Based on the Stephen King novella, the upcoming movie “The Life of Chuck” features everything from an end-of-the-world scenario to multiple dance sequences. You can’t pigeonhole it with a genre, but what’s undeniable is the film’s big, life-affirming heart.
Director Mike Flanagan’s movie (in select theaters June 6, nationwide June 13) chronicles the life of a seemingly ordinary accountant named Charles Krantz (Tom Hiddleston) over three acts, in reverse chronological order. USA TODAY debuts a touching exclusive scene from the movie’s final act, where young Chuck (Benjamin Pajak) asks his sixth-grade English teacher, Miss Richards (Kate Siegel), what the line “I contain multitudes” means in Walt Whitman’s poem “Song of Myself.”
Her elegant answer is “a microcosm of what this movie is about,” Siegel tells USA TODAY, and there’s “something profoundly human” about this “pivotal” moment in the movie.
Join our Watch Party! Sign up to receive USA TODAY’s movie and TV recommendations right in your inbox
“In saying that Chuck contains multitudes, that this little kid has a whole world that will grow, it means that every other person on the planet also contains multitudes,” Siegel says. “Chuck is the most important person in the universe and also completely insignificant at the same time. And that feeling is what it means to be human, to feel utterly important and centered and also to be part of a huge whole where every human being contains a universe.”
Four actors play Chuck over the course of the movie: In addition to Hiddleston and Pajak, Jacob Tremblay inhabits the character’s older teenage years while Cody Flanagan, Siegel’s son with husband Mike Flanagan, is the youngest Chuck as a little boy.
So in that scene where Miss Richards holds Chuck’s head and face, “it felt a bit like I was talking to my son of the future,” Siegel says. “And that added a whole other layer knowing that on some level, my son is a part of Chuck. It brought a ton of empathy to me just kind of organically.”
Now 8, Cody “of course” wants to be an actor, Siegel reports. “This kid had more confidence than I’ve had in 20 years of an acting career. He’s just like talking to his dad, being like, ‘I think I need lines here.’ And I was just so proud of him.
“Every day now, he says to me, ‘Mom, when am I going to get an agent?’ And I say the same thing: ‘When you turn 18.’ “
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ‘Life of Chuck’ exclusive: Watch new scene from Stephen King movie
