Out Actor Brandon Flynn Talks Binge Watching with Parker Posey, Adapting 'Rent Boy,' and Lisa Kudrow's Motherly Advice

Out actor Brandon Flynn has moved on from "13 Reasons Why," where he portrayed former addict and sex worker Justin Foley. The 31-year-old recently portrayed Marlon Brando in the off-Broadway play "The Duke of 42nd Street," wed his husband, (Canadian playwright and filmmaker Jordan Tannahill), and now stars in a comedic horror flick boasting an array of A-listers and the faux-chilling title "The Parenting," now available to stream on Max.

Chatting with GQ, Flynn gave the lowdown on the friendships he forged while on location and on the set for the movie, which filmed in Massachusetts. He also confided that he's nude beach-bound for a little downtime, headed with Tannahill for Mexico's Zipolite beach.

Some rest and relaxation might be well in order for the busy thesp, who stars in "The Parenting" as one-half of a gay couple who invite their parents to a weekend retreat in a demon-haunted house. (The film takes place in New England, after all, a setting for many a spooky sojourn in menacing manses with mansard roofs.)

In director Craig Johnson's ("The Skeleton Twins," "Alex Strangelove") movie, Flynn's character, Josh, is the son of Lisa Kudrow's Liddy and Dean Norris' Cliff, while his husband, Rohan, is the son of Edie Falco's Sharon and Brian Cox's Frank. Parker Posey (as the owner of the haunted house) and Vivian Bang round out the cast.

"The Parenting" was made three years ago, but only premiered last week on Max. Casting his mind back, Flynn – also a veteran of the 2022 revamp of "Hellraiser," starring trans actor Jamie Clayton – recalled his excitement at working with the film's cast.

"Craig called me and said, 'You're going to do the movie.' At that point, Nik Dodani and I had done chemistry reads together, and he's like, 'Nik's going to be your partner.' I was like, 'Oh, my God, amazing. Who's my mom?' He's like, 'Lisa Kudrow.' I was like, 'What?'" he said.

"Of course, when he told me Edie Falco was in it, I literally cried because I have been such a hardcore fan of hers," Flynn continued, "Then yeah, of course, Brian Cox and Dean Norris and Parker Posey. I was just like, 'Whoa, this is so cool.'"

The rush was tempered, though. "I was nervous as all hell," Flynn admitted. "I don't consider myself a comedic actor by any means. I think I'm goofy in real life and silly and I like laughing, but the form of comedy, I don't understand, nor do I feel versed in it so it was a really nerve-racking experience."

"That's where Lisa Kudrow was so awesome," the young actor added. "She'd be like, 'That was really funny, what you just did,' giving me license to improv and really just see what oddball takes that I can give the scene."

Another connection was with Parker Posey, with whom he lived for a time while working on his screen adaptation of novelist Gary Indiana's "Rent Boy."

"We lived upstate together, and I helped her around the house," Flynn recounted. "I was traveling back and forth to help my partner take care of his mom in Canada. So, upstate was the perfect middle point."

Perfect, too, for the writing task.

"She had a little cottage," Flynn said, "and she was like, 'You should come and write it.'"

Their friendship began while filming "The Parenting," but was cemented by a shared love of cooking. "We were all living together," Flynn said of the cast's housing arrangements, explaining that he and Posey "both kind of jumped into that sort of role of cooking for the cast. And I cooked a whole Seder dinner for the cast at one point."

"We just really bonded and we were running errands together," Flynn said, adding that he and Posey would "watch 'Alone,' that reality show about people trying to survive on an island alone.... It was just pretty much every day, we were just like, 'Are we watching the next episode tonight?' I'm so into that show. It's so wild. Maybe one day I'll go on it."

His "Parenting" experience was anything but "Alone," though.

"Parker and Lisa actually really showed me what it could look like when you go shoot on location," Flynn revealed. "I can be a little bit, 'I'm going to stick to my hotel room and binge reality TV on my iPad,' but they were like, 'No, leave no stone unturned. Really explore. When are you ever going to be in Concord, Massachusetts again?'"

Flynn said the script for his feature version of "Rent Boy" is nearing completion, and he'd like to direct the film himself. Looking back on his friendship with Indiana (whose real name was Gary Hoisington), the actor recalled how their agreement was for Flynn to manage the novel's adaptation by himself – though the novelist did give him some insight into the setting, namely, New York in the 1990s, which included spots "so specific" to the time "that half of them don't exist anymore."

Indiana died last October at the age of 74 from lymphoma, shortly after Flynn married Tannahill. GQ, naturally, asked about the grooms' attire, which was by Ludovic – and, appropriately, part of the designer's "Robert Mapplethorpe" collection.

"I mean, I've known Ludovic now for years through fashion and through Paris, and I was just like, 'We should just see if they'd want to do our looks, and we should obviously pull from Mapplethorpe,'" Flynn said.

Moreover, "I didn't want it to be cheesy or cringey, and I wanted it to obviously be tasteful," Flynn went on to say. "Tasteful and different. I think it's kind of everything that Ludovic stands for, in a way."

As for Indiana's tragic passing, Flynn took a philosophical view, saying, "I think he doesn't have to be in any pain, and also, he would fucking hate what's happening right now with the way of the world."

"So, I think in some ways, it was like Gary's perfect timing, really."

Check out some of Flynn's Instagram pics:

Watch the trailer for "The Parenting" below.