When Sydney Sweeney was filming a romantic comedy Anyone but you with Dermot Mulroney, she took the opportunity to use her costar’s classic as inspiration.
In the new issue of PEOPLE, Sweeney, 26, says she and director Will Gluck wanted to “bring that old rom-com nostalgia back” to the entire cast, so they showed My best friend’s wedding.
“[It’s] honestly one of the best of all time,” says Sweeney. Not to mention Mulroney, 60, who starred in the 1997 classic with Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz and Rupert Everett, was on hand to share his memories while filming.
“We are so happy to have Dermot in this film with us,” Sweeney continues. “So we put it [a screening] together, asked Dermot if he would go along with it. To be honest, we all stared when Dermot was just talking about his experience and his love for it.”
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“It was [at] a private theater in this office building that we got and it was a very intimate experience,” says Sweeney. “It felt like a very, very magical moment.”
Cameron Diaz and Dermot Mulroney in the movie ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’.
The Everett Collection
It adds Glen Powell, who plays Sweeney’s lover Anyone but you“It was such a special thing to watch Dermot watching My best friend’s weddingand he hasn’t seen it since he filmed it or since the premiere.”
Weddingin which Roberts plays a food critic who tries to sabotage the relationship between her best friend (Mulroney) and his young fiancée (Cameron Diaz), helped make Mulroney a star.
Mulroney shared some tips with Powell about appearing in a romantic comedy. “He said, ‘Don’t be ashamed to be a man in a romantic room. Representing love in movies is the most beautiful thing you can do,’” recalls Powell.
Those words of wisdom “really made me think about the experience in a completely different way,” he continues. “My best friend’s wedding is in a way a real tonal compensation for this film. A lot of people after watching our film say it’s very similar to My Best Friend’s Wedding.”
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Dermot Mulroney and Julia Roberts in ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’.
Everett
IN Anyone but youPowell plays Ben, a charismatic financial expert who meets Boston University law student Bea (Sydney Sweeney) at a coffee shop.
After their first (and only) date goes south, they later find themselves at the same destination wedding in Australia.
To prevent their well-meaning loved ones (including Bea’s parents, played by Mulroney and Rachel Griffiths) from interfering in their personal lives, Ben and Bea pretend to be a couple while on the run.
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“I personally like the laughs and the tears at the end of the movie,” says Powell. “I cry and laugh at the same time. I think our film fulfills that. I think all great rom-coms provide that feeling. If you can make the audience laugh at the end of the movie, you’re good.”
Mulroney seems eager to make viewers laugh and cry again. At the New York premiere of Anyone But You on December 11, the actor said Party tonight would be ready to continue My best friend’s wedding.
“Yes, no, I’m in!” Mulroney said. “I’m delighted to hear that Julia has finally, you know, come to her senses.”
His response came after Roberts mentioned she’d like to revisit the rom-com during recent appearances on the Watch what’s happening live and CBS Morning.
“I was amazed to hear her kind compliments this weekend,” Mulroney continued Party tonight. “You know I’d love to work with her any day of the week, month or year.”
Anyone but you it’s in theaters on December 22.
For more on Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE.
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