In their latest film Together, Dave Franco and Alison Brie play a couple who experience a supernatural condition causing their bodies to stick together, leading to an unusual and intimate scene that proved particularly challenging to film. The real-life married pair have emphasized that no other actors could have taken on this intense role as effectively, especially in the film’s difficult “Dave Franco sticky bathroom scene.”
The movie released last month and is now available on digital platforms follows Tim and Millie, played by Franco and Brie, a long-term couple struggling with their relationship. Their move from the city to the suburbs for Millie’s career triggers tension, which escalates after a hike through the woods traps them overnight in a mysterious cave. Returning home, they find their bodies mysteriously attracted to each other like magnets, with skin fusing upon contact.
The Physical Demands of Portraying a Fused Couple
The unusual premise required Franco and Brie to spend extensive periods physically attached on set, making even routine activities like bathroom breaks complicated. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, they revealed that maintaining prosthetics meant they had to use the bathroom together between takes. Among the various scenes, the bathroom encounter midway through the movie, where their characters face the challenges of their affliction for the first time, emerged as one of the most physically taxing.
Set in a school bathroom, the scene shows Millie, newly employed as a teacher, meeting Tim during the day. A romantic encounter quickly turns awkward as their supernatural condition causes their skin—and eventually private parts—to stick together inside a cramped bathroom stall. This creates tension not only between the characters but also during filming.
The Bathroom Scene’s Unexpected Intensity and Humor
Alison Brie reflected on the experience, describing the bathroom scene as unexpectedly exhausting.
“The bathroom sequence was weirdly one of the most exhausting scenes to shoot, and we did not see that coming, given the nature of all the other scenes in the film,”
she said. Brie also called it her favorite moment in both the script and the finished movie.
Brie elaborated on the discomfort of filming in such a confined space, noting the claustrophobic atmosphere and the added difficulty of wearing heavy prosthetics layered with fake sweat makeup. She recalled humorously how Franco’s character was irritated during the process:
“He was annoying. He was not a fan of this.”
Complications escalated when another teacher unexpectedly entered the bathroom, heightening the stakes for Millie’s new teaching job. Brie noted that the on-set tension mirrored the characters’ own stress, saying,
“That was one of the only days when the inherent tension between the characters was hard to shake.”
A Closer Look at the Prosthetic Effects and Iconic Shots
Franco joked that the film includes one of the scariest moments when a prosthetic penis is shown stretching as his character hurriedly tries to separate from Millie.
“We realized last night at the premiere that the quick insert shot of the dick is maybe the biggest jump scare in the movie,”
he laughed.
The prosthetic shot was filmed separately on a sound stage, Brie revealed, describing the unusual setup:
“We had three different units shooting the scene in the cave, shooting blood dripping off a table, and then in one small corner of the room, it’s just me with my leg tied up and a dildo that’s attached to a pair of bike shorts.”
Balancing the Scene’s Length and Impact
While the explicit prosthetic shot was key to the scene’s impact, the tricky part was deciding how long to hold that moment on screen. Brie said,
“The trickiest thing to navigate was the amount of time that we should let that shot exist in the movie.”
She recalled how an early cut lingered on the stretched prosthetic much longer than necessary.
Franco shared a humorous insight drawn from a previous film, Neighbors, where the character played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse had a large prosthetic penis that featured too prominently.
“You realize a little bit of dick goes a long way,”
he joked, explaining how test audiences made clear they preferred it on screen sparingly.
Ultimately, filmmakers settled on a precise 14-frame appearance of the shot, which Franco described as the “perfect amount.” Brie quipped, “You found the magic number,” to which Franco added,
“That was the best piece of advice I imparted to our director.”
Behind the Scenes of the Prosthetic Creation
Franco clarified that he had no creative input regarding the size or design of the prosthetic used for his character.
“This is a really low-budget movie,”
he explained, adding that Larry Van Duynhoven, the practical effects artist, created the prosthetics on short notice between other jobs, leaving the actors to see the pieces only on shooting mornings.
Still, Franco confessed he might have preferred a different look:
“That said, if I could have given any notes, would I have made it a little thicker? Sure.”
Brie reminded that the appearance of the prosthetic was exaggerated due to stretching,
“You have to remember that you’re seeing it really stretched out.”
Director’s Perspective on the Controversial Scene
Michael Shanks, the film’s director, shared that the idea for the infamous bathroom scene originated from his wife. Initially, he worried it might be “too gross” or “too far.” However, upon reflection, he acknowledged, “Well, maybe she’s right.” In the end, he considers it the film’s best scene.
