"Everyone Thinks I'm Nuts"

A conversation with Michael Shannon about college girls, why he thinks his eyes need a "shitload of botox," and the bottomless sadness of Philip Seymour Hoffman

Photo by Jake Chessum

I first met Michael Shannon 34 years ago, while he was in rehearsals for his debut performance as a professional actor. He was one of the leads in a play about anarchists called "Winterset," at a small theater in the south suburbs of Chicago. I was 20 at the time, and only invited to sit in on rehearsals because the director was a friend of my parents. Just days before the show was to open, I was called into the director's office to discuss Shannon.

"How old do you think that kid is?" he asked. "We think he's lying about his age."

I honestly had no idea, but I couldn't imagine anybody younger than me getting cast in an Equity theater production. So I made a guess. "Twenty six?" I blurted.

Turns out, I was way off. Shannon was only sixteen, but had claimed to be in his 20s. I'm not sure if the director believed me, or felt better knowing that he wasn't the only one to overestimate Shannon's age. In either case, the show went on, and the theater wasn't busted for breaking child labor laws.

I don't want to say that I'm responsible for Shannon's acting career, but... I'm kinda responsible for his career. Things have worked out pretty well for him ever since.

I’ve kept in touch with Shannon over the years, and interviewed him many times. I’ve already shared one of those conversations here on Spitz Mix, where Michael and I talked about Iggy Pop. For no particular reason, here’s another of my favorite exchanges with him, which took place at the sushi restaurant in Chicago next door to the Red Orchid Theater, a company he co-founded two decades ago. We gorged on tasmanian salmon and few too many bottles of hot saki. He remembered, word for word, his very first review from that show in the south suburbs: “Michael Shannon is a semi-attractive youngster who thinks acting is flapping his arms like a bird and rubbing his eyebrows.” It still bothers him, even all these years later.

Eric Spitznagel: I heard that you got into acting as a teenager to avoid sports, because you weren't especially athletic.

Michael Shannon: Yeah, that’s true. I remember going to meet David Mamet for some Kung Fu movie he was making, Redbelt. He saw World Trade Center and really liked it. So I walked into his office and sat down, and he looked at me and said, “Uhhh. Wait a second, you were in World Trade Center, right?” And I’m like, “Yeah.” And he said, “You played the sergeant, right?” I’m like, “Well yeah.” He was like, “This is so weird. Are you athletic? I got the impression from watching the movie that you were very athletic.” I was like, “No, not at all.” And he said, “Have you ever done karate or anything?” I’m like, “No.” He was like, “This was a mistake, I’m sorry.” And he sent me out.

ES: He rejected you because you weren't as athletic as a character you played in a movie?

MS: Yeah, pretty much.

ES: He does know that movies aren’t real, right? It’s make believe.

MS: Apparently not. And he's such a lumberjack, that David Mamet. Such a manly man.

Photo by Jake Chessum

ES: Sometimes actors who play evil or psychotic characters have a hard time letting go after the cameras are turned off. Has that ever-?

MS: No, no. No fucking way. 

ES: Not once?

MS: I’m nothing like that. Ever. Maybe when I was a teenager. I find that gross. What's the point? Once you're finished with work, it's over. You don't see a plumber walking down the street with a giant wrench, muttering “Please, let me unscrew something.”

ES: Yeah, but a plumber doesn’t have to deal with emotions all day.

MS: You think when a plumber sees a clogged-up fucking toilet, they’re not feeling something?

ES: I’m sure they feel something. But their job doesn't involving crying for strangers about that clogged-up toilet.

MS: I don’t know. To me, an actor’s job is to tell a story. And honestly, the story is usually a lot less personal than people think.