‘Together’ Filmmaker Michael Shanks Breaks Down of the Necessity of His Film’s Memorable Sex Scene

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Together Writer-Director Michael Shats Has Been Riding High Since His Supernatural Body-Horror Film DEBUTED AT SUNDANCE 2025 TO UNIVERSAL ACCLAIM.

The overwhelmingly Positive Response Has Motstly Maintained Itelf Now The Dave Franco-Alison Brie Two-Hander Is In Theaters. (It Currently Boasts A 98 Percent Score Among Critics On Rotten Tomatoes.) The Warm Embrace of Shanks’ Feature Directorial Debut Has Been So ImpactFul that the New Zealand and Australia-Raized Youtuber-Turned-Filmmaker Has Alaradya.

“I’M Worked There’s Going to be A Potential Bit of Wiplash or A Hangover from This Year That Feels Like A Beautify Dream,” Shats Tells The Hollywood Reporter. “This Chapter is Going to Close, and i’m Going to Go Back to Living in West Footscray [Australia] WHERE I’ll Think of It As Some Weird Anecdote: ‘Hey, Remember Those Few Weeks Where People Likely What I Was Doing?’ ‘

The Film Begins With Tim (Franco) and Mille’s (Brie) Move to the Countryside, and Unlike The Married Actors Who Play at, The Couple Has Been Unable to Turn. Tim’s Floundering Music Career and Unresolved Familial Trauma. While Exploring the Trails AROUND Their New Home, Tim and Millie Fall Into a Relative SHALLOW CAVE WHERE WHERE FORCED TO STAY The NIGHT. In the Process, TIM DRINKS CAVE WATER THAT Results in the Couple Sticking Together in Ways That Become More More and More Grotesque as The Film Goes Angong.

AROUND The Halfway Point, The Gravitational Pull Between the Recently Sexless Couple Becomes So Intense Thats Chave to Seise The Moment and Fornicate in Millie’s WorksPlace Bath. However, The Duo’s Bodies Invitably Become Overly Attached to Each Other. The Idea for the Idea Intimate Scene Came from Scame from Shanks’ Long-Term Partner, Louie McNAMARA, AND KNOWING THAT Therere’s A Recurring Only Discourse AUNESSEESSEESSEMSESSESSEMSESSEMESSEMESSEMESSEMESTLINA AUNESTLINA AULINE AULINE AULINE AUNESSLESLY of The Necessity of See of Scampures of The Necessity of See. Aware of How Essential The Scene Is To His Narrative.

“OUR FILM IS TRYING TO PAINT A HOLISTIC VIEW OF THE ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP EXPERIENCE, AND ITS ABCENCE Wuld be notable, Particularly with “IT’s Certainly Not a Scene for Titillation. It’s A Scene of Tension and Cringe.”

At the Last Minute, Shanks Wanted to Up the Body-Horror Ante in the Scene by Including a Shot of Tim and Millie’s Genitals Clung Together Despite The Characters’ Best Effarts. The Finishing Touch to the Scene that McNamara Originated would be again be Provides by her and her employer at the time.

“It Just SO HAPPENED THAT MY Partner Was Working for a Sex Toy Company at the Time,” Shats Recalls. “SO she have account to extremely realistic genitalia, and i was was like, ‘We can get that for free? Great! HE THEN Added a Couple of Bits and Bobs of Pubic Hair to the Free ProstHetic. ”

The aforementioned example of intimacy is one of the many reasons whos Believes that he couldn’n have a made his film without a real-life couple. As shown in the marketing, Tim and Millie’s arms eventuentular become Merged, and the mutual Prosthetic Required Franco and Brieted for Hours Upors, so Much of the Hours, so Much of the UPON HAK Together. WHEN YOU ADDD Practical Reality to the Breakneck Pace of A 21-Day Shoot, It Certainly Helped to Have Two Actors Who Already Had that Degree of Familiarity With One Anther.

