ComingSoon Senior Editor Brandon Schreur spoke to Chase Stokes and Sydney Taylor about starring in Marked Men: Rule + Shaw. Stokes and Taylor discussed working with director Nick Cassavetes, who previously directed 2004’s The Notebook, on the new romance movie, finding their character’s chemistry together, and more.
“Shaw, a pre-med student, has loved Rule, a rebellious tattoo artist, for years, though he’s only ever seen her as a family friend,” the synopsis reads. “After one uninhibited night, they’re forced to confront buried feelings while navigating grief, family expectations, and fear of commitment—testing whether love between two people from such different worlds can truly survive.”
Marked Men: Rule + Shaw will be shown in United States theaters on January 22 and 23, 2025.
Brandon Schreur: Chase, first of all, watching your career over the past couple of years has been really interesting. You’re obviously really well-known for Outer Banks, and I’m a big fan of Tell Me Your Secrets — I know it wasn’t the most popular show in the world, but I was totally into it and loved it. Then you were in McG’s Uglies movie. You get the script for Marked Men. What about this project stood out to you? What made you want to join it?
Chase Stokes: I think Nick [Cassavetes], for starters. He’s a legend of a director. His taste and the projects that he takes on are very intricate and delicate. He handles them all with care. I think that was the initial thing.
Then, I think it just felt like a really beautiful, fresh take on the genre and telling this story in a way that I hadn’t seen. These characters felt really real. They felt really honest and vulnerable. I think, for me as an artist, I want to tell those kinds of stories. I want to find characters and build worlds and places that have authenticity with really great people.
Sure. Sydney, I want to ask you something similar. I really enjoyed watching you in American Born Chinese. That show was great and you were great in that. You’re going right from that to this. Chase mentioned Nick; the guy who directed The Notebook is making Marked Men. What’s going through your mind when you’re getting this script for the first time? Is it a lot or are you into it right away?
Sydney Taylor: Oh, it’s definitely a lot. You almost don’t want to let yourself get there when you don’t have the job, yet. Then you’ll stress yourself out. I also couldn’t acknowledge that Chase was part of the job because then I’d stress myself out. I didn’t watch Outer Banks, sorry, but I knew who you were! I sent my initial tape in and didn’t expect to hear anything at all. I got an email back that Nick was attached and he would like me to tape again. I sent him new scenes. He wanted to have a meeting with me, personally, which was very not normal for the audition process. I had a chemistry test with Chase that I was horrifically nervous for. I showed up like 30 minutes early, sitting in a lobby just stressing myself out more.
I credit Nick for everything that he had the faith in me to do this. Giving the lead in a film to someone who has never done a film before is a ridiculous thing to do. I don’t know why he did that. But I couldn’t be more grateful and thankful to him for seeing it in me, that I could do it. I will love him eternally for that.
Building off that, too, The Notebook isn’t just a romance movie, it’s like the romance movie of a whole generation and a whole culture. Everyone knows Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling in that movie. When you’re coming on to this project, is there a lot of pressure? Like, are you thinking, ‘We could be making the next Notebook right now,’ or do you have to take it one day at a time to make sure that doesn’t get too much into your head?
Stokes: Nick gave me a really beautiful pep talk before we got into production. He said, ‘We had no idea that The Notebook was going to turn into what it was.’ If you look at its run, theatrically, it did well, but it didn’t blow away expectations. Then it went to DVD and just continued to build. He gave me a lot of grace to look at this and be like, ‘Hey man, there’s no pressure here. Let’s just tell the story.’ I think, despite that, there’s still that inevitable tie of looking at one of the most iconic romance films of all time and knowing you’re kind of following up on that in his roster of projects. But Syd, I don’t know about you, but I never really felt that. Like, I never felt like there was a demand, need, or pressure on our shoulders to be in that space with him.
Taylor: No, I didn’t feel that, either. I do think, when you’re making something with someone who is so notable, you can’t think about that stuff. I also think that, generally, what makes movies so special, and what makes The Notebook so special, is that they were making choices day-by-day as to what felt right to them — both as a director, and as actors and characters. They were deciding what is personally relevant, what makes sense for the story, and what makes sense for their hearts. I think that’s why it resonated with people so much. They weren’t trying to make a banger. They weren’t trying to kill it. They were just trying to do right by the story, and I think that’s what people really resonated with. Nick is really great at doing that.
