Director Ira Rosensweig may have culled from real-life events in his new sci-fi mystery Share? but he was determined to put his own unique spin on the film, which stars Melvin Gregg (High Flying Bird, The Blackening), Bradley Whitford (Get Out, The Handmaid’s Tale), Alice Braga (The Suicide Squad, Hypnotic), and Danielle Campbell (Tell Me a Story). Specifically, Rosensweig tossed around the idea of interacting with an unknown computer system. “I thought it could really be an interesting allegory about technology, and that’s kind of the place where we started.”

The captivating and offbeat film revolves around Gregg’s character, who suddenly wakes up alone and confined to a room located somewhere in a secret society. He struggles to survive, connected only by a primitive computer network. Soon enough, he discovers that the only currency is the ability to entertain, and that his unseen audience rewards him during his most humiliating moments or when he’s in pain.

The man quickly builds off that realization, and plots a self-destructive comedic persona which allows him to not just survive, but thrive in this very unusual new world. Ira Rosensweig and Melvin Gregg shared more about the film in this exclusive MovieWeb interview.

Why Melvin Gregg Took on the Role
XYZ Films

Ira Rosensweig developed the story with screenwriter Benjamin Sutor (The Amazing Spider-Man) here, casting Melvin Gregg (so good in American Vandal) as the film’s primary focus. The interesting hook is that Gregg’s character is rewarded with “socialization” via video feeds. That allows him to develop relationships with other inhabitants, including a cantankerous veteran of the system (Bradley Whitford in a great role), and two women (Alice Braga and Danielle Campbell) who eventually confront him with opposed worldviews.

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Rosensweig’s biggest question to audiences: Should the film’s characters accept their confinement and try to find some form of happiness within it, or fight a seemingly unwinnable war with the system that imprisons them? “When I first read the script, I was into it,” said Gregg, noting that the story mirrored certain things in his own life:

“It was reflective of a lot of things I experienced with as a social media influencer. It gave me an opportunity to be a lead in a project, and it was a very cool indie, which was something I was looking forward to doing. The biggest challenge for me was probably timing. Being that we’re only shooting from one camera and one angle, we can’t cut to make things longer or shorter. So, you have to play out the scene as long as you want it to be.”

To that end, if a scene needed to be just over 90 seconds, that would entail working through a great deal of blocking in a short period of time. “That was the most challenging part. Continuity was another thing. Because like I said, we’re only doing one take and one shot. So, we’re only going to use one of these shots. We’re not cutting it up. And this shot is going to take us to the next shot. So, we got to make sure the continuity is immaculate, which I love.”

Share? Mirrors Present-Day Angst
XYZ Films

Curiously, Gregg wasn’t at all that surprised by the offbeat premise of the script, whose characters must perform outrageous acts to garner attention. One person succumbs to teaching yoga. Another is a frenetic mess. Gregg’s character, in fact, is seen barking like a dog and shoving his face into a bowl of dog food.

“I was on social media, and nothing should surprise you because these people are doing anything to get attention,” Gregg shared “I would tell Ira a few days in, I’ve probably done everything I could possibly think of to do as an actor. I’m jumping, I’m flipping, I’m falling, I’m crying, I’m screaming, I’m eating dog food, I’m dancing. So, it was fun. It was a challenge, but I also think it’s reflective of the time that we’re in with social media, where people are pretty much doing anything.”

When asked why he feels the culture has collectively arrived at this current psychological juncture, Ira Rosensweig noted:

“I think the need for attention also dovetails with how driven we are by distraction. The world has always had its problems and stresses, but because of social media, and disinformation on social media, because of the lack of nuance on social media, it’s like everyone takes a side and they want to batter the other side with what that is. And it’s just so hard. You think evolution should take us to a place where we’re more accepting of each other and we’re more open to hearing the other side, and it feels like we’re going in the completely opposite direction.”

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He added that he is far from a conspiracy theorist, yet was intrigued with Bradley Whitford’s character in the movie talking about the corporations and big media conglomerates, and how, “they have found a way to hack our minds in a way where it’s like they know, like it’s so easy to control us, but with this little device, right? “

Future Projects and Some Hope

Up next for Ira Rosensweig is a sweeping comedy drama about multiple generations of literary families. Look for more news about that in the coming months. For now, the director wants audiences to dive in and experience Share?

“I would love people to just think about their relationship with technology,” he said of the film, quickly adding that he and the creative team have partnered with several non-profit organizations in the hopes of raising awareness about social media issues. “We’re partnering with iSpeak Media Foundation to do a whole college tour in quarter one of next year, because that age group is the group I want to speak to the most. We’re working with Harvard’s Digital Wellness Labs because for people who feel they have a problem, we want to provide an outlet for them to seek resources.

“There’s a group called the Organization for Social Media Safety that wants to show the movie for Congress in support of a bill that they’re lobbying for,” he added. “So, I really hope the movie can be used as a tool in those respects. I want it to be entertaining, but I’d love people to finish the movie and just have a reaction and think about it.”

Share? arrives in select theaters and on digital and VOD November 10.