Exclusive: Maria Bello on Beautiful Boy

Actress Maria Bello has earned a reputation as a go-to actress when a film needs a dramatic powerhouse to really give it weight, which is why she’s made such an impact with her roles in Wayne Kramer’s The Cooler , David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence , Jason Reitman’s Thank You For Smoking and Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center , among others.

In Shawn Ku’s Beautiful Boy , she stars opposite Michael Sheen as the parents of a college student who shoots up his campus and then kills himself. Trying to come to terms with what happened, they start feeling guilty they must have been responsible for their son’s decision, and cracks start forming in their marriage. It’s an intense dramatic film about a tough subject that features some of the most emotionally-charged performances…