. If anything, I guess some of the stuff that we couldn’t have ever processed was some of the VFX work that Shanks had in his head. That stuff came together so beautifully. Like I said, we are a small-budget movie, but it’s such an exciting concept and script and idea that these huge companies were willing to come on and help us with the VFX and the prosthetics. We had the guy who had just come from Furiosa [A Mad Max Saga] to do our tiny movie, so the prosthetics are incredible.
BRIE: Our production designer and our prosthetics guy. Some of the scares, there’d be things we’d be shooting, and I was not quite sure how Shanks was going to edit that moment. “Is this scare of working?” And being delighted to see the way it came together.
Alison Brie and Dave Franco Reflect on Past Projects

You both have done a lot of stuff on your resume. If someone has actually never seen anything you’ve done, what’s the first thing you want them watching and why?
BRIE: For me, it has to be Glow. I love that show, and I just feel so proud of the work that everybody did on that show. For me personally, I feel like it’s the only job where I got to do every type of thing. Like comedy, check; drama, check; super physical work, check. We essentially got to play two different characters. I got to play Ruth Wilder, and I got to play Zoya in the ring. I just think that it turned out to be this great showcase for everybody to go, “Look, we have a lot of weird, special skills! Here they are.”
FRANCO: I’m going to give you a curveball.
Let me have it.
FRANCO: Is it crazy to say Together? If I wasn’t going to say Together, which actually might be my answer…
BRIE: I want to change mine.
FRANCO: I would say I love The Disaster Artist so much, and I really love 21 Jump Street, so maybe one of those two.
How easy is it for you guys to leave the character you’re playing after wrap, and how much is like a piece with you for a week or two? How quickly can you let go?
FRANCO: Quickly.
BRIE: Easily. [Laughs] We let go, baby.
FRANCO: That said, with this movie, and, weirdly, a lot of movies recently for me, I leave, and my whole body is just covered in bruises. So, that lingers for a while. On this one, again, we’re just throwing our bodies in really unnatural ways to the point where I’m coming home each day, and I’m taking a shower, and I get out of the shower, and I’m like, “Baby, the back of my leg really hurts,” and she’s like, “You have a swell the size of my head on the back of your leg.”
BRIE: And then he’s like, “Take a picture of it.” We did a collage of all of Dave’s bruises from this.
If you could go back in time and do one more day on something you worked on in the past, whatever it is, what project would you love to do one more day on?
BRIE: Because it was so great?
FRANCO: Not because it was terrible.
BRIE: Or maybe there’s one that you’re like, oh, I wish I could redo that day.
It could be anything.
FRANCO: Well, that’s kind of throwing yourself under the bus.
BRIE: I did bad work on this one day. Go back and watch the scene.
Most of the people I’ve asked this question to are like, “I wish I could do one more day on this theater production…”
BRIE: Ah, because it was fleeting. I’m just going to say Glow again because we were meant to make a fourth season of the show.
I wanted that fourth season.
BRIE: We shot the first one and a half episodes. I shot this huge wrestling sequence with real pro wrestlers. It was a tag team match. It was so fun. That will never see the light of day. I just would love to spend one more day with all my gals.
I really was sad when that did not continue going. Obviously, not as much as you, but as a fan.
BRIE: I feel like it was the same. I think it was the same amount.
100%.
Dave Franco Is Game For More ‘Now You See Me’ Movies

Image via Lionsgate

FRANCO: Just off the top of my head, the things that I had so much fun on are Neighbors and the Now You See Me movies. We’re still making Now You See Me movies, so I will take that off the list. If we could do another Neighbors, I just have so much fun with that group. We’ve known each other for a long time, and they just make it easy. I was barely in Neighbors 2, but on the first one, just having Seth [Rogen] and Evan [Goldberg] and [Nicholas] Stoller behind the monitors, just feeding us gold and making it so that you can’t fail, you just feel so protected.
Speaking of the Now You See Me movies, you recently filmed the third, correct? What do you want to tease people about it, and the fact that the cast seems to get crazier each time?
FRANCO: Crazier in what way?
It’s a huge cast.
FRANCO: Go on.
It’s all you. People don’t want to hear me talk. They want you to talk.
FRANCO: I think it’s been announced who’s involved, right?
BRIE: Who else do you think is involved?

