I pride myself on staying up to date on my promising, on-the-rise actor knowledge. So earlier this week, when every major film Twitter account suddenly started posting fan cams and glowing praise for an actor named Nick Skonberg, I felt out of the loop. Who was this fresh face being likened to Ryan Gosling and James Dean? Why were people passionately campaigning for him to star in a hit Netflix rom-com? Imagine my surprise when I learned he wasn’t a supporting actor in After the Hunt I’d somehow missed but the star of the TikTok vertical film Loving My Brother’s Best Friend.


If you’re not familiar with the addictive, melodramatic soap operas taking over TikTok, you probably have a healthy screen time average, but you should know that they’re basically reshaping the streaming industry.

Apps like CandyJar (the company behind Loving My Brother’s Best Friend) hook audiences with short clips that lean on tried-and-true romance tropes: enemies to lovers, boss-employee affairs, and, obviously, being in love with your brother’s best friend. Snippets of these series are promoted on TikTok, and viewers who get hooked can subscribe to the streaming app to continue their bingeing there. The system takes advantage of our addiction to short-form content, and its success proves there’s still an appetite for soap-style storytelling—regardless of its format.

As someone who’s been enthralled with plenty of these series during my morning TikTok scrolls, I can attest that they’re gripping—but I simply could not name a single actor from them. That is, until this week, when Nick Skonberg became this emerging industry’s first breakout star. Fans don’t expect these productions to deliver high-quality performances—there’s an understanding that these stories don’t necessarily need convincing leads, just satisfying plots (as goes for Hallmark movies or late-afternoon cable soaps). But Nick’s portrayal of Luca (the titular brother’s best friend)—at least from what audiences saw in a two-minute preview that made waves on Twitter—stood out. It was both charming and rooted in humanity...a duality only a true movie star could pull off.

So this week, a pro Nick Skonberg grassroots campaign (spearheaded by user @koralinadean) grew on film Twitter, with calls for the actor to break free from the vertical screen and make his way to the big, horizontal one. So I caught up with this 22-year-old Chattanooga, Tennessee, native to gauge how he’s feeling about all the online support, which directors and actors he’s looking to work with next, and why the success of the TikTok vertical miniseries might be a net positive for artists in the long run.

What a week you’ve had. How long have you been acting?

I did my first play in eighth grade because I was trying to figure out what I liked. I thought I wanted to go exclusively into filmmaking in high school. But then I figured out that acting was sort of the role in the [entertainment] world that I wanted to pursue. Then I went to NYU Drama school, and I just graduated in May! It’s been a crazy couple of months post-graduation

Loving My Brother’s Best Friend came out a couple of months ago, but how did it feel to watch it pick up steam?.

When it first came out, it started to do pretty well. I’d seen how [CandyJar’s] videos had done before. And I started getting a little follower boost and a bit of circulation. I even got recognized for the first time in my life at a club with my girlfriend and her friends. I was in line, and somebody was like, “Are you that little TikTok actor?” I’m like, “I think I might be!”

Why do you think people were so passionate about your acting and so surprised to be impressed by a performance from a vertical series?

I think people just really want to have more of a say in their stars and their actors. When you really look at the history of movie stars, the ones who go the farthest are really the ones that the audience has kind of handpicked. We’ve been in an era in this industry where there’s a lot of “industry planting” or nepotism, not to shade anybody. But I think people want more of a choice in who they see in films. Then there’s [the fact] that [I was acting] in a TikTok video—they haven’t reached a certain level of notoriety, I guess. It’s like, why are they over here? Like, let’s bring you over here [onto the big screen].

I’m fascinated by the TikTok vertical industry at large. Has it helped train you or opened doors for you in ways we might not expect?

I think the main thing that I would say for me and for a lot of other actors is that it allows artists, across the board in this industry, to be fully financially stable from their chosen career path at a much earlier point in their career. I have friends in the verticals industry who don’t have a big credit on their name or have just graduated but are already fully financially stable from acting.

