Mark Duplass is a man of many hats. He has either executive produced, written and/or acted in multiple projects at this year’s South by Southwest. The indie filmmaker and UT radio-television-film alumnus talked to The Daily Texan about what attracts him to certain projects, how his time at UT impacted him as a filmmaker and how his artistic motor kept running during a pandemic.

The Daily Texan: You have built your career off of independent filmmaking, which has involved countless budgetary restrictions. Now, with COVID-19 restrictions, do you think you were better able to adapt to these changes because of your indie past? 

Mark Duplass: Now what was sort of an unexpected surprise for me is that during this pandemic, I found that there was a return to form, more so than I expected, of getting down to cast and crews of under 10 people. … As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that unions are a good thing, and they exist for a reason, and job creation is a good thing. While I don’t need 100 people to make a movie or TV show, it’s good to support your ecosystem. I’ve been doing more of that lately (before the pandemic). 

But without the ability to do that, I found myself really lit up. I found myself feeling 25 again. So I made a ton of sh*t in this way. And it’s affected me. I’m now considering, as we start to roll out of the pandemic, what is this going to mean to me moving forward? Because I think if I’m totally honest with myself, at my core, I am an “arts and crafts” artist. I am at my best when I’m cooking for my crew and hanging lights and in there with the sound guy figuring it out and we’re all doing five jobs. It makes me feel vital and alive. I don’t like being in the director’s chair on my own while everyone is serving me lunch.

DT: How did your years at UT impact you as a filmmaker?

MD: I went to UT starting in 1995, and I got to film school at a very specific time and place which was (UT saying) … “Learn how to use the equipment, but don’t sit here and let us tell you how to tell the story. Once you learn your skills, get out.” And so I was really lucky to be in that environment at that time, that was (at) once a comfortable womb of film school where I could meet some friends that I'm still working with, but (they) also kicked me out and urged me to go make my stuff. 

DT: How did you prepare for your role as Adam in “Language Lessons,” who’s grieving the death of his husband and we only see him through video calls with his Spanish teacher (Natalie Morales)? 

MD: Grief came into it very organically, because Morales, who's our star and director and co-writer, you know, she was dealing with some stuff in her family. We were obviously dealing with the massive global grief scale of what was coming in the coronavirus pandemic, and I had recently lost my friend, (filmmaker) Lynn Shelton. We were in a community that was trying to figure out how to properly grieve when we couldn't get together. And I've always just tried to grab the things that are floating like orbs in my life and bring them into my movies and make them quickly so that they feel fresh, and then I'm still raw with them while I'm making them.