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.

Michael Shannon

Categorized in : Waiting Scared Hanging Out

Everybodys constantly being destroyed and rebuilding themselves, some more drastically than others.

Michael Shannon

destroyed rebuilding

That's the great secret of humans: we're all the same person. The best thing to do is just go for the hug.

Michael Shannon

hug secret

I started acting because I was miserable and crazy and wanted to be someone else, to run around and scream in front of people without getting in trouble.

Michael Shannon

crazy running people

There are certain ways of being that people don't find acceptable or very pleasant in regular life, but you go out on stage and do pretty much the same thing and they find it spellbinding.

Michael Shannon

stage people way

Design is the fundamental creative activity with which we direct our lives, and collectively, the earth's transformation from its original, natural state into our human-made world.

Michael Shannon

design creative fundamentals

Plenty of people are onto the emptiness but it takes real guts to see the hopelessness.

Michael Shannon

emptiness real people

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.

Michael Shannon

crazy struggle people

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

Michael Shannon

entertainment wall facts

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.

Michael Shannon

magic done character

I think improv training really orients you to character development, more than taking a Strasberg class or Meisner class. Not only is it about developing character really quickly, but it's also about being a good partner in the scene.

Michael Shannon

training character thinking

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

Michael Shannon

knows letting-go meaningful

It's a little bit odd. The first time you do the play, you kind of throw yourself into it, trying to get the most out of all the individual moments. Then, a few hours later, you're still there, wondering what you could possibly do differently than what you just did a couple hours ago.

Michael Shannon

couple play trying

My dad used to say, 'You have to become part of the machine to beat the machine,' and there's some validity in it. But honestly, even when I'm inside the machine, you still see me. I stick out a little bit.

Michael Shannon

machines dad sticks

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.

Michael Shannon

fortune people world

When you put your costume on and you get your hair and your makeup done [for a role] and you stare in the mirror you feel like a different person.

Michael Shannon

makeup mirrors hair

I'm just kind of odd. There are dark forces in the world, and if you pay attention to what's going on around you, you end up incorporating it into the storytelling. Maybe it's some aspect of myself that's coming through that people are seeing, that I am in fact a quiet psycho.

Michael Shannon

dark pay people

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.

Michael Shannon

southern new-york home

I've never worried about anything in my life a fraction of the way I worry about my daughter. It's much more than hoping people like the play you're in, or that your outfit doesn't look bad. It's the real deal.

Michael Shannon

daughter real mother

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

Michael Shannon

advantage fighting ifs

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.

Michael Shannon

variation focus real