It’s allowed me not to have to get a second job right after graduation. I think it’s a really positive thing for the industry. And in terms of what I’ve learned from it, it kind of teaches you how to be a leading man really quickly. And in the very classic sense. It works sort of like the old Hollywood studio system did. You learn how you can pull off a door lean or punch somebody and walk off…the extremities. There’s really a classic confidence and strength you have to have to learn to act in one of these things.

Why do you think people get so addicted to these vertical films? I find myself, like, transfixed by them at 5 in the morning.

CandyJar’s the only company I’ve worked with, but they really know their audience and what their audience wants. CandyJar [projects] are very directed from the female gaze and from the female point of view. You see that the scripts follow a lot of romance tropes and character tropes, nut also how they do the costumes and how they shoot the scenes and light the scenes. And we had a great intimacy coordinator, Sasha Smith. She was specific about: “Okay, this is a moment when you stop her with a hand grab or you stop her with your voice.”

They’re also very conscious of the clickbait, because you to watch 15 episodes for free [before subscribing]. Whenever you’re shooting the 15th episode, it’s, like, we gotta end this thing with a hook; they gotta pay the money for the next one. So it’s the consciousness of the audience is very present, which is really interesting. They’re very aware of how they hook you.

How’d you find out your performance was making waves on Twitter?

My friend sent it to me. I was at an Airbnb upstate for the weekend, so I was kind of in and out of service. I woke up, and my friend was like, “You know you’re going viral on Twitter?” I’d figured it was just that they just found the vertical in general, because, you know, it did pretty well on social media, so I didn’t really think too much into it. Then I thought, I should probably download Twitter and, like, see what this thing is. And realized it was bigger than it had been on the other apps. There was a lot to scroll through.

You said you downloaded Twitter to see how the discourse was playing out. Were you familiar with film Twitter beforehand?

I was familiar enough with it! One of my good friends has been a Twitter user for years, and he’s been having a lot of fun with this Twitter moment. So I was aware of how films and actors could blow up on there, but I had to figure out the app. Like, what are quotes? On most social media platforms, I have a burner account because I just want to see what people are saying about me. It’s a crazy app. It’s cool though.

There’s been some talk about why your costars haven’t received the same amount of love that you have. How do you respond to that?

We all got so close on that project, I think that’s the only reason it did well in the first place. We all just really took it seriously. For Victoria [Andrunik, star of My Brother’s Best Friend], it’s her film. It follows her character. She deserves as much, if not more, credit on this than I do. I don’t think this is facetious to say, but the guys [in these films] are sort of the marketing point—it wouldn’t have been anything it was without Victoria and the whole cast. I would love more attention to get pointed in their direction. I think it’s wholeheartedly deserved.

Who are the actors that you most want to work with?

I look up to Paul Mescal, Austin Butler, and Timothée Chalamet a lot. I look up to their work ethic and the films they’ve chosen so much....I’d love to be around them, be friends with them, and soak in what they do. And then there are so many of the greats that are still working, you know, De Niro and all these incredible artists. Something I’ve noticed is that a lot of films will pair young actors with veterans—like Babygirl, you’ll have Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson. I think roles like that are really exciting, where you get to be with one of the greats for a long period of time and just study them and learn from them. So for me, that list is a two-hour conversation.

What about dream directors you’d like to work with?

I really want to see more of what Charlotte Wells does. She did Aftersun, and that really meant a lot to me. Joachim Trier too—I’m so excited for Sentimental Value. Worst Person in the World was huge for me. Martin Scorsese, Paul Thomas Anderson, Christopher Nolan, Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach—any of those, like, icons that are working, I’d drop anything to work with them.

On a final note, you seem like a real cinephile, and I’d love to know your Letterboxd top four.

Okay, top four: Woman Under the Influence—Gena Rowlands is my profile photo on Instagram. She’s my top Mount Rushmore actor. I look up to her so much. Raging Bull, it’s always downloaded on my computer. Whenever I don’t have Wi-Fi, I’ll pop it on. I’d say Cool Hand Luke, because Paul Newman is probably my biggest career inspiration. I’ve got his autograph on a poster. Then My Own Private Idaho. River Phoenix gives my favorite performance of all time in that film.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.