Alison Brie And Dave Franco Want To Freak You Out Together [Exclusive Interview]

How deeply "Together" gets under your skin likely correlates with your relationship status. For the single, it's an outlandish, absurd romp with characters seemingly being punished by an otherworldly threat for the crime of being a little co-dependent. It's literally messy, it's twisted, and it's oddly delightful — kind of like a first date you're relieved never turned into a second, but which makes for a great story to tell at parties. If you're in a new relationship, it feels like a cautionary tale about the dangers of codependency, but if you're someone who has been in a committed relationship, "Together" is disgustingly romantic. One of the best-reviewed horror films of 2025, writer/director Michael Shanks' "Together" wisely elected to cast Alison Brie and Dave Franco — a real-life couple — to play the couple at the center of its story.

While the duo had their breakthrough roles in the industry in the comedy scene through "Community" for Brie and 2010s movies like "21 Jump Street" for Franco, they've both proven to have a genuine knack for adventurous genre films. The pair even met for the first time during auditions for Wes Craven's "Scream 4," so horror has always been foundational to their lives as a couple. As such, "Together" is the perfect outlet for Brie and Franco's talents — a story about relationships meant to be gasped at, laughed through, and maybe debated afterward with a crowd. After years of isolation in our culture of hyper-individualism, "Together" is a movie that manages to both stoke our suspicion of intimacy and remind us how much we need it.

I recently sat down with Brie and Franco to talk about their experience making "Together," as well as what being a real couple brought to their performances in one of the best horror films of the year.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

For the last decade or so, my wife and I have had this running joke of like, "I love you so much, I just want to crawl in your skin." But now that you have both actually lived this over-exaggerated experience, what are some things that you learned about yourselves as individuals, as well as yourself as a couple being connected like this?

Franco: We definitely could be considered codependent.

Brie: We're borderline. I don't think we're really codependent.

Franco: But I do think that we both love our solo time. And that's almost forced upon us when we are working on separate projects.

Brie: I do think this job weirdly reinforced how much we love working together. Dave is my favorite person in the world to work with, and it's a great comfort to have that person with you on set, and it also stressed the importance of doing our jobs that we do separately. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Franco: And it's nice to miss each other.

Most people, when they put themselves through the absolute hell that is a production, go their separate ways after wrap, but that's not the case for the two of you. Did you have to be like, "I just need to lock myself in this bathroom for a little bit?" Or was it just, "Eh, we're good?"

Franco: Believe it or not, I don't think we spent a second apart during that entire production. And I wouldn't have it any other way. This was a sprint. It was very intense, a very ambitious movie for the budget that we had. And it was nice to go home at the end of the day and to just unwind and recap everything and just lean on each other emotionally, because also we were being very vulnerable and exposed.

Brie: Both of us are taking a lot of risks in this movie on a lot of different levels. So it was nice always to debrief the day, check in, [and ask] how we thought it went. Which was always great. Also, get to do a little bit of work and prepare for the next scene. We shot it very quickly. We seldom had time for more than one or two takes per setup for performance, so it was really nice to just have each other right before we went to bed. "Oh, let's look at tomorrow's scene. Is there anything we need to talk through character-wise, emotion-wise?"

Franco: Just so we could hit the ground running the next day.

Brie: It was really advantageous in that way.

I love that you brought up the emotional side of things, because I've talked to a lot of people who have done horror. And they always say there gets to a certain point where you know that you're acting, but sometimes your body doesn't know that you're acting.

Franco: Oh, yeah.

Brie: 100%, the stress of it all. You're genuinely stressing yourself out.

Totally. You're just firing off all of the chemical responses in your body. But then on top of that, you're also watching a person that you love in real life be in agony. And so you're going to spark all of those reflexive responses. How would you keep yourselves in check, if you did at all?

Franco: Ooh. I feel like we almost didn't have time to even take it all in. We were just in this whirlwind; the shoot was only 21 days.

Brie: At the end of the day, we were just so exhausted. We would watch half an episode of "One Day" on Netflix.

Franco: Those episodes are pretty short.

Brie: They're very short, but we were just about to fall asleep. The show was very good, romantic.

Franco: We love the show. We weren't stopping halfway because we were bored. We were just exhausted! [laughs]

Brie: I also think this horror movie is unique in that the thing that is coming after us is within ourselves. So, it's different types of receptors that we're setting off, right? We're putting ourselves through it, rather than reacting to an outside source, and maybe it's easier to unwind from that. I'm like, "Well, I can never escape myself. So, I've got to just deal."

