For research into the 2008 housing market crash, director and co-writer Ramin Bahrani and actor Michael Shannon traveled to its epicenter: Florida.
“I spent some time with real estate brokers, was startled when they all carried guns,” said Bahrani.
Take Two host Alex Cohen spoke with Bahrani and Shannon on how that experience became the premise for the new thriller “99 Homes.”
Shannon plays real estate shark Rick Carver who evicts Dennis Nash, a young father (played by Andrew Garfield), and his family from their home.
Hard on his luck and willing to do whatever it takes to get back his home, Nash joins Carver on a harrowing ordeal to foreclose on others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfttvNCIJvE
Bahrani says Shannon improvs a line in “99 Homes” that defines their experience in Florida.
“The line is: ‘Who wouldn’t want to rather put someone in a home then drag them out of it?’” said Bahrani. “As soon as I heard it, I was smiling at the monitor because I knew where he had gotten that from — It’s the real estate broker both of us spent time with.”
Interview Highlights:
On their experience in Florida’s foreclosure courts.
BAHRANI: They’re known as the ‘rocket dockets,’ where they decide your case in 60 seconds flat. I went with Lynn Szymoniak. She was one of the pivotal forces in the housing crisis. She’s a fraud attorney.
The banks made a huge mistake trying to foreclose on her and she was relentless in understanding what was fraudulent paperwork, and uncovered robo-signing — which was massive. [She] lead a lawsuit against the banks to the tune of $100 million and won.
On playing real estate broker Rick Carver
SHANNON: I think the damage that Rick is causing, I think it's erroneous to assign the full liability to Rick.
Rick’s not going around just yanking random people out of their homes and Rick is playing by and taking advantage of rules that have been in effect for a long time…that benefits people, corporations, banks. He’s basically taken the time and paid enough attention to understand how to manipulate these regulations and laws to his advantage.
He refuses to play the victim. For Rick, you know nobody ever gave him anything. Nobody ever told him, 'oh, this is how you can get ahead.' He figured it out himself and he did it the hard way, and every once in awhile, he’s got to step on somebody’s fingers to get what he wants. But I think it’s hard for him to see people suffer.
On the concept of home
BAHRANI: For [Andrew Garfield’s character], the physical place has a lot of value because it has history and memories in it, and I can relate to that when I go and visit my parents in North Carolina where I was born and raised…
But Michael’s character in the film thinks that they’re just boxes. And the home he has with his beautiful family in the film, he wants to flip next year and make a profit off of. I can understand that too, maybe it is just a physical space.
SHANNON: Well I associate home mostly with people, not the sort of architectural structure. I mean, there are certain places that are significant to me. For example there’s a theatre that I’m a part of in Chicago that I’ve been with for over 20 years, the Red Orchid Theatre. When I walk in there that feels like home…
But also it’s just the people, like if I’m with my kids, then I feel like I’m at home.
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue audio player above.