Actor Michael Shannon wants to make sense of our current time. His first (and perhaps last) outing as a director is Eric LaRue. The film explores the aftermath of a school shooting, primarily through the eyes of the shooter’s mother.
“I have always heard over the years that it's our job to hold up a mirror to society or something, which I've heard time and time again,” says Shannon. “Yet I feel like it happens so infrequently, so I take the instructions pretty seriously when I hear them. So that's kind of what I was attempting to do by making this movie.”
Michael Shannon tells us how the Eric LaRue producers managed to pack up and relocate from Little Rock to North Carolina after Arkansas enacted a strict abortion ban. Shannon also admits that despite the film’s dark subject matter, he found making it surprisingly fun. Plus, we get a taste of his R.E.M. cover band, which just wrapped a nationwide tour.