Michael Shannon admits that he sympathises with his character in his new movie My Son, My Son.
The actor stars alongside Willem Dafoe and Chloë Sevigny in the Werner Herzog directed movie which sees him take on the role of Brad McCullum, an actor who kills his mother.
But Shannon reveals that he understands his character because he too has a 'complicated' relationship with his mother.
Speaking to the Independent newspaper the actor said: "Well, it's hard to say. I have a very complicated relationship with my mother, for sure. There's been animosity, tension.
"It would never go to that extreme, because I don't believe that murder is a good way to solve problems! And also, Grace [Zabriskie, who plays Brad's mother] is so different from my own mother, and Brad is so different from me."
And while Brad is a killer Shannon believes that his character is evil. "What's interesting is that I don't even think Brad dislikes his mother necessarily.
"I don't think he does what he does because he's mad at her or he's getting revenge. I really think it's more about playing the part in the Greek tragedy 'Elektra', and getting confused about who he is, and what is meaningful for him to do."
Shannon is currently working on Machine Gun Preacher and Premium rush as well as having Return in the pipeline.
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