Me and Earl and the Dying Girl stars Thomas Mann, Olivia Cooke and RJ Cyler face the unknown

THE lives of the three young actors who star in the sensational new film Me and Earl and the Dying Girl have changed forever. Will they cope?

SINCE their little movie made a big splash at Sundance back in January, sparking a bidding war between distributors, the young stars of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl have been on the ride of their lives.

Now Thomas Mann, Olivia Cooke and RJ Cyler are realising time has come for the “gruesome threesome” (as Cooke calls them) to go make other films, with other people.

“Honestly, it’s going to be depressing. I won’t know how to function,” says Mann, the Texan who, at almost 24, is the eldest of the three. “I have no plans after this.”

and, the eldest at 24, Texan-born Thomas Mann. Pictures: Urs Flueeler / Keystone via AP

The stairs to stardom have opened for Me and Earl and the Dying Girl stars Olivia Cooke.

It’s easy not only to see how the Me and Earl and the Dying Girl trio became so attached to each other, but also how viewers became so attached to their film.

Based on a 2012 novel, the “Me” of the movie is Greg (Mann), an aimless kid who has deliberately avoided slotting into any high school clique.

Greg hangs out in the cool teacher’s office at lunchtime watching art house movies with his “co-worker” Earl (Cyler), a teen from the wrong side of the tracks. The pair spend the rest of their days crafting shonky remakes of movie classics, like Senior Citizen Kane, Eyes Wide Butt and Sockwork Orange.

Olivia Cooke and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon at a screening of the film in Locarno, Switzerland. Picture: Vittorio Zunino Celotto / Getty Images

They boys are forced out of their self-imposed bubble — and into some serious growing up — when Greg’s mum makes him go talk to Rachel (Cooke), a classmate who has just been diagnosed with leukaemia.

It’s a quirky, funny tear-jerker; as much a one-off as Juno or Napoleon Dynamite or Little Miss Sunshine.

Mann, whose resume includes Project X and Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, reckons it’s his first real “grown up” role.

“It feels like my most mature role, even though I’m playing a character who’s relatively immature,” says Mann. “I still feel like a teenager — I think a lot of people still feel like they’re inadequate or still worry about where they fit in the world. It’s not like I had to remember what it felt like to be a teenager.”

Thomas Mann and Olivia Cooke’s lives are never going to be the same after the success of their first feature film. Picture: Vittorio Zunino Celotto / Getty Images

Cooke, a 21-year-old who hides all traces of her thick Manchester accent to play an American, says it’s the only high-school movie she ever need make.

“You get so many shit high school movie scripts, then we got one that was an absolute diamond. It was just so perfect and so honest that to do another high school movie would be a complete disservice to your career.”

As for Cyler, 20, well, he doesn’t have a lot to compare it to. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl was his first job as a professional actor.

“Starting out in acting you’re just ready to get on a set — that’s the main goal. Then when I read the script, I felt lucky that I even got to audition for it. When I got the part, it was a dream come true.”

Having done one film, is he convinced acting is his path?

“Oh yeah. This is where RJ’s gonna be ...”

Mann interjects: “He’s got like six more jobs lined up!”

Cooke: “He’s more famous than us!”

“I can say,” Cyler continues, “Thomas and Olivia have made me way pickier with projects — it can’t have any flaws or anything, it has to be the perfect Mona Lisa painting. Or at least close.”

While Cyler is in new demand, Mann was already on the Hollywood radar, having shot about 10 films in the last two years alone.

Cooke had to press pause for a little while after Me and Earl, to let her commitment to playing a girl with leukaemia ... grow back.

“I didn’t get jobs for ages after I shaved my head,” she explains. “It wasn’t until maybe eight months later that I got another job. Even though you could look at a picture of me and see me with hair, casting directors in Hollywood have no imagination. Even if you’ve got a different hair colour they’re like, ‘Oh, she doesn’t really look right ...’ So it was even worse when I had absolutely no hair and looked like a 12-year-old boy.”

The film Me And Earl And The Dying Girl was RJ Cyler’s first professional job. Picture: Vittorio Zunino Celotto / Getty Images

At that point, she was probably rueing letting Cyler and Mann help with the haircut.

“I did a real shoddy job on the back,” admits Mann. “But it was important for our characters to see her go through that, to understand the weight of it.”

Hair regrets aside, the trio will go their separate ways knowing they’ve made something special.

“It’s completely ruined any other experience for me because it’s been so overwhelmingly positive,” says Mann. “It is so rare. I’m really sad that the whole experience has come full circle. Everything now is like: before and after Me and Earl.”

Maybe he should quit while he’s ahead. Go be a hairdresser.

“I think I will.”

ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL OPENS TODAY

Originally published as Me and Earl and the Dying Girl stars Thomas Mann, Olivia Cooke and RJ Cyler face the unknown