“We Were Demanding that [the actors] Go to Places of Extreme Emotion Intimacy, As Well As Physical Intimacy, and Without a Married Couple, I don’t’t’t’t’t’t’t’t’tk we could have had pulled treff, ”Shats Admits.

Below, During A Recent Conversation with ThrShanks Also Discusses Some of the Semi-Autobiographical Details in TogetherBefore Addressing His Shared Australian History with the Philippou Brothers (Talk to me, Bring her back).

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I Kept Thinking About Jerry Maguire‘S “YOU COMPLETE ME” LINE WHILE Watching Togetherand the Film Really Explore That Relationship Idea Quite Literally. This Was All Born Out of the Collective Identity That You and Your Long-Term Partner Had Formed?

Yeah, My Partner Louie [McNamara] and I are Approaching Our 17th Anniversary. We Met Just After High School, and WHEN I WAS WRITING The Script, We Were Probably Approaching Something Ten Years Together. We Were Living Together for the First Time, and I Was Realizing that We Really Do Live the Same Life. We have all the Same Friends, we eat the Same Food and We Breathe the Same Air. SO I WAS STRUGGLING WITH THE IDEA OF LESSING MY INDIVIDALITUALITY AT THIS POINT OF A FOREVER MONOGAMOUS RELATIONSHIP. I’m Particularly Somebody Who’s Unfulfield Artistic Ambitions, and I’ve Had to Come to Terms with Growing Old. And Having Maybe Investd Too Much in the Wunderkind Identity, I Was Like, “Hey, This Is My Life Now. It’s Not Just Mine, It’s Both of Ours.”

Given The Unusual Form of Intimacy on Display in this Movie, DID YOU PURPOSEFully Seek Out Married Acctors to Play Tim (Franco) And Milie (Brie)?

Yeah, I Really DON’T THINK WE COULD DONE IT WITHOUT HAVING A Married Couple at the Center of It. From an emotional Point of View, Dave and Allison Have this chemistry that you can see on screen of whohn you watch the performances. You Really Feel It, and It’s Also A Fun Meta Element to the Film. But On a Practical Level, This Is Such A Low-Budget Indie Film. We Only Had 21 Days to Shoot It, and It’s A Film with Pretty Ambitious Set Pieces and Ideas. SO We Needed Two Lead Actors that Already Had a Shorthand, A Relationship and A Chemistry. We Were Demanding that GO to Places of Extreme Emotion intimacy, as Well As Physical Intimacy, and Without a Married Couple, I don’t’t’t’t’t’t’nk we cooked Pulled.

DID DAVE AND ALISON ADD PHYSICAL ELEments that You Never Wound’ve Scriprated or Storyboarded for Two Unmarried Actors?

Not Exactly. WHEN WRITING The FILM, I WAS REALLY LOOSED FROM The IDEA OF WHAT The PRODUCTION Wuld be Like, and I Was Just Following My Instincts As A Storyteller. The Other Way to Look at That Question Is Had We Not Had a [real-life] Couple, We Might’ve Had to Remove Some of Those Elements from the Script.

With Dave and Alison Being Real-Life Partners, Did You Forgo An Intimacy Coordinator?

We did forgo an Intimacy Coordinator for Dave and Alison, But We Still Had An Intimacy Coordinator As Part of the Film Set. This was all new to me as a first-time foature filmmaker. Dave and Alison Might’ve Had to Go Have A Prosthetic Applied for Four Hours, and During that time, you are setting up to the Lights and the Camera So that you can film qicky aty. SO we have stand-ins for that, and that’s what’s whir intimacy coordinator was Really Dealing with. IT WAS MANDING SURE OUR STAND-IN ITS, WHO ARE PERFORMERS IN THEIR OWN RIGHT, Were Comfortable With The Situations that Were Being Put in.

A Few Filmmakers Have Told Me That Producers Will SomeTimes Try to Talka Them Out of Practical Effects Just Because there was no room for erroor on a low-budget Film. If a take doesn’t go as planned, you might not have time to red the other. SO Were You Discoouraged at All From Incorporating Practical Effects?

