NEW YORK, Nov. 7 (UPI) — Boardwalk Empire and Nine Perfect Strangers actor Michael Shannon says working on his new fact-based drama, Nuremberg, was a history lesson for him.
“It was James Vanderbilt’s — our writer-director — it was his crusade. He been trying to get this movie done for 13 years. So, I just felt honored that he asked me to be a part of it,” Shannong told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.
“When I read the script, I was a bit embarrassed to realize how little I knew about this story and I’m just so grateful that I got to discover who Robert Jackson was and what he was responsible for in our history because I didn’t know anything about him,” he said.
“Robert Jackson had an inherent desire to search for justice and truth, like most people that get into the law. Hopefully most people,” he added. “He was highly intelligent, but not arrogant, not an aristocrat. He worked hard to get where he got and he was a very thoughtful and compassionate person who just wanted to bring justice to light.”
In theaters Friday, Vanderbilt’s adaptation of Jack El-Hai’s book, The Nazi and the Psychiatrist, follows Jackson, the chief U.S. prosecutor charged with trying the surviving members of the Nazi regime after World War II.
Rami Malek plays U.S. Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek,) who must determine whether former Reichsmarschall Herman Göring (Russell Crowe) is competent to stand trial.
The film reunites Shannon with Crowe, who played Jor-El to Shannon’s General Zod in the 2013 superhero blockbuster, Man of Steel.
“He’s phenomenal in the movie,” Shannon said of Crowe’s depiction of Goring in Nuremberg.
“What we did in Man of Steel is a very different type of work,” he added. “Mostly what we did in Man of Steel was combat. So, we spend a lot of time practicing physical fighting, the moves for the fights in the movie and, in this, it was more of a linguistic combat, which, frankly, I prefer, because I’m not a fighter.”
Shannon said he thought Vanderbilt was an excellent leader for this complicated and important project.
“Jamie, despite the fact that he devoted a fair share of his life to trying to get this movie made, always seemed very peaceful and at ease on set, never got riled up or bent out of shape, was always very polite,” the actor recalled.
“He always seemed very happy to be there and be making the movie and very receptive to everybody’s ideas and he was a joy to work with. He made a very comfortable set for what is a very difficult story to tell.”
Given how much time and research he invested in the film, Vanderbilt was able to answer most of the questions Shannon had during production.
“He always knew what to say to me, but I also tend to try and answer a lot of my own questions before I get to work,” he said. “I like to be prepared.”
The cast also includes Leo Woodall, John Slattery, Richard E. Grant and Wrenn Schmidt.
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