Why I Want to be Friends With Mark Duplass

This year’s Sinatra Artist-in-Residence offered refreshing affirmations and advice for young artists in an exclusive interview

Mark Duplass’s responses have been edited for length and clarity.

When they say “never meet your heroes,” they’re not talking about Mark Duplass. It would be easy for the Emmy-winning producer, director, actor and writer to toss around platitudinal messages of aspiration and success, but his dedication to helping others find both passion and wellness in a career in the arts is genuine. 

“My hope is that I will get in there with a bunch of hungry young artists who have some misconceptions about what’s going to make them happy,” Duplass said when asked about his goals for his role as Sinatra Chair. 

Being open about his low points means he can share an honest perspective with students and help them find paths to success while prioritizing their mental well-being. “I can offer some guidance and model some fallibility that makes them feel that they can be a non-genius and still be successful,” Duplass said, “while at the same time getting a ton of rejuvenation from them and learning about things that I don’t know about because I’m siloed as an upper-class forty-year-old white dude in Los Angeles.”

This reciprocal exchange of perspective plays a large role in all of his endeavors. His artistic process is defined by the creative give-and-take of collaboration. “That’s it, man. That’s it. That’s what it’s all about,” he said. 

This became especially important for him in the more recent stages of his career as he aims to keep his art fresh by working with other creatives. “I’m more deeply valuing collaboration the older I get, and I think it’s because I’m seeing the lines of how I can repeat myself very easily as an artist,” he said. “When I’m with a collaborator, it naturally means it’s going to be vastly different than what I made before.” 

This also represents his emphasis on joint benefit. “It’s that perfect mix of: I’m giving somebody an opportunity who hasn’t had one and I’m reaping the benefits of shaking up my art and offering something different by having them bring their stuff to it,” he said.

Collaboration, as well as accepting help, are values Duplass hopes to spread to students during his time at Santa Clara. “Am I enough?,” the framing question for his debut address, is too often interpreted as “am I enough alone?,” which he devoutly considers an overwhelming concept and one that instills insecurity.

He doesn’t deny that individual art is possible. “But I don’t know how to make it,” he said. “I can’t do it. I need to collaborate. I need to be in relation to someone. I need people to buoy the areas that I’m not good at.”

Duplass’s well-articulated humility is both refreshing and comforting. Artistic success is too often chalked up to genius, which becomes a debilitatingly intimidating sentiment. For many aspiring artists, this emphasis on individuality can overpower their ambition. But he wants students to know that accepting help is, for himself and other “genetic B-minuses,” as he puts it, necessary for a life of sustainable and fulfilling artistic creation. 

This openness defines Duplass’s striking sincerity – and it’s clear that he takes honesty seriously in all aspects of his life. 

An outstanding example of this is his acknowledgement of his authority in the industry. It’s easy to be unethical. Duplass said, “you are often rewarded for Machiavellian behavior.” And he recognizes that, in his rise to fame and influence, he has many opportunities to do harm, be it intentional or not.

Generally, privilege in Hollywood is recognized on a surface level and culminates only in performative action. It’s rare for actors who benefit from their whiteness or maleness to speak on growth in their perspective – unless it’s to escape scandal – either in fear of being retroactively considered problematic or simply out of sheer ignorance. 

Duplass, though, is uniquely upfront both about his power and the growth he’s continuously participating in to use it constructively. “Once I realized that I had something to offer, what I realized I was doing was grabbing the first people around me quickly. If you do that, it’s going to mostly be white men. Because that’s just the nature of the industry,” he said. “It was pointed out to me that that was a gap, and I had to be more thoughtful about who I picked as collaborators.”

And he follows through on his word. The 2021 film Language Lessons, Natalie Morales’s directorial debut, was funded and co-written by Duplass, who also co-starred opposite her. “She didn’t need me, but I was a comfort,” he said. “I think that model is something I’m looking towards a lot more, not just with women but anyone in general who hasn’t been given a fair shot at [the director’s] chair.” 

Duplass is intentional in his choice of mentees and collaborators, valuing close creative relationships over the often superficial connections of Hollywood. “I’m actually not a social person. The way I connect with people is through making art,” he said. “And that’s the way I make my friends.”

Platonic relationships, as a foundational part of Duplass’s life, pervade his work. In many of his movies, including Language Lessons, the Creep franchise and Paddleton, screen time is overwhelmingly dedicated to a deep bond between his character and the character opposite him. 

“I think the reason I’m obsessed with platonic relationships in movies is that they’re always treated as the side relationship to the romantic relationship. I like taking them to the forefront so that they’re a little more new,” Duplass said. “Where intimacy comes for me is in my platonic relationships, so I tend to go there artistically.”

Most of this value of platonic intimacy comes from his relationship with his brother, Jay. But he also attributes part of his perspective on relationship dynamics to his (unsuccessful) venture into the music industry.

“I took a semester off of college doing it. I saw it as my semester abroad,” Duplass said. “I did it, I sold about four hundred CDs out of my van, lost money. One of the most enriching experiences of my life.” His three-month US tour taught him to acknowledge and learn from the randomness of life and the evolution of passions and careers. 

Duplass’s advice to college students is to embrace this chaos and uncertainty. “The only concrete, strong reason I can offer that one should go after what they want to study is: nothing of what we study in college leads empirically toward our careers. Maybe ten percent of it,” he said. “Your best bet is to follow what you’re most passionate and excited about because it’s a wild ride and you never know where you’re going to end up.”