For years, the Hollywood landscape has been dominated by big-budget mega-blockbusters. In 2020, the situation has changed. Thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic, the entire Summer movie season has been effectively cancelled. While some movies have been picked up by various streaming services, most have been delayed to later in 2020 or even later. Thus, audiences have turned to smaller releases on Video on Demand and Digital retailers to fill the void. The Quarry is one such film.
A modern Western starring Michael Shannon likes it.
While promoting the release of The Quarry, Michael Shannon spoke to Screen Rant about his work on the film, from his love of dialogue scenes (a trait he inherited from his theater upbringing) to the projects he's had to put on hold during the current Coronavirus pandemic. He discusses his favorite part of shooting 2013's director Zack Snyder, and talks about how his growing clout as a big-name actor helped get The Quarry made.
The Quarry is out now on Digital and Video on Demand.
How are you doing? You're in Brooklyn right? If I may ask, how's everything at home with the quarantine and everything?
We stayed in Brooklyn. I guess a lot of people ran to the hills, but I don't know... We like our house, so we stayed in it, you know?
Let's talk about The Quarry. It's my kind of tense, claustrophobic, dialogue-driven thriller, a modern western that feels like it could be a stage play.
Honestly, I don't know what it's like to watch, but as an actor, it's a lot of fun, it's more enjoyable to do a dialogue scene than it is to do stunts. At least for me. I don't really enjoy riding around on a horse or shooting guns or acting like I'm fighting somebody. But I like doing scenes where I get to say interesting dialogue or listen to somebody else talk. I think, honestly, for me as an audience member when I watch stuff, I find that stuff more intriguing as well.
Do you find it an opportunity in a movie like Man of Steel where, yeah, it's a $200 million movie with lots of fighting and CGI, but you still get to really dig deep with your character's motivations? Zod is a really fascinating guy in that movie.
Yeah. My favorite part of Man of Steel was the story and characters and the situation. In the midst of all the fighting and whatnot, when Zod is actually being very frank with Superman, you know, saying, "This is why I'm doing what I'm doing, this is my job. This is what I've been through," you know? Those moments where they connect with one another, those are the moments that interest me. I mean, the fighting is cool as hell, don't get me wrong! And some people really dig watching people fight each other, it's cool, I'm not judging, but I'm just saying, me personally, my personal tastes tend to be more... I'm a theater guy, that's how I started doing this. I didn't even want to be a movie star, I didn't have any interest in it. I just wanted to do plays. So that's where I come from.
I figured that's probably a big part of why you chose to live in New York. With the Coronavirus pandemic being what it is, did you have any plans to be on stage that have been put on hold due to the current crisis?
Oh, you bet, man! This thing landed right on top of a production I was about to start working on. Yeah, I was about to do a production in Brooklyn. I think we're still going to do it if they ever let us do theater again.
At least it's still on the cards, as long as this thing lasts, that's good.
Yeah, we just don't know. We have no idea when it's going to be... Set free.
I'm glad you mentioned your stage career, because you're so incredibly flexible. I mean, you're a real "star of stage and screen." It's a wide berth. You're someone who people sometimes pigeonhole you here and there, but you always have a trick up your sleeve, some way to subvert expectations and do something new. Do you always seek to keep the audience guessing, or has it just happened to work out that way?
I don't know! It's interesting. I think the two things can exist separately of one another. Whatever people's expectations are, or whatever their idea of what I am is, that's separate from my own experience with living my life. I don't think of myself as particularly accomplished at anything. I feel kind of like I'm stumbling along, puttering around my house and kind of wondering what it all means, just like anybody else. This work, this legacy, this whatever that I'm leaving in my wake... I wouldn't say it's accidental, but it doesn't prop me up. I don't feel like I have some incredible comprehensive understanding of life or anything. It's a very mysterious thing, I have to say.
In that case, do you feel you have a greater sense of attachment or pride or responsibility, you can choose the word, to movies you're a producer on, since you're credited as Executive Producer on The Quarry?
I somehow managed to get to a point where if I show an interest in doing something, it helps make it a reality. It's pretty nuts. That's when I started getting this producer credit. But I feel a little self-conscious about it because I don't do the hard work, the real 'nuts and bolts' stuff that a producer has to do. It's a really difficult job. I'm just kind of getting a little credit for helping it come to fruition because of my involvement in it, which is great! (Laughs)
That is cool, you get to be picky, you don't have to wait for someone to take a chance on you, you're not a longshot anymore! You're a safe bet, I guess, right?
Although you can never count on anything, man! I'm learning that right now. In this situation we're in, we're all equal, you know? I know this term, "great equalizer" came out, and some people said it's not really true because it's affecting certain people more than others, and I have to say I probably agree with that, but it is something that every human being on Earth has to deal with. It makes you feel like, whatever you thought was super special about yourself beforehand, maybe isn't so special... Right now, I wish I could go to one of these hospitals and help people, you know? I don't know what to do. I wouldn't know where to start.
