There’s a saying that you should never meet your heroes, because they’ll inevitably disappoint you and in Hollywood that must doubly true. Public personas and private lives tend to be wildly divergent, so there’s likely no shortage of occasions when actors meet directors, or vice versa, and seeing the true face of someone whose talent they admire turns out to be disheartening. And it appears that was the case for Michael Shannon and two major directors.
Chatting with Vanity Fair at TIFF — while rocking a pretty incredible outfit (shout out to those socks) — Shannon revealed that he’s at the point in his career where he doesn’t really have to audition. However, the last picture he auditioned for was Alexander Payne‘s “Nebraska,” and it didn’t go over so well.
“I didn’t really like him very much,” he said, before deadpanning. “He shoulda cast me, and he didn’t.”
However, Shannon reiterated, “But he just wasn’t very nice.” And that’s not the only filmmaker who the actor found lacked some manners.
“Woody Allen’s not nice either,” Shannon said, recalling that he auditioned for one of the director’s plays. “He doesn’t even look at you.”
So you can probably scratch Shannon out of appearing in a films by Payne or Allen, but he probably won’t be lacking in people knocking down his door to work with him. The actor’s next movie, “Nocturnal Animals” — where he arguably gives the best performance in the film — opens on November 18th.