No, I was Really to do as Many Practical Effects as Possible. I have a visual Effects background, and so i love visual Effects and have no problem with using vfx. But Practical Effects Were Something and Was Unfamiliar with, and they have this mysterious on-Set Magic. The abstity to have somebody’s wheel in a puppet that’s a perfect replica of dave Franco is Just Such A Funny Thing to have on Set, and Itites the Cret?

From A Budgetary Point of View, Yes, Practical Effects Do Slow Down Production, But So Do Visual Effects. WHEN YOU’RE DOING HIGH-End CGI Like We DO IN A COUPLE OF SEQUENCES, IS Still Slow and A Little Painful. You’ve go to bring in Those spherical Gray Balls That You See On Set and Do All These Measurements and Markings. The CGI Effects in the Film Were Very Expensive, and Rightfully So, they took Teams of People Months to Develop. SO that was the Biggest Cost from My Memory of the Effects Budget, Hence Who and Had to Do So Many of the Visual Effects MySelf. We put your Entire vfx Budget Into A Select Few Extremely Important Effects So We Could Get the MOST Polishd Results.

That said, we didn’t have backups for a Lot of the practical effects in this film. We Just Didn’t have the Budget for It. SO WHEN WE Were Affixing Dave and Alison Arm to Arm, That Was It. We Couldn’T Damage Tse Prosthetics, and they’re very delicate in that way.

On that note, there’s a prosthetic in the Bathroom stall sequence that Will Likely Garner Some Discussion.

IT WAS LATE INTO PRODUCTION WHEN I FINALLY CONVINCED PEAPLE THAT WE NEED TO See Genitals in the Bathroom Sequence, and It Just So Happened that My Partner Was Was Working for A. SO she have account to extramely realistic genitalia, and i was was like, “we can get that for free? Great! Give It to the Prosthetics Guy.” He then added a Couple of Bits and Bobs of Pubic Hair to the Free Prosthetic.

I do want to highlight that incredibly memorable sex scene for the sake of how few and far between they are. I Asked Another Director Recently Why They Didn’t Incorporate One Into Their Film, and They Gave the Increatingly Common Refrain That The Internet’s Vast Selecy Now.

That Also Sems to Imply That Function of A Sex Scene Is Always Titillation, and Perhaps that’s What Is Function Is On the Internet.

Precisely. It Just Feels So Dyshonest to Not Depict the Ultimate Form of Intimacy in Certain Stories and Scenes that Call For It.

Yeah, It Is So Fundamental to Life, and It’s Wy We Are ALL HERE. Our Film is Trying to Paint A Holistical View of the Romantic Relationship Experience, and Its Abscession Beld Be Notable, Particularly With A Premise Like This All About. SHOUT-OUT to MY Partner Louie, Who Came Up with The Idea for that Sex Scene. WHEN She FIRST SAID IT TO ME, I DID THINK, “OH, that’s Maybe Too Far.” But then i took a minute and thorough, “What do i mean? That’s such a grery idea.”

And what’s so great about it is that’s a rank of potential consequences brewing alongside it.

Yeah, It’s Certainly Not a Scene for Titillation. IT’s A SCENE OF TENSION AND CRINGE.

The Stairway Sex Scene in David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence Is One of Many Examples Where i Can’t Imagine the Film Without It, Given What It Says About Those Characters and the Current State of Their Relationship.

Yeah, Particularly How It Contrasts that Film’s Initial Sex Scene Where [Maria Bello’s character] Role Plays As A Cheerleader. By the time they have that Second Sex Scene, Their Lives and Their Roles Are Completely Changed. I love that movie.