I was talking to [writer/director] Michael Shanks earlier about how I think body horror is my favorite cinematic language. And so I'm going to ask you the same question I asked him: What are some body horror movies that maybe you watched to get yourself in the headspace of something that hopefully none of us will ever actually experience?

Franco: "The Fly," of course. "The Thing."

Brie: I mean, this wasn't in preparation for this movie, but I just keep wanting to talk about "The Ugly Stepsister."

Oh, I will talk about it with you all day.

Brie: God, I had so much fun watching that movie.

Franco: That's a great time.

Brie: Screaming, laughing through my fingers like, "Oh, what a fun movie."

Franco: The final sequence in that film, the [SPOILER]? That's an all-timer.

But that was my first thought when I was watching this movie with the [SPOILER] and I was like, "Oh, we're in 'Ugly Stepsister' land now. Beautiful. I'm so on board." The poor person sitting next to me at this screening was just crawling into ... I think she fused with the seat at one point because she was so grossed out by all of it.

Brie & Franco: Yes! [laughs]

On that note, when you start to see the movie come together and you're starting to see the final prosthetics, the puppet of Dave ... was there ever a moment where you're like, "This is a lot. And I'm glad that I'm seeing how the sausage is made, because otherwise this would set me off?"

Brie: Not in a scary way. When you're inside, it's all fun. It feels like Halloween.

Franco: And we're weirdos. We like pushing things to the limits.

Brie: We love puppets of ourselves!

Franco: We're drawn to projects that are just trying to push the envelope and give you something that you've never seen before. And on set, there was a lot of prosthetics and a lot of things that were practically made, which made it easier for us to react off of in the moments. But of course, there were certain VFX that were done in post that we got to see for the first time. And we were like, "Oh, this is incredible."

Brie: Those were the scarier days. Because of the practical effects, it's so cool to see it and know it and feel it on your body and be able to play off of it. Moments like the final sequence in the film are a mystery to us. That's a real leap of faith while we're standing there fully nude shooting it, going, "I hope this turns out okay."

Especially whenever the body moves. Whenever I can see the parts of the joints and the muscles ... and really, it's the sound for me.

Brie: Totally.

Franco: The sound design in this movie is awesome.

Brie: So, that would just be Dave moving his own arm muscle in a weird way or his real neck. There were certain things that he planned: elaborate, practical effects for a neck double with a prosthetic on. But then he was doing stuff with his own neck-

Franco: Big Adam's apple- [laughs]

Brie: That on the day that Shanks would be like, "I mean, shoot that."

I mean, if it works, it works. And if it's in camera, it's even better.

Brie & Franco: Exactly.

Much of the marketing for this movie has been centered on the two of you as a couple. I also have so many friends who have been taking pictures of biting lips outside the billboard. So, I think the date night aspect of this movie has sold beautifully. What about single people? Why should they come see "Together?"

Brie: They've got to see it too. Maybe they'll find love at the theater.

Franco: I think we're doing a full single screening to try to bring some people together. It's almost like a date night.

"Together" speed dating?!

Dave Franco: That's what it is! I think that's what it's called. (If you're in Los Angeles, they really are doing this, and you can purchase tickets here.)

Brie: You should have to glue your hands together for the three minutes that you're on your speed date. [laughs] Here's what I would say is just that this movie is really fun to watch with an audience. It's not about being in a couple or being single. It's about watching it with a group of people and having that communal experience that's so important to horror as a genre. This movie has so many surprises, and there's a good amount of comedy to it as well, and there are some laughs. I just think it's really fun to get to do that with other people.

Franco: And I think some single people will watch it and be like, "That's right."

Brie: "I'm happy that I'm single."

I have time for one last question for you. If you had to be actually fused together in real life, pick a body part, which one do you think you could deal with being fused together?

Franco: The easiest version would be something on the arm.

Brie: I think the elbow would give us some movement.

Franco: Yeah. We could live life like that. You don't want it to be legs; you don't want to hobble around.

Brie: That's true. We don't want to be running a three-legged race.

Franco: Quoting the movie now, but yeah. Elbow, let's go with elbow.

Brie: A boring, but practical answer. [laughs]

"Together" is now playing in theaters everywhere.