TORONTO – Michael Shannon has been everywhere this year. Over the past nine months he’s had nine movies either debut at a film festival or hit theaters (and we’re not even counting his corpse cameo in “Batman v Superman”). Earlier this month he took some time after the Toronto International Film Festival premiere of “Nocturnal Animals” to discuss Tom Ford’s latest directorial effort, Jeff Nichols’ “Loving” (which also screened at the festival) and more. Shannon is very well aware of his bountiful 12 months. Before we even sat down to formally start the interview he volunteers, “I’m very fortunate to have films here I’m very fortunate to be associated with.”
Based on Austin Wright’s novel “Tom and Susan,” ‘Animals’ follows two related narratives. The first – in present day – centers on Susan (Amy Adams), a well off museum curator whose longtime husband (Armie Hammer) is running out of money and cheating on her. Her Hollywood Hills world is disrupted after her first husband Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal) sends her his latest manuscript. She can’t stop reading the novel that centers on Tony (Gyllenhaal again), a man is powerless to stop his wife and daughter (Isla Fisher, Ellie Bamber) from being kidnapped right in front of him by some West Texas thugs (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Karl Glusman). Shannon plays Bobby Andres, a police detective assigned to Tony’s case.
The performance is one of Shannon’s best, but before we tackle that I have to start the conversation by asking about the 2016 Karlovy Vary Film Festival this past July. It was my first year there and Shannon was a surprise presenter during the event’s televised closing ceremony (his film “Complete Unknown” also screened there).
Gregory Ellwood: So what did you think of that incredible closing ceremony? [You can watch a video of the opening number embedded in this post]
Michael Shannon: Oh my god. With the horses? That was f–king nuts man. Me and Kate, we were just slack jawed. That is unbelievable. That puts everything like the Academy Awards to shame. It’s a production. I had a blast. I really loved it. I wasn’t there very long. I mean, it was a weekend getaway for us, but yeah, I like going to festivals. It’s fun.
It was one of the more amazing events I’ve ever seen at a film festival, but let’s talk about “Nocturnal.” How did Tom pitch you the role? Or did he just send you the script?
He sent a script and then I met with him in New York. He didn’t have to twist my arm. Right when I read it Bobby just jumped off the page at me. There are just certain parts that for whatever reason you have some sort of harmonious convergence with. And it’s strange because I’m not really anything like that guy. But I just felt like I understood him and I definitely wanted to play him. He did not have to twist my arm.
The story you are part of is sort of an allegory or part of Amy’s character’s imagination of what had happened in the past between her and Edward. When I chatted with Aaron earlier today he said the character is supposed to be a metaphor for Armie’s character. Does that hold true for Bobby? Who is the detective? Is he supposed to represent anything?
The way I look at Bobby is he is kind of an angel. He’s like Clarence in ‘A Wonderful Life’ where he comes down to basically take Jake’s character by the hand and try to lead him out of the forest of this hell that he’s endured. But what’s so lovely about it is that he doesn’t seem anything like an angel at all. He’s sort of a decrepit hard ass. Grumpy pants. But that’s the way I look at it. I don’t’ think he actually has an analogous character in the real lives of Amy and Jake’s characters.
Y’know the book is not just Susan’s experience with it, but it’s also what Edward wrote in order to heal himself. So, Bobby is that thing we all wish we had. He’s the thing Tony whishes he had when he was watching his wife and daughter walk away in that car. So, Bobby’s gonna be hard to find an analogous person for. Most people are just not Bobby.
He’s fearless. He’s not afraid to die. The one thing he might be afraid of is his relationship with his daughter. That’s the crux of the issue in at least the story that unfolds in the book because I have kids and I sometimes imagine, daydream, ‘What if we were in a perilous situation like that? What would I do?’ Everyone likes to say, ‘I would die for my kids,’ but how many of them really mean it.
There was that movie a couple of years ago, ‘Force Majeure,’ where a man runs away from his family because there is an avalanche in the distance because he thinks it’s going to kill him and then there really is no avalanche. But, he’d abandoned his family thinking only of himself. These situations can be quite telling.
I think like most good stories it’s an elemental concern. It speaks to a lot of things in a lot of people.