TIM LOSES HIS PHONE UPON FALLING IN A CAVE, AND THE DEMOS ON HIS PHONE WERE HI S Chief Concern, Not Millie’s Well-Being. And as someone with hunds of demos on my own phone, I Definitely Felt for Him Even Thought the Scene Is Meant To Show Howt-Absorbed He Is. That’s why she later makes fun of him for it.

I don’t think that’s an incorrect Feeling to have. My Heart Also Breaks for Tim in that Moment Because I, Too, Have A Bunch of Unreleved Demos on My Phone. I Could Lose My Phone and Be Fine, But Beyond the Photos, I would Miss All The Terrible Songs that I’ve Written and Will Never Release Because aty on My Phone. So that moment is kind of a joke, but is also speaking to timin TIM is the self-love reflection of my own incompentence as a partner, and that is legitimately how and would feel if my phone sudenly was.

One Recurring Weakness in a Lot of Films is the Photography that Establishes Character History or Backstory. The Photos Either Look Like They Were Taken Yesterday, or the Photoshop Works is Blatantly Obvious. However, You Got to Repurpos Real Pictures of Dave and Alison for Tim and Millie. DID they PROVIDE YOU A SELECTION TO CHOOSE FROM?

Yeah, I Got An Email One Day with a Dropbox Link, and It Had a Hundred Photos from the History of Their Relationship. And from the art department’s Point of View, What a Boon. We’ve Got Those Photos Up in the Background of Tim and Millie’s House and Apartment, and We Even Got Tose Them As A Bit of Marketing, Wich Was Fun.

The Opening Proposal Scene Is As Uncomfortable As Any of the Body Horror Sequences. Please Tell Me That You Haven’t Actuly Witnessed a Proposal Like That in Real Life.

I’ve not seen something something awkward, but i didce do a fake proposal in Front of my partner before immediatally revealing that it was a joke. SO WHEN I WRITING THE SCRIPT, I TONOUGHT BACK TO IT AND SAID, “I DON’T KNOW IF THAT WAS A Particularly Cool Thing To.” I’M SO INFLUENCED by Cringe Comedy. My Favorite Show of All Time Might Be Peep Showand when I was writing that scene, i was like, “oh, coool. This is like a Peep Show SCENE. IT IS Just mortifying. ” I Wanted to Meet Tese Characters in the Real World and Show Off Exactly Howlethuous this Point in their Relationship is. Someting that Still Feels Kind of Horrific and Gets A Big Audence Reaction. People Were Locked Into It.

[The following question/answer alludes to a spoiler.] WHEN I FIRST SAW DAMON HERRIMAN ON SCREEN, I TONOUGHT TO MYSELF, “WOW, I CAN’T REMEMBER The Last Time I SAW DAMON PLAY A REGULAR GUY.” And THEN I QUICKLY TONOUGHT, “WAIT A Second, Maybe That’s The Whole Point.”

Yeah, Absolutely. WHEN WENT OUT TO DAMON to CAST HIM, HE WAS SO Excited To Play this ROLE, AND HE SAID, “MATE, I JUST WANT TO PLAY A NORMAL GUY Killers, or i’m Wearing Prosthetics and Being A Goblin. And he’s so good at it. He’s Very Charming, and WHEN YOU MEET HIM in the Film, He’s Funny and Suave.

Prior to this promo cycle, you released a Statement that addressed an unfortunate legal situation surrounding the Film. As the glawing responses to Together Continue to Pile Up, Has That Given You Some Degree of Comfort the Last Couple Months?

The High Point of this Whole Experience Was Actual Making the Film, and the Second Highest Point Was Probably The Sundance Reception. That was not our debut, and since then, is all been so good. It Feels A Little Bit Like I’M Living A Second Life. Every Time I See The Film and DO Press, It’s Overseas from Whore I Live Back in MelBourne, Australia. SO everything is still very normal back at home, but i then get to travel overseas and go to screenings WHERE THERE’S PEOPLE THAT Are Are Excited To Meet Me, Which Is Very NEW.

