An Insight into the Minds of Steve McQueen and Abi Morgan

Last night at the Curzon Mayfair cinema in London a special gala screening of Shame was held, it was special because following the feature there was around a forty minute Q&A session involving the director/writer Steve McQueen and his co-writer Abi Morgan (Brick Lane, Iron Lady). The event was hosted by Dave Calhoun, the film editor for TimeOut, and consisted of a mixture of his own questions and those from the audience and Twitter.

While I wasn’t personally in London, I was lucky enough to be at a cinema which had the Q&A beamed live via satellite to my venue a few (hundred) miles away from the Curzon Mayfair cinema. It provided an interesting insight to such a powerful film and while I wasn’t able to take perfect notes, I tried to take as many as possible and I’d like to relay them to the audience members of this website to not only provide you with some further insight into the work and ideals behind this film, but also as a starting point for further discussion and debate about an incredibly [insert your own adjective about the film here] film.

I will tackle each subject matter below, kind of like a composite question and answer summary as some aspects were talked about early on the session before being brought up again later. Like I mentioned above, this composite summary will contain a little bit of everything from titbits about the production and the relationship between the actors and how they interacted with McQueen, to the meaning(s) that McQueen wanted us to take away from the film as a spectator and how they initially found and approached a subject like sexual addiction.

Subject Matter – Sex Addiction: Abi Morgan (below left) recalled that a couple of years ago, just like any cinematic collaboration, that their agents stuck them together and they kind of just “clicked” on the matter of sex addiction in a single meeting as their minds wandered from the internet to pornography, before it finally settled on the issue of sexual addiction.

While Steve McQueen remembered that just like the famous detectives Miss Marple and Columbo, they “just stumbled around sex addiction” attempting to understand it. He acknowledged himself that, what drew him to the subject matter was the idea that sexual addiction is not that far removed from us all; it is not an exotic act, but something which is close to us all in way or another.

Originally beginning in the United Kingdom with their research they found that nobody was willing to open up to them about the subject so instead they travelled New York to speak to those who had experience of the addiction and were willing to talk about their involvement with the compulsion. McQueen also mentioned the stigma that comes with having to admit to a stranger and others for that matter, that you have an addiction to sex.

Both McQueen and Morgan took two large trips to New York, which they said lasted around ten days each, and during that time they managed to write the majority of the film in the Standard Hotel where some scenes in the film were shot. Abi Morgan also mentioned during the final few questions of the session, that being haunted by the stories of the men she met kept her hooked on the subject of sex addiction and on creating the story with McQueen during their time together.

Title – Shame: Abi Morgan recalled that while stuck in traffic during their time in New York and in between interviewing various subjects about sexual addictions (the majority of whom were men) she said a resounding sense of shame and sadness came from thinking about the compulsive disorders of these men and realising that we ourselves do the exact same things. She then noted that “Steve nailed the title.” Before Steve mentioned that Brandon (Michael Fassbender) is “not a freak, he’s one of us.”

Further on in the session a member of the audience asked whether or not it was a conscientious decision to not have the word shame spoken at all by any of the characters during the entirety of the film. McQueen responded that it wasn’t too important to keep the spoken word shame in the picture because it reared its head enough during their interviews and research. While, Abi Morgan recited an anecdote about a woman who approached her at a previous screening and mentioned that she saw no shame what-so-ever in the film itself and that Morgan then answered that she sees the shame as being more implicit than explicit within the confines of the picture.

Brandon / Michael Fassbender: McQueen noted that he wanted to be truthful with Brandon, who is the introverted brother to Carey Mulligan’s extroverted sister. He admitted that this truthfulness came from the fact that most men didn’t give their backstories, and rarely spoke about little else than their addictions during their interviews, and therefore Brandon stays truthful to this nature of a sexual addict by keeping his backstory contained within.

On Fassbender himself, McQueen said that he constantly switched “on and off” for the role, but that “he does carry shit [burden from the role] with him.” He then went on to use an allegory of Fassbender as a boxer in the corner and that occasionally McQueen had to sit him down, wipe Vaseline across his face and clean his gumshield, while other times he would just explode out of the corner straight into his performance.

Sissy / Carey Mulligan: Sissy is the extroverted character, and she is the one who brings the past into the present with Brandon by literally singing her beautiful version of New York, New York almost exclusively to him. McQueen also replied that he saw the relationship between Brandon and Sissy as being one which is sexualized, but not necessarily sexual between the two, as Sissy is a woman who craves intimacy and attention off of others.

