If Dylan O’Brien plays the drums on Taylor Swift’s upcoming new album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” he’s certainly not giving away that scoop. “Oh, I can’t say!” the actor told me Tuesday night at the premiere of his new indie “Twinless” at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. “You know, I can’t say.”
O’Brien’s drum-playing was credited on “Snow on the Beach” from Swift’s 2022 album, “Midnights.” “It was an all-time bucket-lister for me,” he said.
He also starred opposite Swift and Sadie Sink (“Stranger Things”) in Swift’s “All Too Well: The Short Film.”
O’Brien insists he hasn’t asked Swift to listen to her new album. “I respect the space,” he said.
In “Twinless,” a dark comedy with a twist you will not see coming, O’Brien and James Sweeney star as Roman and Dennis, new friends who meet at a support group for people whose twins have died. O’Brien pulls double duty, playing Roman as well as his late identical gay twin Rocky in flashbacks.
“I was like, ‘What the fuck is this?’” O’Brien said of first reading the script. “And I just thought it was amazing. I did my homework on [Sweeney] and thought was he was just incredible and talented and kind of shocked that it ended up anywhere near me.”
O’Brien was attached to the project for about five years before filming finally began. “A lot happened over the years,” he said, adding, “It just continued to be the most special thing to me. It continued to be the best thing I read all year each of those years and it just grew on me more and more. I just thought it was so special and that never went away. It was more like, ‘I’ve got to do this.’”
As for the now much-discussed mustache he grew for his work as Rocky, O’Brien cracked, “I’ve been waiting to whip it out. I really have.”
Sweeney, who wrote and directed the film, noted, “It was a gradual shaving back because we wanted to get the thickness right. He was sending me the night before [filming began] layering it back lack by layer until we got the perfect length.”
The stache was O’Brien’s idea. Sweeney said, “Originally, we were discussing a mullet, but we felt that wasn’t the right direction.”
Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions will release “Twinless” in theaters on Sept. 5.
See more photos from the “Twinless” premiere below.
Aisling Franciosi, James Sweeney, Dylan O’Brien, Chris Perfetti at the “Twinless” Los Angeles Premiere held at the Pacific Design Center on September 02, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images)
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Eric d’Arbeloff, David Permut, Aisling Franciosi, James Sweeney, Dylan O’Brien, Chris Perfetti, Howard Cohen at the “Twinless” Los Angeles Premiere held at the Pacific Design Center on September 02, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images)
Variety via Getty Images
Tyler Posey at the “Twinless” Los Angeles Premiere held at the Pacific Design Center on September 02, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images)
Variety via Getty Images
Jaron Lowenstein, Evan Lowenstein at the “Twinless” Los Angeles Premiere held at the Pacific Design Center on September 02, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images)
Variety via Getty Images
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