Exclusive Interview: Virginia Gardner and Dylan Sprouse Discuss ‘Beautiful Wedding,’ Surprising Discoveries They Made About Their Co-Star, and More

Virginia Gardner and Dylan Sprouse are reuniting for the laugh-out-loud sequel, Beautiful Wedding.

Picking up where Beautiful Disaster left off, Abby and Travis wake up after a crazy night in Vegas as accidental newlyweds. With their best friends in tow and Abby’s six-figure poker winnings, they travel to Mexico, where they can enjoy a wild, lavish honeymoon. But as chaos follows “Trabby” at every turn, they must decide if they belong together—or if this marriage is another disaster waiting to happen.

Pop Culturalist caught up with Virginia and Dylan to discuss Beautiful Wedding, the film’s brilliant balance between comedy and drama, and more. Plus, the pair shares new discoveries they made about their co-star, and it’ll surprise you!

PC: Ginny, Beautiful Disaster was your first major venture into comedy. In this sequel, you all really doubled down on that and also incorporated a lot of physical humor. How much fun was that for you? What have you learned about your craft from being a part of both projects?
Virginia: Comedy really scared me. It still does. It’s a lot harder to make someone laugh than cry. Laughter is so specific in timing, and everything is so formulaic. But I enjoyed it. It was fun to double down, and thank God I trust Roger [Kumble], Dylan, and the cast around me to have faith in what I was doing because I had no idea if it was working or not. But it was a lot of fun. Ultimately, I built that trust muscle within myself to know that I can go big and silly. Hopefully, it worked. I guess we’ll find out.

PC: It definitely worked. Dylan, you’ve collaborated with Roger on three films now. How has that trust and those behind-the-scenes antics translated into your on-screen performance and the creative decisions you made throughout your portrayal of Travis?
Dylan: The more you work with someone, the more you create a shorthand and something that’s really fun on set. Roger and I have similar senses of humor, so I know if I’m going to get a laugh out of him, I know how to do it. If he’s going to get a laugh out of me, he can just suggest it, and we know exactly where to take it, even in ADR, it’s the same thing. It’s been wonderful, and I’m blessed to work with people again and again. That’s my favorite part about this job because the more you work with people, the easier it becomes to work with them. That’s something that I relish, actually.

PC: Ginny, it was really important to Roger that you all had the freedom to play and bring yourselves to these characters. As you stepped back into Abby’s shoes, was there an aspect of her that you were excited to dive back into? Is there an improvised scene that you’re really excited for audiences to see?
Virginia: That’s a good question. In the first film, Dylan got to do a lot of the physical training and stuff like that. In this movie, I was going to be in a swimsuit for most of it, so I worked with the same trainer that Dylan worked with on the first film. I was on a diet regimen and working out six times a week and doing a pretty intense training schedule. That was really fun. I really enjoyed that. That was a real treat for me. It was fun to do some of the fighting myself. Dylan got to do so much of it in the first film and in the second as well, but it was fun for me to step into the ring and get an opportunity to do some of the fight scenes too.

PC: What was your first indulgence meal after you finished filming?
Virginia: Probably McDonald’s. It’s always McDonald’s. All roads lead back to McDonald’s for me. It’s always McDonald’s.

Dylan: She’s a big McDonald’s gal, this one.

PC: Dylan, another exciting thing about this sequel is you’re able to dive deeper into existing relationships that weren’t as prominent in the first film. That blossoming relationship and friendship between Travis and America really helps ground your character. What was it like collaborating with Libe [Barer] to explore that dynamic that feels so paramount to your character?
Dylan: It was great. I love Libe. It’s funny because in most of the first movie, we barely had a scene together. In the second one, it was the first time we really got to talk to each other, which actually I’m pretty sure Libe’s character America says in the movie, “Have we ever talked like this?” That was fun because so much of what you don’t see is the four of us hanging out on the weekends or hanging out on set or waiting for the other scene to get to where we all hang out. It’s nice to have that groundedness come through. Through that scene, Abby and Travis are going to get closer too. That’s the joy of that scene in general.

PC: Ginny, what’s great about this film is it’s able to strike that balance between comedy and those heartfelt moments, which is your bread and butter. These two characters are on very different journeys. One is about growing up, and the other is about not running away. Can you talk a bit about that collaboration with Roger and finding those moments to highlight that contrast? How different is the preparation for those types of scenes?
Virginia: Roger’s really great at knowing if we’re going to go this hard in comedy, we need to balance it out with some grounded, genuine moments as well. So it was important to us, if we’re going to go so hard and so slapstick, we need to have some actual emotion in here too. Otherwise, what are we actually saying with this film? So he was really great. It’s definitely different. I’ll screw around all day and have fun on set, but if it’s a dramatic scene, it’s a little bit more private preparation for something like that. But it was really fun and it was great to be able to strike the balance of both. A lot of Judd Apatow movies do that really well. They’re quite timeless because they can hit all those different beats. We’re trying to have a good balance of both in this film.

PC: You all accomplished that. Dylan, some of the things that these characters say are completely unhinged in the best possible way. What is that process like finding how far you can push that dialogue? Was there a line that one of your costars surprised you with?
Dylan: I can’t name one off the top of my head, but that was a little more of the nature of this movie rather than the first one. We are unhinging a little bit to add more fun and more stress to the idea of being married so young and making it a vaudevillian exercise. I can’t think of one line, but I know that Steven Bauer’s improv was so wild and fun. We had a great time working with him on set because every time he would improv, it would just be a riot.

PC: The last time that we spoke, we learned that Ginny had a better WikiFeet rating than you, Dylan. As the two of you reunited for this project, were there any new discoveries that you made about each other?
Dylan: Every new discovery that Ginny has ever told me is one of the most horrifying things I’ve ever heard in my life. [laughs] I generally can never share in an interview with you.

Virginia: We’ve both been playing Baldur’s Gate.

Dylan: That is something that we did over the writers’ strike.

Virginia: It’s a great video game if you haven’t played it. We’re both Baldur’s Gate people.

Dylan: That is true.

Virginia: Have I learned anything else weird about you?

Dylan: You would have learned how good my house was in the Sims 4 had you downloaded it furnished like I asked.

Virginia: I didn’t know how to download it furnished. He sent me a text out of the blue and was like, “You got to check out my Sims house. It’s so sick.” So I downloaded it as a good friend to check out his house. It wasn’t my fault that it didn’t come furnished.

Dylan: Basically, she downloaded the shell of it. I will say for the record that I did admire how you were decorating it. You were like, “What is this room most like?” It was really cool.

Virginia: I was trying to honor his vision because there was this big-ass bathroom that was half the size of the house.

Dylan: Dude, I’m going to show you when I get home today. I’m going to text you a picture of it.

Virginia: I want to see the whole house because I was going a certain direction and I want to see if that was the direction you went.

Dylan: I’ll send it to you as soon as I get back.

Make sure to follow Virginia (Instagram) and Dylan (Twitter/Instagram). Beautiful Wedding is out in select theaters and wherever you stream movies.