52 Insights<\/a>, Shannon speaks about his preferred approach to acting, and he also explains why the most important thing an actor can do is pay attention.<\/p>\nShannon expresses that he approaches every role as if he was trying to solve a mystery. He explains, “At the end of the day I look at what I do as an investigation. My favourite playwright is Eugene Ionesco and his contention is that every story is a detective story, that we\u2019re all just trying to figure out what the heck\u2019s going on. And actors are doing that with people. If you look at a character like Rick Carver in 99 Homes<\/em>, from the outside he\u2019s someone who a lot of people don\u2019t have much patience for, they just think he\u2019s a scumbag or whatever. But for me I look at him and think, well why does this guy do what he\u2019s doing? Why does he feel it\u2019s okay to do those things? And how did he come to be? What shaped him? I think it\u2019s important to answer these questions because you might watch 99 Homes<\/em> and get upset about Rick Carver, but he\u2019s not entirely a figment of the imagination. There\u2019s a lot of Rick Carvers out there doing similar things, so why not try to figure out why the hell they\u2019re doing them.”<\/p>\nFurthermore, Shannon points out that even his own life has followed a bit of a mysterious path, which is why he doesn’t often know what to tell aspiring actors. He reflects, “I could never have possibly foreseen the twists and turns that my life would take. I approach acting pretty much the same way I approached it twenty-five years ago. I\u2019m just doing it because it interests me. I was never gunning for international superstardom or mountains of money or anything. I just kept showing up and saying, ‘Oh this is interesting, I like working with these people, they seem to know what they\u2019re doing.’ I\u2019m always loathed to take too much credit for anything because it\u2019s such a collaborative process. And honestly without the writers and directors, what do I have? I can\u2019t just show up on set and free style. For me it\u2019s like you\u2019re a servant. You\u2019re serving the audience, you\u2019re serving the director, you\u2019re serving a vision. It\u2019s not about exalting yourself. I would not be a good acting teacher. But when people do on occasion ask me for advice I say, ‘Just pay attention. That\u2019s the chief principle. Pay attention all the time.'”<\/p>\n
Particularly after his role in Boardwalk Empire<\/em>, Shannon was recognized for his intense portrayals of his characters. When asked if the biggest misconception of his work is that he’s an intense person, Shannon answers, “I mean honestly I look at acting like it\u2019s my job to disappear. The best acting is invisible. I understand it\u2019s natural for people as consumers to categorize things and look at your body of work and say, ‘oh okay, you do this.’\u00a0 But I never show up with my trusty formula for a day\u2019s work to make sure I achieve the full Michael Shannon effect. I show up and I\u2019m lost and I\u2019m searching for a character. And to me every single character I\u2019ve played is extremely different and unusual and mysterious. There\u2019s nothing I would necessarily want people to know. An actor is a lens between the people creating the film and the audience, so I\u2019m never really trying to call attention to myself.”<\/p>\nIn fact, Shannon confesses he doesn’t understand why other actors hold him in esteem for simply preparing himself for his roles. He says, “Preparation is actually the key. If you just show up and haven\u2019t read the script or thought about your character, and just expect something to happen. . . well that usually doesn\u2019t pan out very well. Film is a very technical medium. One of the great misconceptions to me is that theatre is very fake and movies are like real life. I used to hear that said a lot and I\u2019d never had that experience of it. To me movies are like surgery.\u00a0 […] You need to have a surgical focus. Because every frame is crucial. There are ways to figure out how to exist in front of a camera and how to look good. You might watch someone and think, oh yes, that\u2019s a person who should be in a movie, they\u2019re making great facial expressions, their voice sounds nice. So there\u2019s that component of it.”<\/p>\n
Shannon adds why he thinks some stage actors fail when it comes to acting on camera. He continues, “There\u2019s also people who have a lot of raw talent but don\u2019t have any sophistication and don\u2019t understand that you need to have a relationship with the camera just as much as you need to have a relationship with the director and your fellow actors. You need to understand lenses and things like this in order to make a fully crafted performance. You need to be aware of all that stuff but you also need to forget about it. It\u2019s a weird contradiction. You\u2019re supposed to know how to do a lot of things and at the same time you don\u2019t want it to seem like anything except an accident. Because that\u2019s what life is.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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Gibbons (2024), and Howling to the Moonlight on a Hot Summer Night: The Tale of the Stray Cats (2024). In addition to his work for Daily Actor, McKittrick and his work have been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Observer, Newsday, USAToday.com, CNBC.com, Time.com, RollingStone.com, and dozens of other entertainment and news websites. He has appeared on television on the Tom Petty episode of HLN\u2019s How It Really Happened and Al Araby TV\u2019s Hekayat Al Cinema, and on various radio shows and podcasts. 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