'In This Current Situation, It's Very Poignant & Sad': Michael Shannon On 'Groundhog Day' & 'The Quarry'
(CBS Local)-- Michael Shannon is a two-time Academy Award nominee and has been in some of the biggest movies and TV shows of the past two decades.
Shannon made his film debut in "Groundhog Day" with Bill Murray, starred in "Boardwalk Empire" as Nelson Van Alden, and has popped up in popular movies like "Knives Out," "The Shape Of Water," and "8 Mile." The actor has a new movie out on video on demand called "The Quarry." The movie tells the story of a fugitive drifter who becomes the new leader of small town church after he murders a traveling preacher. Shannon plays a police officer in the movie and finds himself deep in a murder investigation.
"The challenge for me was the schedule. We only had 20 days to do it," said Shannon in an interview with CBS Local's DJ Sixsmith. "That's not a lot of time to make a film, although it's becoming more common nowadays. People get just enough cash to shoot a movie in 20 days. You really have to do a lot of work each day. The character made a lot of sense to me. I just look at him as a product of his environment, like so many of us are. We have these beliefs that seem so concrete in our own minds and yet if we're able to get outside of that environment, we can hopefully see they are a little flimsier than we thought."
The actor recently re-watched "Groundhog Day" for the first time since he was in it with his family and it is particularly fitting given the current circumstances of the world. Kate Arrington, Shannon's wife, is always trying to get him to do a movie night, but he doesn't watch a ton of movies in general.
"She did manage to get me to watch Groundhog Day the other night," said Shannon. "It was interesting to see. I don't even know the last time I saw it. Maybe I haven't seen it since it came out. In this current situation, it's very poignant and sad in a real way. There's still a lot of funny stuff in in it. Bill Murray is hysterical. The whole premise of it was kind of a downer, but it's also beautiful as you see him dealing with it and turning it into something beautiful. That was his way out... to accept it and make the most of it. It was a very interesting movie to see right now. I would recommend it.
While Shannon has played a lot of great roles in his career, his performance in "Revolutionary Road" sticks out for a number of different reasons. He was nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor and also showed his range as a performer.
"I just used the book as my main inspiration," said Shannon. "The writing in that book is some of the best writing I've ever read. I feel like all the instructions and directions are in the text. I guess I have a certain affinity for his point of view. I can't say I'm always as blunt as he is."
Watch all of DJ Sixsmith's interviews from "The Sit-Down" series here.