Related

Jesse Eisenberg Says ‘Now You See Me 3’ Is “Truly Miraculous”

The heist film releases next year.

I don’t want to say because off the top of my head…
FRANCO: Is it because you don’t actually know?
I don’t remember!
FRANCO: I think it’s out there—Rosamund Pike. She’s great. She’s excellent. Like I said, I just have such a good time with this cast. I don’t think there are any sets that I laugh on more. We’ve known each other for almost 15 years, and I just adore all of them. Weirdly, we’re all kind of different, but when we get together, it’s just like this love fest. She kind of has the same thing with her Community crew. So if we can make 10 of these, I just would love to just keep doing stuff with them.
I don’t know what’s been announced with the plot. What do you want to tease about the story?
FRANCO: You know how these movies are. I barely know what’s happening.
BRIE: There’s some magic.
So you’re saying that something happens, there’s magic. Stuff like that.
FRANCO: Yeah, yeah, yeah, there’s magic in this one.
Did you learn any new skill set for this?
FRANCO: Yeah. I mean, with my character, it’s always been more about hand dexterity stuff. I’ve always been the guy who throws cards. But now, I find different ways to throw cards. But it’s actually very impressive. I put a lot of work into it.
Listen, I’m a fan of the movies because they’re just fun. You’re not overthinking things.
BRIE: I love them.
FRANCO: They’re a great time. And I truly think audiences can feel the love that we have for each other.
100%.
Alison Brie Teases Her Villainous Role in the ‘Masters of the Universe’ Live-Action

Image by Jefferson Chacon

I definitely am curious about Masters of the Universe. This is a film that has been in development for, like, 29 years. It’s finally being made, and you are playing Evil-Lyn. What the hell is it like to get the call, like, “We’d like you to be Evil-Lyn?”
BRIE: I’m so excited about it! I sort of felt like I manifested it because I had just been talking to my team, like, “If I was ever going to do one of those big action movies, it just would be fun to be villainous.” You know? I wanted to put that out there. I was like, “Isn’t there a villain’s assistant that people need?” Like, two weeks later, they were like, “Hey, there is a villain’s assistant,” if you could call her that. So, I’m so excited. I’ve never done anything like this before, so I’m sort of curious to see what I come up with.
Are you filming? When do you start?
BRIE: Filming is about to start. Everyone’s in pre-production now. I was just out in London lifting some weights with [Hafþór] Júlíus Björnsson.
FRANCO: Do you know who Hafþór is? Tell him about Hafþór.
BRIE: You don’t know who Hafþór is?!
I don’t know who Hafþór is.
BRIE: A professional weightlifter. One of the strongest men in the world. He was on Game of Thrones. His real name is Hafþór. He’s Icelandic.
You’re talking about The Mountain. Is his name The Mountain?
BRIE: No, his Hafþór. [Laughs]
I can’t believe his name is actually Hafþór. That’s throwing me.
BRIE: Yeah, it is. He and I lifted weights together, and we’re getting yoked.
FRANCO: It was so funny. I was at home, and I was lifting weights. We have a very small kind of gym space, and I was feeling pretty good. I was like, “Oh, I’m in a rhythm.” I never send her videos of me working out, and I sent her one that day, and she literally responds with, like, “Cool. I just worked out with the strongest man on Earth.”
BRIE: Literally! I think he’s in the Guinness Book of World Records.
FRANCO: And I was like, “It’s pretty impressive what I did, though…” Like, I’m not that big of a guy. I feel like proportionate to our sizes and what we were doing…
BRIE: And I agree. It was impressive.
I don’t know if you can say anything, but what can you tease about your costume and makeup? Are you allowed to say anything?
BRIE: I’m not saying a damn thing. You eat your heart out. You better just wait until this movie comes out to lay eyes on it all.
I understand.
“Everybody Wants to Do It”: Alison Brie Is Down for the ‘Community’ Movie

“Everybody’s schedules are tricky.”

