Opening in theaters on December 6th in limited release is ‘The End,’ directed by Joshua Oppenheimer (‘The Act of Killing’), and starring Michael Shannon, Tilda Swinton, George MacKay, and Moses Ingram.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Michael Shannon about his work in the film, in which he plays the patriarch of a well-off family who have retreated to a luxurious underground bunker after climate change has brought about the end of human civilization.
Michael Shannon in “The End. ” Photo by: Mubi.
Shannon’s character, known simply as “Father,” may have contributed to the collapse of Earth’s ecosystem as the leader of a fossil fuel conglomerate. Despite its dark theme, “The End” is a full-fledged musical featuring thirteen original songs, all directed by cast members.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview with Michael Shannon.
Michael Shannon talks about “The End. ” Photo: Mubi.
Moviefone: Have you noticed Joshua’s two documentaries [“The Act of Killing” and “The Look of Silence,” about the mass murder of Indonesian citizens through a brutal far-right regime in the mid-1960s] and noticed them locating what he was looking to do with this kind of curveball safely?
Michael Shannon: When I met Josh, I hadn’t noticed documentaries. I’d heard of them, they’re pretty legendary, but I hadn’t noticed them. So I had a pretty new palette. All I had to do was our verbal exchange and then read the script. But after I signed, I watched both movies and found them to be beautiful and painful and everything that probably everyone has, and I didn’t find it to be a curveball. Josh talks about those three films, “The Act of Killing,” “Look of Silence,” and “The End,” as if they were a triptych. In fact, he was given the idea for “The End,” which he discovered during his time in Southeast Asia and meeting a wealthy contractor who was building an underground bunker. I guess maybe he just made a documentary about this guy, I don’t know. But he made the decision to make his first narrative film.
MF: What was your reaction reading the script and learning that it was a musical combined with a post-apocalyptic drama?
MS: I was delighted. I’m not really interested in doing anything that’s already been done. I think there are probably too many videos and TV shows in general, and other people spend too much time watching them. But if you have to go through the trouble of doing anything, and that’s a problem, accept that as true with me, because he’s dedicated years of his life to making this movie. It was not easy and it took a small town to finance the project. But if you’re going through all this, then you better create something unique, and I actually feel like he’s completed that.
Tilda Swinton in ‘The End’. Photo: Mubi.
MF: When you see a script, do you have an immediate reaction?Do we have to turn pages and realize that we want to participate, or on the contrary do we read 10 pages and say to ourselves: “No, this ‘is not for me’?
MS: Yeah, it’s pretty quick. I don’t like reading screenplays anyway. I don’t know when that happened — it used to be that when anybody thought to send me a screenplay, I was overwhelmingly excited to see it. But I guess just through the years as you read stacks and stacks of them, they become less and less appealing. But yeah, you usually know pretty quick. But this film is about things that are really important to me, and I could tell that basically from the get-go. So this was a very easy script for me to get through.
MF: Do you see a parallel between the story of “The End” and the political moment we find ourselves in now?
MS: A parallel? Well, it’s interesting, because I guess that’s where your mind is inclined to head, but it’s important to remember that this problem existed before Trump was elected. Even if Kamala Harris got elected or Jill Stein or whoever, it’s been a problem. It’s been a problem since the ‘60s, we’ve known about this for decades and we haven’t done enough to fix it or solve it because, frankly, we’re delusional. Not everybody on an individual basis is delusional. There are a lot of people that are aware of the problem and want to do something about it as individuals, but as a society, I feel like within the United States, there are all different kinds of people obviously, but the United States of America as a country, as a collective country, is mentally ill. It’s like a crazy person that needs treatment, and I don’t know who’s going to give us this treatment. I’m pretty sure it won’t be Donald Trump, but we need some serious time away in a clinic somewhere with a bunch of people saying, “Let’s get to the bottom of this, because you’re clearly very dysfunctional.”
(From left to right) Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon in “The End”. Photo by: Mubi.
MF: The father starts off being empathetic and understanding, and then you learn more about him and his dark side starts to come to light. What was your technique for betting it?
MS: Of course he’s congenial, that’s how he got through life. I don’t think many people get to be CEOs or run corporate entities by being complete dickheads. Charm is the name of the game. Is he a sociopath? I don’t know. Sociopaths are very charming. I do believe that he does have a sense of morality ultimately, that he’s not a sociopath per se. But I thought about it, the potential or the possibility for it. But I think ultimately he’s just a man dealing with a profound amount of guilt, which I can relate to. I think guilt is a pretty universal feeling, I would hope. I don’t want people to be afflicted by it, but there are some things, like I mentioned earlier, that perhaps people should have a small amount of guilty feelings about. But I think what you see in the process of the film and the process of the story is a reawakening in him. It starts with Son inspiring him to really try and remember how he and Mother met, and it’s like a thawing of sorts. Like in order to cope with this experience that they’re having, he’s created this persona that he’s perpetuating just out of survival mode, but it’s not actually who he is if he really stops to think about it. But that’s the thing, in the aquarium that they’re all stuck in, self-examination can be a very dangerous thing. You would think, “Oh, I have all this time now, I am just going to get to know myself, and journal and all these things.” But that can lead you to some dark corners or some questions that you don’t know how to answer, and I feel like that’s what happens to Father in the movie.
MF: You’ve sung at a band level, but this is the first time you’ve sung in a movie, right?
MS: Well, I did a miniseries called “George and Tammy,” in which I played George Jones, and I sang a lot in it. But in terms of filmmaking, yes, it’s been a long road, but yes, I don’t think I’ve ever sung in a movie before.
(From left to right) Michael Shannon, George MacKay and Tilda Swinton in “The End. “Photo: Mubi.
MF: The actors basically sang live on set. Was it a challenge in any way?
MS: Well, we rehearsed quite a bit before we started filming, we had three weeks of intensive singing rehearsals and a little bit of dancing rehearsals, and also table work with the script, blocking the scenes. The challenging part about a lot of the musical numbers that involved the whole group is that Josh had something very specific in mind about how he wanted it to move and flow and look. It’s always hard when you’ve got an ensemble of people all in frame at the same time and camera movement and all that. Some of those shots took a lot of takes to get them just the way that Josh saw them in his head.
The EndR2 h 28 minJanuary 10, 2025Opening Hours & TicketsView The End Online
A wealthy circle of relatives have been living in a vast underground bunker for 20 years, as the world above has become uninhabitable and humanity has yet to disappear. Their carefully controlled lives and routines are turned upside down with the arrival of a young woman from above who leads them to consult everything.
“The End” hits theaters Dec. 6.