Pop-Culturalist.com

In the gripping thriller Aftermath, Dylan Sprouse and Mason Gooding face off as formidable opponents whose clash takes center stage amidst life-or-death stakes. The plot follows a former Army ranger, portrayed by Sprouse, who becomes trapped on Boston’s Tobin Bridge after a devastating explosion. Using his elite training, he must navigate a perilous situation to protect his sister and fellow captives from a group of vengeful ex-military contractors, led by Gooding’s character. Their portrayals bring rich conflict and depth to the narrative, intertwining intense action with the emotional weight of sacrifice and resilience.

Pop Culturalist spoke with Dylan Sprouse and Mason Gooding about their electrifying on-screen rivalry in this heart-pounding flick. They discussed how they infused their roles with complexity—one character driven by loyalty and survival instincts, the other by revenge and inner turmoil. The actors delved into their process for creating authentic tension, the intricacies of working together, and the rigorous preparation behind the film’s high-energy action sequences.

PC: You’ve both done such a brilliant job throughout your careers of taking on a variety of roles. Each one is different from the last, keeping audiences and your fans guessing what you’ll do next. What was it about Aftermath and your respective characters that excited each of you?
Dylan: I’m new to the world of action movies, but I find the combination of physical training for an action film and the emotional journey of performing as the character to be incredibly interesting. It’s very gratifying and fun, especially when I can work with someone like Mason, who I knew even before filming would be great on screen. We like the same stuff, so I knew sparring on set with knives and fake guns was going to be like every boy’s dream. It’s what we enjoy doing anyway. I loved the story of the unwitting participant on this bridge during a terrorism scenario. Plus, I wanted to make a movie that my dad would watch. This is the kind of movie he’d enjoy—fun, straightforward, no bells and whistles. It’s an action movie set on a bridge where friends beat the hell out of each other. I thought, “This is going to be a great time.”

Mason: The thought process began and ended when I saw Dylan’s name in the breakdown and realized I hadn’t worked with him yet. Add to that the fact that his reputation..

Dylan: Was immense and growing. [laughs]

Mason: …precedes him. I heard he’s not only great to work with but also a physical specimen when it comes to choreography. I was already a fan of his personally. He’s a rad guy. So, when I got an opportunity to be part of one of my favorite genres with someone I genuinely enjoy being around, and the script included a scene where they jump over a hole with a motorcycle and an explosion…I mean, come on. I’m pretty easy to please. [laughs] If there’s a guy jumping over something on fire with a motorcycle, that’s pretty neat.

Combining that with what Dylan mentioned about revisiting that feeling of playing as a kid—creating save-the-school scenarios, choreographing fights, and doing it all professionally—along with the camaraderie of my relationship with Dylan and Patrick [Lussier], who is a very giving and thoughtful director, made it special. He allows for what I believe is the essence of why I started acting in the first place: to have new experiences, capture them on camera, and provide audiences with something they haven’t seen before.

Dylan: Mason, in your save-the-school scenarios, who are the villains?

Mason: They were gremlins from Gremlins because they scared me as a kid.

Dylan: Oh, really?

Mason: It was either gremlins or necromorphs from Dead Space—they’re zombies. I always thought, “If a zombie apocalypse happened in my school, I would absolutely save my crush from being eaten by zombies.” I didn’t need to say that, but you asked.

Dylan: This is the second time you’ve mentioned the save-the-school scenario. I just wanted to know who you were saving it from.

Mason: Gremlins are also little punks. They have those weird haircuts.

Dylan: It wasn’t their fault. They got wet and multiplied. Mogwai is pretty cute.

Mason: They’re fine, but if my school is under attack, I have to do what I have to do to save it.

PC: The two of you have wild imaginations. They don’t make action films like this anymore. Dylan, outside of this being really engaging, there’s an interesting contrast between your character and Mason’s, where they’ve both been through the unimaginable, yet one sees the good in others, and the other has taken things to the extreme. When you’re playing a character who is suffering from PTSD, how do you create that space for yourself to explore both his strength and vulnerability and find your way in?
Mason: That’s a great question.

Dylan: That is a great question. I was lucky enough to have active military personnel and veterans on set to help me when I was asking those questions because I didn’t want it to look cliché or tongue-in-cheek. PTSD is a very serious issue, and it’s not something I wanted to take lightly, even though there can be moments of levity in the movie. I didn’t want that to be the source of humor. It’s a serious struggle, and my goal was to represent it accurately and thoughtfully. My father was a former Navy man, so I understood that these things need to be approached with care.

To your point, the process of telling that healing journey was what made it compelling to portray. Both of these characters are dealing with similar degrees of PTSD and trauma, but their paths to healing are what set them apart. We wanted to make sure that came through on screen. You can still be suffering while being a hero, and you can make both right and wrong choices while dealing with trauma. That’s a story within action movies that’s worth telling. I’m glad that came across.

PC: It definitely did. Mason, you have such a knack for bringing depth to characters who could easily fall into tropes or stereotypes. Through your performances, you add contrasting layers that make audiences question how they should feel about them. As an actor, how have you been able to toe that line so seamlessly and play in that gray area while also approaching them without any biases?
Mason: Thank you. It depends on the character’s relationship to my own experiences and how it contrasts with who I am. For example, in the early part of my career, I often played popular, cool jocks or people who were socially successful. I wasn’t that in high school, so I had the perspective to understand why those people were beloved, whether romantically or socially. Growing up and analyzing the methodology behind “popularity” or being liked allowed me, someone who wasn’t that way, to portray those roles authentically in Booksmart or Love, Victor.

The challenge with a character like Romeo in Aftermath was finding commonalities or contrasts between who I am and who he is, and making it feel like the audience is experiencing something fresh. A lot of that comes from his interactions with someone like Eric, who is so heroic and earnest. I approached Romeo’s desire to manipulate or destroy as an extension of my understanding from when I was younger—understanding why people behave the way they do, why they are successful in certain ways, and either wanting to emulate or disrupt that.

At the end of the day, humans are nuanced and full of dualities. The best way to portray someone on screen is not only to identify what they want but to convey how they achieve it through a psychological or analytical lens that feels organic to their behavior. It’s about finding that duality in each character. Hopefully, I succeeded. If not, at least I’m having a great time trying.

Dylan: If not, I’ll tell you. “Hey, I just saw your new movie, and I don’t think you succeeded in that.”

Mason: “There’s no duality here, man. I’m sorry to break it to you.”

Dylan: I don’t know what kind of psycho-analytics you were doing. [laughs]

Mason: That’s why they call me one-dimensional. [laughs]

Make sure to follow Dylan (Instagram) and Mason (Instagram). Aftermath is in select theaters and On Digital on November 1st.