Inside SHELL: Max Minghella Breaks Down His Bold and Bloody Directorial Vision

Kate Hudson and Elisabeth Moss in SHELL | Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures

By Shannon McGrew

In SHELL, the latest film from Max Minghella, Samantha Lake (Elisabeth Moss), a once-beloved actress, is desperate to reclaim her career. When she’s drawn into the glamorous world of wellness mogul Zoe Shannon (Kate Hudson), she uncovers a monstrous truth beneath its flawless surface. 

For the release of SHELL, Creepy Kingdom’s Shannon McGrew spoke with director Max Minghella. During their chat, they discussed everything from developing Jack Stanley’s script and casting Elisabeth Moss and Kate Hudson to exploring the film’s striking visuals and underlying themes of fame and beauty.

Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today, Max. I have to say, as a huge SAW fan, I absolutely loved you in Spiral. That aside, I really enjoyed SHELL and was curious about what first drew you to Jack Stanley’s script. 

Max Minghella: I was working on Spiral when I first started developing this script with Jack, and it influenced it in many ways. When I read Jack’s script, I was somewhat worried about the gore in the movie and how extreme it was, and that it could turn off what I felt was the target audience for the film. When we were testing Spiral and watching the audience, I noticed the glee on people's faces as they covered their eyes, and the more extreme the movie became, the more fun the audience seemed to have. Frankly, people I wouldn’t expect responded to it in that way, certain demographics responded to it in that way, so it made me excited about pushing all that stuff in SHELL. 

What led to the decision to cast Elisabeth Moss and Kate Hudson as Samantha and Zoe?

Max Minghella: They came in very different ways. Lizzie (Elisabeth Moss) and I were talking about finding something to do together, and I’d always felt from the first time I read the script that Lizzie would be the perfect person for [Samantha]. I was very hesitant to talk to her about it because we worked together, and I thought it would be a bad idea. Then, five years later, long into development, and we’d been through a couple of different kinds of incarnations of the film at that point, and we started talking about it, and I thought, you know what? Why don’t I ask her? The worst that can happen is she says no, but she’s the perfect person for this part. Thankfully, she was into it. 

For the role of Zoe, it was particularly specific because the character required an extraordinary amount of charisma, self-possession, and confidence. I wrote a list in my head of about three people in the world that I could think of [for the role], and the other two weren’t actors so Kate Hudson is going to be the person that we get for this. I’m really grateful to both of them because the first time I read Jack’s script and I read that vibrator scene, the two people I hoped might be in that mirror are the two people who are in the film. So I’m very happy about that. 

Max Minghella Behind-the-Scenes | Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Speaking of the gore, I was fascinated by the design of the skin condition. It looks like literal shells have formed on the skin. As someone with a skin condition myself, I found that depiction surprisingly relatable. Was that visual element something conceived during production, or was it written into the script from the start?

Max Minghella: For some reason, my instinct was that they should be black and sleek looking, but I don’t know where that actually originally sprouted from. However, on the whole, the movie's visual design is heavily influenced by Paul Verhoeven. My two inspirations for the film were Death Becomes Her and Paul Verhoeven; the movie is, in a sense, a love letter to Verhoeven. Whether it was successful or not, I don’t know, but I tried really hard to incorporate an homage to his work throughout the film and studied him thoroughly. Drew Daniels and I closely examined cinematographer Jan de Bont’s work on his movies and attempted to incorporate some of his lighting techniques into the film as well. 

For viewers, there are numerous themes to take away from this film. For me, it really felt like an exploration of the price of fame and beauty. How did you approach weaving those themes together as a director?

Max Minghella: The movie is supposed to be quite over the top. I wanted the story structure of the movie to be quite traditional so that you could then do these things outside of it that were quite wild. That was my hope, that if there was something very familiar in the act structure and the character arc, then we could really play and do some crazy shit at the end. Hopefully that came through. The film was meant to be quite a lot of fun. I think the ideas and themes of the movie are quite loud and obvious, so I didn’t feel like we needed to discuss them too much or emphasize them too much; instead, we should use it as a forum to entertain. I was primarily interested in creating a kind of Nickelodeon-esque entertainment, a real popcorn movie, and I felt that the film's structure allowed for that to happen. 

Finally, is there anything in the film that you’re particularly excited for audiences to talk about? Whether it’s a scene, a theme, or a performance?

Max Minghella: My secret answer to that question is I hope it becomes rewatchable for people. Even the people who don’t like it when they first see it, I want them to secretly want to watch it again, because that’s always at the front of my mind. When I’m making movies, I try to design them in a way that allows you to revisit them without feeling like too much hard work. Hopefully, there are some memorable things you'd like to see again or some fun moments you'd like to revisit. This stuff is so subjective, and what I like, maybe not everybody else likes, but hopefully it’s a film that people will revisit over time. 

SHELL is now available in select theaters and on digital platforms.