People are real down on the subway lately but I still like taking it. Feat Michael Shannon
Summary
Michael Shannon thinks the subway's getting a bad rap. While others see danger, he sees people going through something and wonders how they could be helped. That empathy connects to his directorial debut, a film about the parents of a school shooter coping with loneliness and alienation in American society. Then things get weird. Kareem pitches Shannon a buddy drama where they're platonic heterosexual life partners for twenty years until Kareem gets a girlfriend and moves out. Shannon's already upset. The solution? She moves in with both of them. They're inventing a new genre of film drama.
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Full Transcript
So, what's your take? People are real down on the subway lately. They're saying it's getting more dangerous or something, but I still like taking it. I don't mind. So, your subway takes is that should people should take the subway? Yeah. I, the subway is getting a bad rap nowadays. There's a lot of negative press about, oh, this that or the other happened on the platform, but it just draws this notion that people are scared of each other and so non-empathetic a lot of times. Anytime I see somebody on the subway who's, you know, struggling with something, I don't I don't get scared necessarily. I just think, geez, that person's going through something. I wonder how they could be helped.
You got a little empathy. Yeah. You know, I got this movie coming out. I made Eric Laroo, which is kind of about—it's about the parents of a school shooter. It's really about his parents.
Yeah. Coping with what did we do? Is this our fault?
Yeah. But I thought through the microcosm of this particular story and these particular people, I could tell a story that kind of reflects, like I was saying earlier, on a larger scale about our society in general. And there's all this uh loneliness and alienation that causes people to do really crazy stuff. And uh it's like, well, where is that coming from? I also discovered that it's your directoral debut.
It is. You think you'll do it again?
I hope so. I but I need to find the right material. I'll write something for you.
Oh, will you? Yeah. Okay. It's a buddy comedy. For me, friendship is very serious.
How about a buddy drama? I actually have a really good pitch.
Okay. So, it's me and it's you. All right. And we've been roommates for twenty years. Like, we're platonic heterosexual life partners.
Okay. But then I get a girlfriend.
Oh, man. Michael, I'm moving out. And you are so sad.
I'm already upset, dude. It's not your fault, Michael. I'm growing up. I I'm in love. I want to move in with my girlfriend. It's over.
It doesn't have to be over just cuz you met somebody. But the roommate ship is over. Me and you being roommates, we're done.
Can't she just move in with us? Of course she can move in with us.
But that's a different movie. I think she should move in with us. We're inventing a new genre of film drama.
Yeah.