Michael Shannon deals against “Star Wars”.
“Brainless Entertainment”
Character actor Michael Shannon doesn’t want to get stuck in big movie franchises.
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Michael Shannon says he turned down a Star Wars role Big film franchises are “brainless entertainment” for him.
Two-time Academy Award-nominated character actor Michael Shannon, 48, has lashed out at “Star Wars” and comparable global film franchises. In a recent interview with Empire magazine, Shannon said he turned down a Star Wars role because he had “doubts about these giant films.” This reports “Insider”. The mime did not reveal exactly which character he was to play in the galaxy far, far away.
Michael Shannon: “I don’t want to make mindless conversation”
According to the actor, known from “The Shape of Water” (2017) and “Knives Out” (2019), working on big blockbuster films is “not particularly stimulating”. “I never want to get stuck in a franchise,” Shannon said, adding, “I don’t want to make mindless entertainment. The world doesn’t need more mindless entertainment. We’re inundated with it.” Projects he chooses to do as an actor would have to have “some kind of intent”.
Currently seen in the DC Universe
Some moviegoers will be surprised by these statements that Shannon can currently be seen in the DC Studios superhero film “The Flash”. In the comic book adaptation, which is part of DC’s huge film franchise, Shannon embodies the film’s villain General Zod – for the second time after “Man of Steel” with Henry Cavill, 40, from 2013 .
However, Shannon says he signed on for the latter production because it was an “actually very relevant story”. “[Der Film] It’s essentially about a civilization that has destroyed its own planet and thinks the solution is to go away and destroy another world. When you hear that if we destroy Earth, we could possibly live on Mars, it’s the same thing,” the actor explains. He also didn’t see his character Zod as a villain.
But Shannon finds far less enthusiastic about his latest foray into the DC Universe. “I won’t lie – it wasn’t satisfying for me as a performer”, he revealed to “Collider” about two weeks ago. Multiverse movies are, according to Shannon, “like someone playing with action figures. It’s like, ‘Here’s this person. Here’s the other person. And they’re fighting.'”