Dave Davies

And that's our guest Michael Shannon and Russell Crowe in the film Nuremberg.

I understand that this film was shot in Budapest, as was the Netflix series Death by Lightning.

And you had a big crowd of extras who were the audience in the film.

I heard that after you finished a take, they burst into applause.

Is this true?

Let's take another break here, then we'll continue our conversation.

We are speaking with Michael Shannon.

He stars as President James Garfield in the new Netflix series Death by Lightning, and he plays a prosecutor trying Nazi leaders for war crimes in the new film Nuremberg.

We'll talk more about his life and career after this short break.

I'm Dave Davies, and this is Fresh Air.

In 2008, you were in the film Revolutionary Road with director Sam Mendes.

I have a clip I thought we'd listen to here.

This is a story where Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet play a suburban couple.

I guess it's the 50s, early 60s, and kind of in this conventional suburban life, they have friends in an older couple who are played by Kathy Bates and Richard Easton.

And this older couple have a troubled son who's in a psychiatric hospital.

That's you.

And in this scene, we're going to hear

They brought him out of the hospital for an afternoon to come and visit this lovely couple.

Everybody's in the living room, and we're serving sandwiches, and it's the 50s, so everybody's smoking.

And you kind of take over the conversation, and we'll hear Kathy Bates, who plays your mom, briefly first.