Devon Bostick Is Back In The Band

If you’ve ever found yourself on the Rodrick Heffley x Regina George side of TikTok, seeing Devon Bostick in a rom-com might feel like a long time coming.

In the 2010s, Bostick portrayed Greg Heffley’s prototypical, lovable jerk of an older brother in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid franchise. More than a decade later, his character has found a new audience on TikTok, who are keen to edit together clips of his character with Rachel McAdams’ Regina in Mean Girls or Modern Family’s Haley Dunphy. The beloved “crack ships” have even inspired some very cute couples costumes.

“I know of the Regina George thing. It reminds me of the goth house and the Barbie house being next to each other,” Bostick tells Bustle. “I can ship it. I’m glad people are having fun editing.”

With the Internet casting the Canada-born actor in rom-coms of their own making, his official genre debut in Mile End Kicks (now available for purchase online) just made sense. Bostick stars, opposite Barbie Ferreira, as Archie, the stoner guitarist of the aspiring indie rock band Bone Patrol. The film is set in 2011, against the backdrop of Montreal’s thriving grunge scene. It’s a Tumblr page come to life, and the actor, outfitted in an ironic D.A.R.E. T-shirt, fits right in as its endearingly awkward leading man.

“[Love] is as terrifying as being in a saw trap,” Bostick says, referring to his horror film-filled resume. He played two different characters in the Saw franchise. “The stakes of being in love are so high, and it does feel like life and death when you’re in the throes of it. So it’s a fun genre for me.”

But the 34-year-old actor’s career can’t be put into a box. He started auditioning for commercials as a child and taking comedy classes at Toronto’s The Second City once he hit high school. He recalls going out for a Fruit Roll-Ups ad early in his career. “I didn’t really understand the industry yet, so I thought that I had done the commercial in the audition because I got to eat Fruit Roll-Ups there.” He did not get the part.

Bostick landed his first major role in the Palme d’Or-nominated 2008 drama Adoration, which is about a high-school student who starts a rumor that his late father was a terrorist. “It was quite a serious story and character,” Bostick says. “And then that led to Wimpy Kid, which is the complete opposite.”

In the years since, Bostick has continued to transcend genre, going from horror-comedy in Dead Before Dawn 3D, to sci-fi in the CW’s The 100 and Netflix’s Okja, to playing a physicist in Christopher Nolan’s epic World War II blockbuster Oppenheimer. Currently, he’s in postproduction for a film he wrote alongside his girlfriend, Dylan Gelula. But for now, he’s intent on soaking in the remainder of his Mile End Kicks era.

“I feel like the trap of being an artist is if you start to feel like ‘Oh, there’s some sort of upward trajectory that I have to hit’ versus actually just being in the moment and enjoying what you’re doing.”

Below, Bostick talks about millennial nostalgia, playing in fake bands, and reflects on 15 years of Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

You’re no stranger to period pieces — you’ve had roles in Oppenheimer and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel — but how does it feel to pay tribute to a time you’ve lived through in Mile End Kicks?

It was super surreal. It always starts with costume fittings and haircuts, when you start to feel like you’re transported into that time. As we were doing the haircut [for Mile End Kicks], I realized I was getting the exact cut I had for the first Wimpy Kid. In that era, I had a bunch of friends who went from Toronto to Montreal, just like the film, and some of them were musicians as well. It was fun to imagine if I had gone that route, while also remembering how stoned I was at 22.

Online, Gen Z has been feeling very nostalgic for the 2010s. Was there anything you felt particularly nostalgic for while filming?

Seeing the Big Shiny Tunes CD is such a specific Canadian thing that transported me immediately to some hangout in Trinity Bellwood Park. And then PBRs, which is the most “I’m in college right now” kind of drink.

In the movie, Barbie Ferreira’s character, Grace, is trying to write a book about Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill. Do you have an artist or an album that you think you could write a whole book about?

Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs would be one.

There were so many great songs on the soundtrack.

I feel like they used it for the trailer, but that MGMT song “Time to Pretend,” all of those songs were definitely prevalent in my past. I was thinking about those things, but then I was also thinking about what was in the zeitgeist, and it was actually just like “Charlie Bit My Finger” and stuff on YouTube.

As you mentioned earlier, this isn’t the first time you’ve been in a fake band. If you had to choose between joining Bone Patrol or Löded Diaper from Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which would you pick?

That’s a Sophie’s choice. Löded Diaper is absolutely iconic and probably my longest love, and then I would say Bone Patrol is a band that could probably play shows. They have a little bit more direction, whereas Löded Diaper is for the real ones.

Looking back on 15 years of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies, how does it feel to have been in something so iconic and a part of so many people’s childhoods?

It’s such a gift, and it’s so heartwarming and so special to have done something that means anything to anyone, especially for more than 10 seconds. Even if it was a fleeting moment, I would’ve been really grateful, but I’m so thrilled that it still means so much to people.

This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.