Following on from this and a question from the audience regarding potential incestuous undertones, McQueen did mention that, he personally does not see any outward incest in the scenes between the siblings. Abi Morgan continued to build upon this aspect by establishing that the sexualized nature the audience is maybe deducing from their meetings, is due to Brandon’s sexual addiction and the fact that Sissy is the only woman he is constantly within reach of, but unable to have sex with due to their familial relationship.

On Mulligan (right) herself, McQueen recalled that just like Michael he offered her the script and she accepted, but he did admit that he was surprised at the way she personally developed the role of Sissy and described her as “fierce” and he then went to further praise the actress by saying “she just nailed it, like wow.”

Technology: Initially brought up when Morgan spoke about the scene in which Brandon and Marianne (Nicole Beharie) go on a date to a restaurant, and how this was one of her favourite scenes to write because it brought forth this dying ideal of an old fashioned date. In this day and age of social networks and Facebook, she said it was nice for both characters to not know where they were going to go from the subway and whether or not it they would see each other again.

However when a member of the audience brought forth the notion of technology and communicative devices – for example Brandon’s boss David (James Badge Dale) communicating with his son through Skype – acting somewhat as a vector keeping the members of this world from face-to-face communication, McQueen stated that it is just commenting on the way we live nowadays and that it is just somewhat less intimate, finishing with: “I have no judgement on that.”

Reality: Initially reality was brought up when Fassbender’s performance was mentioned and McQueen spoke passionately about his belief that there should be no boundaries for acting and no limits for portraying reality, otherwise: “what’s the point?” However, he did follow this up with a swift acknowledgement that he is still a young director and that he has a lot to learn in this department.

Reality was next mentioned in a question from an audience member and McQueen responded that this film is in essence far from reality, but it is all about the small moments triggering realistic moments and for this he gave the example of Sissy singing almost exclusively to Brandon in the club before noting that “from within the abstract can come the reality.” He then responded passionately that he wanted the most hard hitting aspects to come from the most artificial and that cinema in general is there to hit you hard, catch you off guard and evoke something special from within.

The Ending And Potential Hope For The Siblings: McQueen admitted that he didn’t know and that he didn’t want to “give a warhorse sunset” due to the nature of addiction and that most often than not: once an addict always an addict, whether it is alcohol, drugs or sex.

The Dreaded NC-17 Rating: He initially drew laughter from the audience by answering that he thought NC-17 was “a rap band” before replying honestly that he wasn’t interested in the rating and that he was just happy and respectful towards Fox Searchlight for picking up the picture and never asking him to cut anything from the film. Responding to whether or not the rating may affect the finances of the film, he simply replied: “financial situation? I just don’t know.”

Extended Opening Sequence: McQueen said that he has been working with his cinematographer Sean Bobbitt for eleven years and that he discussed all aspects of the film heavily with him and that they both agreed that for the opening of a film about sex addiction that they should just get it all out of the way (he didn’t say it personally, but I assume he was alluding to the nature of  nudity and sex) whilst also managing to set the rhythm of the film. Shame begins and Brandon gets up, checks his messages, drinks, takes a leak and then goes for a shower, McQueen said this was to introduce the audience to his routine and allow them to become familiar with it early on.

Fassbender Running Scene: McQueen states that he simply hooked a steady-cam up to a golf cart and told Fassbender to run as the police blocked off the few streets they had the permits to film on, however, one interesting titbit about this sequence is the broken ‘stop’ sign which can be seen when Fassbender stops at the pedestrian crossing. According to McQueen, when they were filming a hotdog vendor crashed into the sign and broke it, and when he saw it the first thing that popped into his head was simply “that’s fucking brilliant” and he insisted that they kept it as it was.

New York, New York Scene: A relatively minor aspect, but something that may be appreciated by those who were curious about the production background of this scene, Abi Morgan recalled that she and McQueen were sat in the exact bar in which the scene takes place and decided upon the scene their and then. While the choice of song came from them both agreeing that she would need to sing the most clichéd and recognised song about New York, and nothing is more recognised and relatable than New York, New York.

Finally, What Message Did McQueen Want Us – The Audience – To Take Away From His Film?: “To start off a conversation.” He doesn’t want his film to influence thoughts or opinions, but to simply engage the audience members in conversation.

Discussion: Have you seen Shame? If you haven’t, do you intend to view it? While if you have seen it, does any of the above change your interpretation/reading of the film, and if yes, why?