Take Two: Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain

In Jeff Nichols’ new film Take Shelter, which opens on September 30, rising superstar Jessica Chastain and Oscar, Emmy, and Drama Desk Award nominee Michael Shannon play Curtis and Samantha, an ordinary midwestern couple raising a deaf daughter, Hannah (played by the extraordinary young deaf actress Tova Stewart). When Curtis begins to have visions of apocalyptic proportions, he fashions a shelter against what he feels is the coming storm, and Samantha tries to hold her family together in the face of whatever may (or may not) actually be happening. TheaterMania recently sat down with both stars to talk about the film, as well as their careers.

THEATERMANIA: What attracted you to working with Jeff again?
MICHAEL SHANNON: I think one of the reasons that Jeff and I have worked together twice now, on Shotgun Stories, and Mud, is that we seem to have kind of an implicit understanding of each other. I can kind of tell what Jeff’s up to pretty quickly. Honestly, Jeff has his hands full a lot more with just making sure we get through the day. We had to shoot real fast and there were a lot of technical concerns. I think one of the reasons Jeff likes having me around is he knows I’m pretty low maintenance.

THEATERMANIA: What did you think about the script?
MS: I was very moved by it just because I knew what it was about. I knew why Jeff had written it and to me I found it very poetic. It’s easy with Jeff’s style to think you’re watching something that’s very naturalistic, because it is a very slice of life, Americana milieu. But I find the dreams and the ending, and some of the symbolism in the film, to be very bold. It can go south real quick when you try and incorporate more poetic imagery into an otherwise kind of naturalistic tone.

TM: You have a daughter yourself, but was there a specific challenge about playing the father of a daughter who is totally deaf?
MS: Well it didn’t take long for me to figure out that Tova was an extraordinarily bright child and that she was very aware of what she was involved in. And her parents, who are also both deaf, were around all the time and incredibly friendly and helpful in communicating with Tova. There were some scenes that were kind of frightening, and that’s always real tricky to do. But she always knew that her parents were close by and that it was just play. And Jessica was real great with her. Jessica actually learned more signing than I did, because you get the feeling that that’s probably the way it is, that Samantha’s more involved with it than Curtis.

TM: Can you talk a little more about working with Jessica? It sounds like she intuitively picked up on building the family dynamic.
MS: Yeah, she’s just got such a big heart. I had never met her before we started shooting. In fact, when Jeff said that he had cast her, I didn’t know who she was. I showed up in this little town, Jeff picked me up and he said “We’re going to meet Jessica.” She opened the door and right away there was no guard there, there was no barrier. She was just very available. It must have been intimidating for her because she knew that Jeff and I had worked together before and that she was kind of the new piece of the puzzle. But she wasn’t afraid to say what was on her mind and she always speaks very eloquently about scenes and about what she thinks is going on and what she thinks needs to happen.

TM: Your series, Boardwalk Empire has just started its second season on HBO. How has your character, Van Alden, changed since the first season?
MS: I think this season is going to be about redemption for him. He realizes he made a terrible mess of things at the end of season one, and he wanted to run away and hide. But that’s not going to be a possibility so he’s going to have to face the music. I think he really wants to get back to his original principles. When he started in Atlantic City, he actually had a very virtuous plan and was a man of virtue and he kind of had that taken away from him by Atlantic City. So now it’s a question of seeing whether he can get it back.

TM: Have you started your preparations for playing General Zod in the new Superman film?
MS: I’ve been preparing for it for a few months now just in terms of a bit of physical training. There are going to be a lot of stunts and I’ve never done CGI before. I got a big book, like the DC bible, when I started shooting and I’ve been reading that a lot. I love the Richard Donner Superman movies [starring Christopher Reeve], and it’s hard to imagine being better than those. But I think ours will be pretty different because of Zack and his vision.

THEATERMANIA: Had you met Michael before starting to work on this film?
JESSICA CHASTAIN: I knew Michael from his film performances, but I’d never met him before. So I was a little intimidated when Jeff said that this movie was about marriage and faith and we really need to see the strong marriage. Mike and I only met the day before we started shooting. But I realized as soon as I met Mike that I needed to get rid of any awkwardness. I can’t allow myself to be embarrassed. I can’t take my time to get to know him. I just have to absolutely, from the very beginning, throw myself at him. So, I saw him and I was like, “Hey! And I gave him a big hug. Every time I saw him, I would give him a hug. I really made sure that I was physically comfortable touching him, grabbing his arm, giving him hugs, because Samantha would be doing that. And the wonderful thing about Mike is that when you get to know him you kind of realize that he’s just a big softy.

TM: Was it hard to hug him? You are about a foot shorter than he is, right?
JC: There were many scenes when we were shooting the movie where he was there and I kind of come up around him and the whole time I’m standing on my very tip toes because I know that I’m just going to be in his armpit on the camera otherwise.

TM: What was it like working with Tova Stewart, who plays your deaf daughter and who is deaf in real life?
JC: I had taken some sign language lessons before meeting Tova because she’s completely deaf and her mother and father are as well. I wanted to communicate with her as much as I could. I wanted to be the person on set she felt really safe with, so we could bond, and I think that really shows in the film.

TM: Did you always know you were going to be a movie actress?
JC: I always knew that I was going to be an actor, but I didn’t go the route of ‘I’m going to be famous.’ I didn’t move to Los Angeles. I went to Julliard, and I was doing theater when I started working in films. I really love acting. I’m a huge fan of actors. I always try to work with actors who are better than me, who will teach me something. I geek out whenever I meet someone great. I geeked out for Meryl Streep and made a complete ass of myself.

TM: You are in a lot of movies this year – we have already seen you in Tree of Life and Debt and The Help. Have you seen all of them yourself?

JC: I like to joke with people that you have to go out of your way to see a film that I’m not in this year. I went to see The Help the second week that it was in the movie theater with two of my friends because they wanted to see it. I was like, “Oh, sure, we’ll go together.” They were like, “Really? Are you sure?” I said, “Yeah. No one will know it’s me.” And I sat there the whole time and no one knew. But let’s just be honest; in the movie, I’m the eye candy and in real life I was in jeans and a sweater and no makeup. So people would be like, “There’s no way that’s the same girl.”

TM: One of the movies you still have coming out this year is Coriolanus, which was directed by Ralph Fiennes and in which you worked with Vanessa Redgrave. That must have been a great opportunity for you, right?
JC: I know. I was like, Okay, I get to be in a room and watch Vanessa Redgrave do Shakespeare.

TM: Are you planning to come back to the theater soon?

JC: I would be happy doing Off Broadway for the rest of my life, if I could eat, so long as I was acting. Theater is really, really important to me and I absolutely want to come back and do it. I have been offered a play on Broadway and I’m trying to figure it out. The problem with Broadway is that it’s such a long time commitment for me as an actor. And I’m the kind of person that when I’m doing a play, I don’t do anything else. I just work. So, when I was doing Othello here in New York [in which she played Desdemona opposite John Ortiz and Philip Seymour Hoffman], during the day, I couldn’t do anything too stressful. I would have to save my energy for the evening. So, in a way you become a prisoner to your role. I look at it that way, like “Am I okay not leaving my house and just going to the theater for six months?”