PIEN HUANG, HOST:
Michael Shannon is best known for his acting roles in everything from "The Shape Of Water" to "Boardwalk Empire," but his latest roles are not on screen. His directorial debut, "Eric Larue" is out this spring, and before then, his R.E.M. cover band is hitting the road. He says his love of that band began as a teenager.
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MICHAEL SHANNON: It feels like this band made these songs just for you when you listen to them, to help you, like, navigate the pain and absurdity of existence. And there's so many people that feel that way. And yet that's the thing about really incredible music, I feel, is that it's very public and very private at the same time.
HUANG: Shannon delved more into his childhood on Wild Card, where guests answer big questions about their lives drawn from a deck of cards. Here's host Rachel Martin.
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RACHEL MARTIN: First three cards. Here you go - one, two or three.
SHANNON: Three.
MARTIN: Three - what do you admire about your teenage self?
SHANNON: Oh, what a lovely question. Well, I was a survivor, you know? I - you know, I'd say the years from, like, 12 to 16 were a real gauntlet because my mother lived in Kentucky and my father lived in Chicago. So my childhood, I spent in Kentucky with my mother. But when I started high school in my adolescence, I moved up to live with my father. In that period of time is when I started getting into acting, and I guess I had some guts to get into that - just showing up and, you know, auditioning for the school play or - and getting little opportunities to do that. And then, you know, after I got out of high school, I was still a teenager, and I was in Chicago. And I started going down into the city and auditioning for plays in the city and started getting parts in, you know, very small, like, storefront theater productions. And that took a fair amount of guts, I think.
MARTIN: It does take a lot of courage to stand up on a stage and try to inhabit another character at that age - takes guts.
SHANNON: Yeah. Well, I think maybe I didn't feel like I had much to lose. You know, it was like it didn't really matter, I guess, at the end of the day, whether they thought I was, you know, good or not. It didn't - really didn't make a difference.
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MARTIN: Three more - one, two or three.
SHANNON: One.
MARTIN: What does age teach you about love?
SHANNON: Oh, my God. Oh, dear.
MARTIN: Oh, no. Is that a good, oh, my God or a bad one?
SHANNON: No, it just moved me. I think, you know, when you're young, love is very self - can be very self-serving. You're like, you want love from other people. You want to have love. It's something you want for yourself. And then as you get older, you realize that it's probably ultimately more important to love others regardless of what you get in return.
MARTIN: Yeah.
SHANNON: It becomes, hopefully, less transactional and more just a state of being...
MARTIN: Yeah.
SHANNON: ...You know? - which is - can be hard to accept.
MARTIN: I don't think that comes naturally to any of us, is that recognition and being able to then take people where they're at - love without expecting some reciprocity.
SHANNON: Well, and it's liberating in a way. If you can really do it in an honest, authentic way, it's actually very freeing, but it - unfortunately, it seems to be something you can't get to without experiencing a fair amount of pain (laughter).
MARTIN: Yeah, yeah.
SHANNON: Yeah.
MARTIN: Three more in this round - one, two or three.
SHANNON: Three.
MARTIN: Three - (laughter) was there a bedrock truth in your life that you found out wasn't true?
SHANNON: I don't think so. You know, I guess the most bedrock truth I could claim to have is that, you know, change is the only reality. But it does actually seem to be true (laughter).
MARTIN: Are you comfortable in that? I mean, has it always been...
SHANNON: Sometimes I am, sometimes I'm not. But I can't imagine it any other way. You know, when you act, you create these little societies or civilizations to create some piece of art, and then you finish and they disappear. But for the most part, you get very accustomed to things not being, you know, stable or reliable or things changing, you know?
MARTIN: How does having a family play into that? Is that a constant for you?
SHANNON: That is, yeah - particularly my daughters. I mean, that's the one thing, you know, that won't change, is I love them very much, and I always will. And they're my, you know, favorite people. And I'm fascinated by them, and if they're anything like me, there'll probably be a period of time where I don't interact with them very much, you know, so...
MARTIN: Are you preparing yourself for that?
SHANNON: Yeah. Well, my 16-year-old is already a very cosmopolitan young woman, yeah. But she's so healthy. I mean, it's all so healthy and...
MARTIN: Yeah.
SHANNON: ...It's just - it's exactly what should be happening and...
MARTIN: But that's a great thing because you...
SHANNON: Yeah, yeah.
MARTIN: ...You had a different experience with your parents, and I imagine it informed your choices about how you wanted to raise kids and...
SHANNON: Yeah. I get uncomfortable taking too much credit for it, but, you know, I also make tons of mistakes, just like everybody.
MARTIN: Nah.
SHANNON: Yeah. Yeah, yeah (laughter).
MARTIN: Me either. We're perfect.
SHANNON: Come on.
MARTIN: (Laughter).
SHANNON: You heard it here on NPR.
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MARTIN: Michael Shannon's new movie, "Eric Larue," will be out this spring. You can see him on tour, covering R.E.M.'s "Fables Of The Reconstruction" album this winter. Michael, thank you so much for talking with me. I really appreciate it.
SHANNON: My pleasure.
HUANG: You can follow NPR's Wild Card podcast to hear a longer version of that conversation. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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