Actor Michael Shannon, nominated for an Oscar for his performance in the 2008 film “Revolutionary Road,” is also well-known for his performances in “Boardwalk Empire,” “Take Shelter” and dozens of other films. He will appear in person for a Q&A following the screening of his latest film, “99 Homes,” at the Malibu Film Society (MFS) on Tuesday, Oct. 20 at 7:30 p.m.
“99 Homes,” which was cowritten, directed and co-produced by filmmaker Ramin Bahrani, also costars Oscar-nominated actress Laura Dern and Andrew Garfield (“Spiderman”). The film tackles a topic that few, if any, have attempted before — the aftermath of the 2007 real estate crash and its effect on everyday people. The story takes place in Central Florida in 2010, which was experiencing one of the highest housing foreclosure rates in the nation at the time.
The character Rick Carver, played by Shannon, is a real estate broker who figured out how to get rich by gaming the system, using the way banks/lenders, real estate investors and the courts work. One of the services he provides includes evicting the residents of foreclosed homes — literally throwing them out on the street after two minutes notice, then sending in a team of workers to throw all of the home’s furnishings and contents out on the curb. When he evicts the characters played by Dern and Garfield, the film begins an emotional thrill ride that poses social, moral, personal and political questions.
The Malibu Times caught up with Shannon to get a preview of what he has to say about his “bad guy” part that the director described as “inspirational and dangerous” at the same time, as well as other reflections on his work.
Shannon said he took the part in this film because “more than anything, I wanted to work with the filmmaker (Bahrani). He has a great sense of responsibility to our society, and he wanted to make a movie about a subject that people were ignoring and wanted to pretend never happened. He figured out all the technicalities of how these foreclosures worked and did a lot of research.”
Shannon did not see his character in “99 Homes” as necessarily a bad guy.
“Rick Carver was doing his job — that’s it,” Shannon shared. “It was not what he wanted to be. It’s like when the plague hits, somebody has to scrape all the bodies off the street.”
“Rick reminds me of Nietzsche’s line about the man who ‘despises himself while still honoring the despiser within,’” Shannon said. “We have to remember that no child raises their hand in kindergarten and says, ‘Teacher, teacher I can’t wait to evict families one day!’ The job of evictions was thrust upon real estate brokers across America.”
To prepare for the role, Shannon traveled to Florida and spent time with several real estate brokers in order to learn something about the profession. He said it made a “huge difference” in the way he played the role. The end result is a character that he described as “loosely based on several brokers … but I zeroed in on one in particular, a man whose heart was breaking due to what his job had transformed into.”
When asked if his Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor in “Revolutionary Road” changed his career, he said “It wasn’t a catapult.” Shortly afterward, he began a five-season stint in the award-winning cable TV series “Boardwalk Empire,” playing a Bureau of Prohibition agent who becomes corrupt and goes to work for the gangsters.
Shannon has worked steadily in acting for over 20 years, starting out in theater and gradually accelerating into film. He now has 62 films under his belt, with over 10 credits coming out in 2016 alone — including one role as Elvis Presley and another as General Zod in “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.” And, although not usually a comedy actor, Shannon makes an appearance in “The Night Before,” which comes out next month with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen.
However, Shannon doesn’t like putting his works into categories like comedy and drama. “I see comedy in everything I do. I think life is pretty funny all the time. I don’t break things down into genres,” he said.
The MFS screening of “99 Homes” with Shannon’s guest appearance will take place at the Malibu Screening Room, 24855 PCH in the Malibu Jewish Center complex. For more information, visit malibufilmsociety.org.
