Sydney Sweeney Screened “My Best Friend’s Wedding” for Dermot Mulroney, Who Hadn’t Seen It Since 1997 (Exclusive)

While filming the romantic comedy 'Anyone But You' with Mulroney, Sweeney held a screening of the classic to evoke "the nostalgia of an old rom-com," she says

When Sydney Sweeney was filming the romantic comedy Anyone But You with Dermot Mulroney, she took the opportunity to use her costar’s classic as an inspiration.

In the new issue of PEOPLE, Sweeney, 26, says she and director Will Gluck wanted “to bring back that nostalgia of an old rom-com” for the whole cast, so they screened My Best Friend’s Wedding.

“[It’s] honestly one of the best of all time,” says Sweeney. Not to mention Mulroney, 60, who starred in the 1997 classic with Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz and Rupert Everett, was on hand to share his memories making it.

“We're so lucky to have Dermot in this movie with us,” continues Sweeney. “So we put [a screening] together, asked Dermot if he'd be okay with it. It was just, honestly, we were all bawling our eyes out when Dermot was just talking about his experience and his love for it.”

Related: Sydney Sweeney and Anyone But You Costar Glen Powell on Romance Rumors: 'We Sold a Rom-Com' (Exclusive)

“It was [at] a private theater in this office building that we got, and it was a very intimate experience,” says Sweeney. “It felt like a very, very magical moment.”

Adds Glen Powell, who plays Sweeney’s love interest in Anyone But You, “It was such a special thing to watch Dermot watch My Best Friend's Wedding, and he hadn't seen it since he shot or since the premiere.”

Wedding, which stars Roberts as a food critic who tries to sabotage the relationship between her best friend (Mulroney) and his young fiancée (Cameron Diaz), helped make Mulroney a star.

Mulroney shared some advice with Powell about appearing in a romantic comedy. “He said, ‘Don't be ashamed of being a man in a rom-com. To represent love in movies is the most beautiful thing you can take on,’” recalls Powell.

Those words of wisdom, “really made me think completely different about the experience,” he continues. “My Best Friend's Wedding is kind of a real tonal comp to this movie. A lot of people after they watch our movie say it's a lot like My Best Friend's Wedding.”

In Anyone But You, Powell stars as Ben, a charismatic finance professional who has a meet-cute with Boston University law student Bea (Sydney Sweeney) at a coffee shop.

After their first (and only) date goes south, they later find themselves headed to the same destination wedding in Australia.

To prevent their well-intentioned loved ones (including Bea’s parents, played by Mulroney and Rachel Griffiths) from meddling in their personal lives, Ben and Bea pretend to be a couple for the duration of the getaway.

Related: Glen Powell Jokes Sydney Sweeney Is the ‘Only’ Person Who's Seen All of His Body After Anyone Scene (Exclusive)

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“I personally like the laugh-cry at the end of the movie,” says Powell. “Crying and laughing at the same time. I think our movie delivers on that. I think all the great rom-coms deliver on that feeling. If you can get an audience to the laugh cry at the end of a movie, you're doing all right.”

Mulroney seems eager to make viewers laugh-cry again. At the New York premiere of Anyone But You Dec. 11, the actor told Entertainment Tonight he’d be up for a sequel to My Best Friend’s Wedding.

“Yeah, no, I'm in!," Mulroney said. "I'm thrilled to hear Julia's finally, you know, coming to her senses.”

His answer came after Roberts mentioned she’d like to revisit that rom-com during recent appearances on Watch What Happens Live and CBS Mornings.

"I was amazed to hear her kind compliments this weekend," Mulroney continued to Entertainment Tonight. "You know I would love to work with her any day of the week, month or year."

Anyone But You is in theaters Dec. 22.

For more on Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE.

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