Kyle Allen Interview: The In Between

The In Between‘s heartbreaking love story revolves around the death of Kyle Allen’s Skylar, though the actor gets plenty of screentime through the Paramount+ movie’s time-jumping narrative style. Emotionally distant from her adopted parents, Joey King’s Tessa opens herself up to Skylar, though their relationship shatters when a car accident kills her boyfriend. A series of strange occurrences lead Tessa to believe that Skylar is contacting her from a stage of the afterlife known as the “in between” and enlists her friend Shannon (Celeste O’Connor) in attempting to communicate with him. Allen recently appeared in Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of West Side Story, playing the role of Balkan.

Screen Rant spoke with Allen about Skylar’s multifaceted personality in The In Between and the supernatural aspect of shooting the film.

Screen Rant: First of all, I thought you and Joey really clicked well on screen. What was it like working with her and building that chemistry?

Kyle Allen: It was spectacular. I am doing all in my power to do another movie with her. She’s fantastic. We had so much fun and I learned so much from her. She is just a blast, makes everyone around her laugh every single day. [She] is in such a positive mood and is a total professional. It was a masterclass.

Even though this movie centers around your character’s death, we still get to know him through flashbacks. Can you tell me about Skylar and his relationship with Tessa?

Kyle Allen: Yeah, I think Skylar represents the opposite, in a lot of ways, to Tessa’s character. He’s very, very different from her. He has been hurt by life. His parents are going through something. But really, he’s a very hopeful hopeless romantic, whereas Joey’s character, Tessa, is far more reserved and expects the worst possible thing to happen. So you’ve got this puppy dog like, “everything’s going to work out great,” and then a much different color. I think they compliment each other really well and learn a lot from each other.

I also like how Skylar’s a bit of a polyglot, and I have to ask you, can you speak more than one language in real life?

Kyle Allen: No. I can count to 10 in a bunch of different languages. I took about three years of French. That’s unfortunately all I got. 

If you could speak another language, which one would it be?

Kyle Allen: It’d probably be French because I’m so close. I’m almost there [laughs].

Since The In Between deals with the supernatural, have you ever had a supernatural or paranormal experience?

Kyle Allen: I’ve certainly had weird things happen. I feel like the whole project is pretty supernatural. I’m going to be cheesy, but I feel like making a film is supernatural [laughs]. You just never know how it’s going to go. Yet, it goes, and it works out. 

Do you think that this “in between” aspect of the afterlife really exists?

Kyle Allen: Honestly, why not? The In Between is created off of endless accounts of these sorts of things happening to people. If it’s real for that many people, then there’s definitely something to it. People are inherently intelligent, so if you listen to those people and take them seriously, I say, why not?

The In Between premieres February 11 on Paramount+.

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