Nobody has ever really made a big deal out of Michael Shannon.
“Obviously, I’m not a superstar,” he says matter-of-factly. “I’ve had a scene here and a scene there in this movie or that movie.”
That’s why the veteran Chicago actor was pleasantly surprised — and very much flattered, really — when director William Friedkin insisted that Shannon re-create the role of Peter the paranoid Gulf War veteran for the big-screen version of “Bug,” which opens nationwide on Friday. It’s the same stage role that got Shannon plaudits in Chicago, London and New York, where Friedkin first noticed him during an off-Broadway production of the play, which was written by another Chicagoan — Steppenwolf’s Tracy Letts.
“The whole reason this happened is because Friedkin saw the play off-Broadway and he loved it so much he decided he wanted to make a movie about it,” Shannon explains. “But when Tracy started talking to him about it, he assumed that Friedkin would want to make a bunch of changes.”
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One of the changes Letts and Shannon assumed would happen would be finding another actor to play the role of Peter opposite Ashley Judd in the film. “But Billy was pretty adamant from the get-go that he didn’t want it to be different from the play,” Shannon says.
Of course, producers and studio heads prefer to see a big name in a film. Why not a Brad Pitt? Why not an Edward Norton? Somebody — anybody — who brings a certain cachet to the big screen.
But Friedkin put his foot down, insisting that Lionsgate cast Shannon in the role.
“I just held out for him and it was ultimately my call,” says Friedkin, who also happens to hail from Chicago. “I told them, ‘I am not doing it with anybody else — that’s it.’ That left us with a situation where they weren’t going to make the picture or I wasn’t going to make it for them.”
Judd says Friedkin’s commitment to Shannon was “contagious.”
“Michael Shannon created the character and sustained it in a way that required terrific intimacy and passion,” Judd says. “When Billy Friedkin saw the play off Broadway in New York, he loved the play but in particular he loved Michael Shannon in the play. It was that performance that made him want to acquire the film rights. When the play was being adapted, he explained what it was like to watch Michael on stage.”
And Friedkin truly believes Shannon’s performance will translate to the big screen.
“Every once in a while a guy comes along that is so good and is so original,” the director says. “Once they’re discovered, they usually launch a great career. I felt that Michael was that kind of actor.”
Somebody is finally making a big deal out of Michael Shannon.
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