Ryan Coogler, who directed the 2025 smash-hit horror, Sinners, revealed that he had a “crippling” fear of twins in a recent podcast appearance. Despite this, Coogler decided to go on and make Sinners, a story of twin brothers, Smoke and Stack.
Ryan Coogler on why he made Sinners despite having a doppelgängers phobia
Ryan Coogler, who made one of the most talked-about horror movies in recent times, Sinners, made a surprising revelation. The Creed director admitted that he had a phobia of doppelgängers, which made it difficult for him to work on the project.
During his latest appearance on Amy Poehler’s Good Hang Podcast, Coogler was asked why he chose a story involving twins, despite the difficulties that come with shooting something like that. “For sure,” Coogler said, “I mean, look, it was a hook for me. It was so sticky, right? In this day and age, I think you need multiple reasons to lean in when there’s so many great things available.”
He continued, “There are so many ways to spend time. So, for me, I think that I’m a firm believer in things having multiple hooks, you know what I mean? And it’s a hook for me because I have twins in my family, and I love them, and I got a lot of homies as twins, but I also have a crippling fear of doppelgängers, like a straight phobia. You know what I mean?”
Reacting to this rather revelation, Amy Poehler laughed and asked if the fear stems from Coogler meeting his own doppelganger. The director elaborated, “Yeah, I’ve had nightmares like that.” He went on to add that the entire idea of twins was “creepy.”
Yet, Coogler was able to make an exceptional film featuring twins, thanks to the very fascinating characters in Sinners.
“And we dug deep with Mike [Jordan]. Like I got two buddies who are filmmakers, Noah and Logan Miller… I actually asked them if they would be open to being consultants on the movie, like to work with me and Mike on developing the characters,” Coogler explained,
“And we dug so deep into the mindset and the dynamics of what it’s like to have essentially a copy of yourself next to you all the time, you know,” he continued. “But Mike, he just knocked me back by his brilliance and how he portrayed these characters.”
Sinners became a massive commercial success and received immense critical acclaim.
Originally reported by Sourav Chakraborty on ComingSoon.
