"I wanted to make Brandon as everyday as possible. So there's something in there that people will recognize in themselves.

I also wanted him to be very vulnerable and human. My job is to take the viewer to a place that they recognize but perhaps won't go themselves. So I have to go all the way. I never understand [the idea of] worrying about whether what I do onscreen will affect the way people look at me off it. My job is to go there. It was important for these sexual acts that are so visceral, but without any emotional content or nourishment, to be quite ugly. But more powerful for it, I think.

I did some research, and I don't know how many articles I came across where guys were indoors for 72 hours straight, no interest in making love to their wives any more, just hooked on that [masturbation to the Internet]. People think sexual addiction means having sex with people, when in fact, a lot of the time, it's this singular, isolated experience. What's shocking is, it's widespread, something like 24 million people in America.

It's not just addicts, either – ordinary people at work are surfing the Internet for porn. You used to have to reach to the top shelf to get it, then look around, see who's watching, go to the desk, buy it from a person. There's none of that any more. The immediacy is profound. Steve and I thought it was something people weren't talking about and needed to.

Michael is devilish enough to joke about Shame, too. When asked what he would do at the end of a shooting day to shake off Brandon's malaise, he replied, deadpan, 'Go home and watch porn on the Internet.'"