Shawn Michaels Talks Playing an Abusive Villain in ’90 Feet From Home’

Between The Resurrection of Gavin Stone and The Marine 6: Close Quarters, Shawn Michaels has often brought the same upbeat charisma from his professional wrestling career to his acting roles. But for his latest film, 90 Feet From Home, Michaels had to take a much darker turn.

Michaels stars in the the film as Jimmy Devine, an abusive stepfather whose alcoholism greatly affected the future of his two stepsons (Adam Hampton, Thom Hallum). In a recent interview with ComicBook.com, Michaels admitted that he was surprised when director Brett Bentman approached him for the role.

“It was a really dramatic role, certainly far heavier and deeper than anything I’ve ever done before,” Michaels said. “So I was just honestly taken aback by the fact that somebody would, I don’t know, give a WWE pro wrestler such a deep role and an emotional role and something with some real depth to it.”

Michaels admitted that the hardest part about playing the character was taking on Devine’s abusive nature.

“There was a time that I could remember being angry and whatnot, but most of that I felt like if I took it out on anybody it was usually myself, or other adults,” he said. “So I could not begin to even possibly fathom the anger in someone to take it out on children.”

But as he dove further into the character, Michaels said he grew to have a better understanding of who Devine is and why he took out his anger in such violent ways.

“The more I thought about that and was challenged by that, it started to dawn on me that most of that stuff is cyclical,” Michaels said. “Nobody, for the most part, wakes up one day saying, ‘Hey, you know, I think I’ll start beating kids.’ That’s something that even though I had no insight or background to Jimmy, it was one of those things that felt like he had to have gone though that himself. So when I approached it from that standpoint it made it … I felt like at least he didn’t feel so villainous at that point.

“I felt a bit of compassion for him, and I think that made it a little bit easier for me, but honestly, that was going to be the most challenging thing for me, because I’m a pretty easy going, happy-go-lucky guy now,” he added. “The last thing I try to do is get in a bad mood for heaven’s sakes, and if I do, I immediately think about how wonderful stuff is anyway.”

Now that he has stepped into a more dramatic role, which was originally envisioned for Mel Gibson or Jeff Bridges, Michaels said he hopes to be considered for other complex characters.

“I do know that I really enjoy it, because it is challenging,” Michaels said. “Again, I love to be silly and laugh and everything else, but I really do enjoy the work of acting all together. It’s something that’s incredibly interesting to me. But, certainly if people were to think I did a decent enough job and felt that I could pull off some other roles, that would be a blast, because it really is … and it really was intriguing and interesting to see if I could do it.”

The film, which is set for a Summer 2019 release date, also features Eric Roberts (The Dark Knight) and Dean Cain (Lois & Clark).

Photo courtesy of B22 Films