I have to say, the way your characters interact and the vibe you guys bring to Marked Men, it did remind me a lot of The Notebook just because I thought the connection Rule and Shaw build feels so natural. And you guys have such good chemistry together. Can you tell me a little bit about what it was like finding that chemistry? How did you make it so believable? Was it a big, collaborative process where everyone was involved, or were you guys talking and hanging out on set a lot when the cameras were off to find these characters’ connection?
Stokes: I think, fun little story note — Syd, you mentioned earlier about your audition process. She made the boldest choice for one of these scenes to actually commit fully. It’s the scene in the tattoo shop. I remember, when you walked out for a minute, Nick put his arm around my shoulder and goes, ‘That’s our girl, isn’t it?’ I was like, ‘Yeah. Yeah. That’s our girl.’ I think, from that moment, I just knew that Syd was so game. As you can hear in the way she speaks, she’s wise behind her age and she has such a big, giant heart that she’s willing to give. She’s such an intuitive artist and a human being.
I think there’s that natural gravitation of ourselves to these characters. And I think we both just really wanted to do the story justice. We knew that we were in safe hands with Nick. Yes, there was so much time off camera — we all stayed in the same hotel, so we were all running around the halls, having Nerf wars.
Taylor: So many shenanigans. So many shenanigans.
Stokes: Ding dong ditch and everything. It was a giant sleepover. But I think we just felt so safe when bringing this to life. We really believed in it. We really believed in each other and allowed ourselves to fall into that. Which I think is rare! And is really, really beautiful.
Totally. Chase, something else I really liked about your character is his whole storyline involving his family. Marked Men doesn’t dwell on it a ton, it doesn’t feel exploitative in any kind of way, but, I mean, it raises some real issues, some real problems. That whole bit makes your character feel all the more real. There are some pretty intense moments that happen, too; There’s the one big one earlier on when everyone is sitting down to dinner. But then you come back to that later on, and there’s also the interactions your character has with his brother, played by Alexander Ludwig. I thought that was all great. Was that something that stood out to you about this character? Was it hard to do some of those more dramatic and serious moments like that?
Stokes: I mean, yeah, it’s intense. That scene at the dinner table was a lot. It does inform the audience a lot about the character. It does also inform the audience a lot about Shaw’s relationship with the family, as well. I think you really need those story points to really understand why this character really operates in the space that he does. I think, for me, at this point in my career, I always want to push the narrative and get those fun, juicy scenes where you can really dig your teeth into it. The script was full of them. It was a character we really got to play in the spaces of. Nick allowed me to go there. He, really, on the day was just like, ‘More. More. More.’ It was really a joy to play with people like Alexander and have really incredible scenes.
It’s one of those movies where I, fortunately, got to go into the editing room and help with the editing process. I got to see this film come to life in a way that I’ve never been able to before in my career. There’s a lot of really beautiful moments in this film that I’m really proud of, whether it be with Alexander, with the family, with Syd, or with other characters. It was a lot of fun to bring to life.
Sure, I imagine. Sydney, you have a lot of intense moments in Marked Men, too. There’s the whole conflict with your character’s ex-boyfriend at the end. But I also loved the dynamic you have with the Ayden character, played by Ella Balinska, your housemate. I thought that was really fun. What was it like filming those moments together? Because it seems like, on the screen, you were really vibing and you could feel the energy.
Taylor: Definitely. The energy coming through the screen was definitely the energy on set. Ella is one of the funniest people to do scenes with because she is so funny. Any funny line, improv. It’s almost annoying how funny all of her improv is. And all of it hits. Most people, when they do improv, a lot of it isn’t good, doesn’t work, and definitely doesn’t make the cut. Basically, every funny line she says is totally her. She nails that character so much.
I remember, when I found out that she was cast, I was really worried about that, that the dynamic would look awkward. She’s older than me, she’s much taller than me, and I was just worried that it wasn’t going to sell they were true, good friends. And I think that so didn’t happen. I think it works great and she was one of my favorite people — sorry, Chase — to do scenes with because she keeps the vibe so good. She even did one of them when she was sick. If her voice sounds a little scratchy, it’s because she was sick. She came into set and killed it anyway.
Stokes: It was actually my fault. I had a staph infection, and then Ella had to come in when she was sick with strep throat. It was chaos. But, yeah, those scenes are so insanely good, and I love an authentic friendship on screen. Ella and Syd just brought it to life in a way that had me belly-laughing at points.
Thanks to Chase Stokes and Sydney Taylor for discussing Marked Men: Rule + Shaw.