Custom Image by Tania Hussain

So I’ve waited for as long as you guys for a Community movie, and Dan [Harmon] keeps on talking about it, so I keep thinking it’s actually going to happen. Is it actually going to happen?
BRIE: I don’t know. Obviously, everybody’s schedules are tricky, and maybe that’s the main thing. But I maintain an optimism. I’m always hearing, “Checking of avails.” So that’s always a good thing. “We’re checking new avails for later in the year.” So, again, like Dave was saying about the Now You See Me cast, we all love each other so much. Everybody wants to do it. So, there’s the willingness. I feel like that’s the first step is all of us just being like, “Let’s get the gang back together!” So, your guess is as good as mine.
You guys have written together in the past, and you have obviously directed. Are you thinking about directing again? Are you guys writing anything together?
BRIE: We’re thinking about it.
FRANCO: I wrote my first script on my own, and it’s kind of a thriller. Hopefully, that’s the next thing I get to do, but I’ve been sitting on it for a moment.
Can you tease a title, or you don’t want to say?
FRANCO: Can’t do that quite yet.
BRIE: No, don’t tease a title.
FRANCO: But I’m very excited about it. I think I feel mentally, maybe, kind of towards the end of this year, I’ll be ready and have the energy to commit myself to one thing for multiple years.
BRIE: I’m writing a horror-comedy with a new writing partner, Alice Stanley Jr. She’s a playwright. She’s so funny. She’s so smart. She has stuff in development with Adam McKay. I don’t know. We’re just in a groove with this horror-comedy. I don’t know where it’s going to go, but it’s wild. It’s fun. And we have another idea that we’ve been talking about, just stating. It’s a lot. We’re very genre-forward these days. Our minds are very focused on horror and thrillers.
FRANCO: Do you like horror movies?
I do like horror movies. But the truth is, Perri, who is right there…
FRANCO: Oh, we know Perri. We know and love Perri.
BRIE: We know Perri.

Image by Photagonist

Perri is a horror fanatic.
FRANCO: I know that. Perri, I remember, still, when I was first promoting The Rental, and no one had really seen it, seeing you, and you were so kind. It’s making me emotional, truly, bringing it up right now, and that’s embarrassing.
BRIE: Honey! Oh my god!
FRANCO: I just remember she was one of the first people, and not many people had seen it, and I was so vulnerable. I remember you being very, very kind.
BRIE: Perri!
FRANCO: Someone get me something! It’s vulnerable directing.
BRIE: Isn’t The Rental great? The Rental was so great. Oh my god, Dave is the best director, and he’s a phenomenal writer. I’m very excited for his next project.

Related

Dave Franco on ‘The Rental’, Sequel Ideas, and the Horror Potential of Airbnb

“We are all aware of the risks of staying in a stranger’s home, but we never think anything bad will actually happen to us.”

I have to wrap with you, but just one last thing. I wrote down for you, Alison, The Revisionist, and with you, Dave, I wrote down Regretting You, Josh Boone. What can you say about these things?
BRIE: I just shot The Revisionist, writer-director Alex Vlack’s first feature. André Holland, who’s here at the festival, costars Dustin Hoffman and Tom Sturridge. That was a fantastic shoot. The movie is super cerebral. It was really gratifying. It was another just low-budget passion project for everybody. The dialogue is so great. It almost felt like doing a play. It was really fun. These actors were such good actors. Working with André was so fun, and Alex, as a first-time director, came in really confidently and kind of let us play, which sounds so pretentious, but it was really gratifying as an acting piece. I felt a new freedom I hadn’t felt before. That was fun.
FRANCO: For Regretting You, in the Colleen Hoover-verse, if you will, I was excited to try something new for me. I’ve never done a straight drama that’s kind of this romantic thing, too. It’s scary to put yourself out on a limb and try something new, but I think that’s also the reason to do it.
100%. Listen, I really want to say to both of you I’m a really big fan of both of your work. I’m so thankful you came in today, and have a fantastic Sundance. You can go hug Perri after this thing is over.
FRANCO: Perri, am I correct in this story?
BRIE: Get a room, you guys.
FRANCO: It would be so embarrassing if she was like, “That wasn’t me.”
I know it was Perri. Horror and Perri are best friends. Good.
FRANCO: We love you, too, truly. You’ve always been so kind to us.
BRIE: Yes, thank you!
Special thanks to our 2025 partners at Sundance including presenting partner Rendezvous Capital and supporting partners Sommsation, The Wine Company, Hendrick’s Gin, neaū water, and Roxstar Entertainment.

Together

Release Date

January 26, 2025

Runtime

102 Minutes

Director

Michael Shanks

Writers

Michael Shanks