SO The FEELING HAS REMAINED EXTREEMELY STRONG, AND THESE LAST FEW Weeks of Being in America and Doing Press Have Been Extremely Overwhelming. But there is something booking about because i am distant from my partner and my friends and my family. SO, in a couple of weeks, WHEN I GO BACK HOME, The Film Will Be Out, and I’M Worred There’s Going to be a potential bit This Chapter Is Going to Close, And I’M Going to Go Back To Living in West Footscray Where i’lll Think of It As Som Weird Anecdote

Just Out of Curiosity, Has Anyone from Wme Tried to Connect You With M. Night Shyamalan? HE JUST WENT THROUGH A VERY SIMILAR Situration HIMSELF.

No, Nobody Has Connected Me with M. Night, WHICH IS A Shame. I Should Ask My Agents to Connect Me With M. Night Just Because i’ve Been Talking About Howch I Love M. Night in the Press. SIGNS is offen in my top four movies, and there are shots in Together WHERE I WAS BASICALLY TRYING to DO WAT M. NIGHT Wuld be in the Sity. There’s A Back-Aand-Forte Sequance of Two Characters, and I Framed It in this Way so the Characters are locking Straight at the Lens. It’s Symmetrical, and The Distance Between Those Characters Suddenly Shifts Within A Cut. And i washa absolutely Thinking of the Joaquin Phoenix-Adrien Brody Scene in The Village WHEN YOU SUDDENLY REALIZE THAT Joaquin’s Character Has Been Stabbed. That is just the most elegant filmmaking i’ve every Seen, and I Just Love His Films.

Unbreakable MIGHT BE MY FAVORITE MOVIE, AT LEAST SINCE IT CAME OUT, SO I’M RIGHT THERE TO YOU.

Durying My Final Year of High School, We Have to Compare and Contrast Two Films in My Media Class, and My Media Teacher Made It A Point of Pride Weing Weing Other. that might be confusing to teenagers. SO she chose X2 an Unbreakableand TOSE Are Two of My Favorite Films to this Day.

Lastly, i’ve interviewed the Philippou twins A Couple Times, and Besides Being Australians, You Guys Share a Similar YouTube-To-SUNDANCE SUCCCCESS STORY. (Neon Acquired Together for $ 17 Million at Sundance 2025; A24 Purchased Talk to me In A “High-Seven-Figure” Deal at Sundance 2023.) Have You Crossed Paths at all?

We have crossed Paths, Certainly. We Were Making YouTube Content AROUND The SAME TIME, AND THEIRS WAS MUCH more SUCCESSFUL THAN MINE. Screen Australia, WHICH IS OUR GOVERNMENT FUNDING BODY, HAD A PROGRAM THAT BROUGHT IN POOPLE WHO WEW WERE MAKING STUFF ONLINE. They Basical SAID, “WE ALSO HAVE MORE TRADITIONAL PLATFORMS FOR MEDIA. We CAN EITHER DISCUSSTS OR MAYBE FUND A Web Series.” SO We Ended Up Going to Vidcon Together As A Screen Australia Thing. We Were ALSO ON SAME SKETCH TV SHOW ONCE, AND I EDITED A VIDEO OF THEIRS FOR THAT SHOW.

There was a screen australia initiative Called Skip AHIP AHEAD FOR ONLINE CREATORS THAT HAD PROVEN SYA COURLD FIND AUDIENCES, AND SYUK US TO SYDNEY FOR A Week to Hang. They Taughht US What Long Form Screenwriting Is Like, and The Philippou Brothers and I Were in that class. One of the screenwriting experts was samantha jennings, who new Produces their Films. And the screen australia guy who found us and put US in that Project is a guy named mike cowap. HE PRODUced Togetherand I hope he will Produce My Further Stuff.

SO we’re all from this tis tight Little screen australia-recognized group, and being about the same age and work on YouTube at the Same Time, Itn’s Really They’re Certainly My Favorite Modern Australian Filmmakers.

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Together is now playing in movie theaters.