I feel the same way. Not to make this about me, but my dad's in the hospital, and my mom is home alone, just bouncing off the walls. A big part of me wishes I could go see him or stay with her, but I also know I'd just get in the way and probably just make things worse.
Did he get diagnosed with the virus?
He's kind of a disaster zone, since he already has cancer pretty bad, and then he fell down and broke his leg, and then he got diagnosed with Coronavirus in the hospital, and we're 99% sure he caught it there.
Oh God! I'm sorry, Zak!
Yeah, he's got the trifecta. But he's hanging in there. Thanks for asking about him.
You've just gotta trust that those professionals are doing everything in their power to make sure everybody's going to be alright. Which, it seems that they are. These people are miracle workers. They're the heroes. It's a heavy situation!
It's at these moments of crisis where we truly appreciate people who we otherwise take for granted, like the doctors who keep us alive. Err, sorry, I don't talk to anybody anymore, so I'm totally just foisting my problems on you now!
I'd rather talk about this than anything! I don't know if people will want to read it, but maybe they will!
Let's bring it back, let's talk about Shea! He's someone we've seen here and there who has attracted a following, he's one of those guys who everyone knows, but who hasn't been given a whole movie yet. And this is that movie. This is his movie, I think this might even be his first leading role, period, right?
Yeah, exactly, I was so excited. That was the main draw for me to do the movie, Shea playing that part. Seeing him be the lead. He's a guy who... That's what he should be doing. He's that strong. He just doesn't get those opportunities. It's kind of random. Me and him could just as easily be in opposite positions. I don't know why, I don't know how it happens. Like I said earlier, it's such a mysterious thing. But when they said they were going to get it done with Shea no matter what, I said, "Then I'm in."
I know it's based on a book, but when they were putting the screenplay together, they had him in mind as the first choice?
Well, I can't say he was the absolute first choice. Scott wrote this script, like, years ago. He'd been trying to get it made for a really long time. These movies, trying to get them made is like giving birth to an anvil. It's insane. I was right in the middle of shooting something when the pandemic shut us down. I was in L.A. We were three weeks in on a four-week shoot of a movie this guy had been trying to get made for six years. In those six years, he had contracted cancer, beat the cancer, and came back. He was like, "No, I'm not dying before we make this movie!" And then we started shooting the movie, did three weeks of it, and then they shut us down. He said, "Never in my wildest dreams did I think my movie would get interrupted by a pandemic." The point is, it's hard for me to say who Scott may have first had in mind when he wrote this. I really don't know. But I know in this current iteration, this production, it was Shea.
Can you say what movie it was you were shooting before the pandemic?
No, not yet...
Okay, it's a secret for now.
...It's the next Avengers movie. It's super low-budget. It's only four weeks. We don't have permission to shoot it. We did it with homemade costumes. It's Zod versus War Machine.
You joke, but I'd totally watch that! Okay, since we're talking about this juxtaposition of blockbusters and indies, can you talk a bit about the difference from your perspective? I imagine there were no green screens within 100 miles of The Quarry set.
This little town we shot in is right next to the Marathon Petroleum refinery. So it was pretty ominous, with these smokestacks with fire shooting out of them. There was this train that went through the town, so a lot of times, we'd be shooting a scene and you'd hear the train coming in from far off... And then you'd hear, "Cut!" And we'd sit there for, like, 15 minutes while a 200 car-long train goes by at five miles per hour. You've gotta make sure you don't forget your lines in the interim, while waiting for the train to go by. Then the train will finally go by and you take another stab at it! There were obstacles and challenges. But those $200 million movies are like countries. You feel like you're starting a new country or something. It's gigantic.
I've been on a couple of sets, but nothing that huge. Not yet.
There's fun parts. Like, when we were making Man of Steel, there were some fun sets, but on a lot of days, you just go to the green screen studio. Like, when we went up to Vancouver for a while. That doesn't exactly get your heart pumping, walking in there. It gets really technical when you're making all the fights and stuff. It's really technical work. But there were some really cool sets, too. Like that scene where we have the big showdown in his hometown, and I blow up the gas station and all that, that was pretty cool.
It'd be a bit much to call it a silver lining, but with Coronavirus having shut down the movie theaters, I feel like there's a greater opportunity for smaller movies like The Quarry to reach a larger audience, with everyone trapped at home and the blockbusters pushed back to who-knows-when.
Yeah, that's the way I'm choosing to look at it, yeah. I think it's so beautifully shot, it would be nice to see it on a big screen, but in lieu of that, I'll take this platform. I hope it gives everybody a break from all the shenanigans going on right now, for a couple of hours.
The Quarry is out now on Digital and Video on Demand.
