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Michael Shannon Biography

Michael Shannon

Michael Corbett Shannon (born August 7, 1974) is an American actor and musician. He has been nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his roles in Revolutionary Road (2008) and Nocturnal Animals (2016). He earned Screen Actors Guild Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for his role in 99 Homes (2014), and a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play for Long Day's Journey into Night (2016).

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Michael Shannon Quotes

That could sound arrogant, I guess, but sometimes I feel like I have a bit of a Zelig thing. I'll blend in wherever. I'm from the South, so I'll have a Southern accent when I'm home. But if I'm up here in New York, I have a British accent.

New York, Home, Southern, Thing, Blend

It's always very daunting to play someone who actually existed. You have to honor that, and be specific and accurate and try to make people believe that you're that guy, which is really hard.

Accurate, Actually, Believe, People, Play

When you see a struggle that you may be having personally put on a big screen and in a roomful of people, then it makes you feel less crazy or alone, because you're seeing that other people are dealing with it too. You get to see in this imaginary scenario how people might try and answer some questions or deal with some problems.

Crazy, Imaginary, People, Problems, Questions, Struggle

If you don't fight the system, you can either take advantage of the system or let the system take advantage of you.

Fighting, Advantage, Ifs, Let, Take

The stage is a routine. It keeps you grounded, like a metronome. I find that soothing.

Metronome, Metronomes, Routine, Soothing, Stage

What I'm angry about, and I've gone on record saying this, is I think that financiers get away with murder. They realize they can get something for nothing and they won't settle for anything else. There's something called a Schedule F. If I work for a Schedule F contract that basically means I'm doing the movie for free because by the time I pay all my commissions and taxes there's barely anything left for me to live on. This whole notion that you do work that you love for very little money and then you go out and do something you hate to make money.

Angry, Free, Hate, Live, Mean, Thinking

Theater is the best. That's where you get the work done. You just really get in there and figure something out about a story or a character or life or the world. That's where magic stuff happens.

Character, Figure, Magic, Stories, Theater

If you don't believe there's some organising principle, or somebody up in the sky pulling the strings, then it can be very stressful. And nature itself is very arbitrary - it's not malevolent or benevolent; it doesn't even know we're here.

Believe, Malevolent, Principle, Principles, Sky

I want to focus on each scene. I'm a real perfectionist, and I don't want to feel like I didn't consider every possible variation of a scene. I come from a theater background, so I'm used to a lot of repetition, and I'm used to really attacking something over and over and over again.

Background, Focus, Real, Repetition, Scene, Variation

Everything that happens on Wall Street only fortifies my opinion that there is in fact a more ludicrous industry than the entertainment industry.

Entertainment, Facts, Happens, Industry, Wall

If I were God, I would just be up there scratching my head, thinking, 'What the hell am I supposed to do with this?' For everyone helping an old lady across the street, there's someone else bludgeoning a person to death. And sometimes they're the same. How can He separate us all out?

Helping, Same, Separate, Sometimes, Thinking

A lot of times people will send me stuff. They will find something and they will send it to me and then I will take a look at it. Every once in awhile I will go on IMDB for 10 or 15 minutes and look around. But I am not a huge gearhead. I don't even have my own computer. I use my girlfriends.

Girlfriend, Imdb, Looks, People, Send, Use

There are so many people who make their fortunes of the misfortunes of others. I don't know if it's because the world is too damn crowded, or what, but it's something that I've been noticing for awhile.

Damn, Fortune, Make, Misfortunes, People, World

It is surprising that people are snapping photos and stuff and then putting them on the internet. For me, it is like, "Why would you want to do that?" It would be like knowing what your Christmas presents were before Christmas morning.

Christmas, Knowing, Morning, People, Presents, Putting

I've known a lot of very religious people. My mother is very religious, but she was also very - is very private about it. She - when I was growing up, she never went to church. She just prayed and read her Bible and kept it to herself. So I'm not from a background of flamboyant believers. It's much more a personal issue.

Mother, Religious, Growing Up, Background, Prayed, Kept

A lot of times the characters I play tend to be kind of loners or they don't have best friends or best buddies.

Character, Friends, Loner, Loners, Play

It's obviously a lot harder to try and be a good guy than it is to be a bad guy. The world is a fundamentally evil place, it seems like. So in order to be a good person, you have to fight temptation and vice.

Evil, Fighting, Good, Order, Place

You got to know what's worth keeping and what's worth letting go.

Keeping, Know, Knows, Letting Go, Meaningful, Worth

As an actor, I don't know what I'm doing. I've never known what I was doing. I show up the first day, I'm scared, and I just hang out. It's like being in detention - you just wait for it to be over. Then gradually I start to figure out what's going on.

Figure, Hanging Out, Scared, Start, Wait, Waiting

The magic word for me is pumpernickel. I love pumpernickel. I must have some Russian blood in me because I could just eat pumpernickel and raw onions.

Blood, Eat, Love, Magic, Onions, Russian

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