In this Screen Tests interview, Michael Shannon discusses his first on-screen sex scene - with Kim Basinger in '8 Mile' - and the awkward encounter that followed. Shannon also reveals his childhood celebrity crush on Kathleen Turner in Body Heat and Prizzi's Honor, and the circumstances of his first kiss at a school dance - which, by the way, was totally unexpected. Because he didn't listen to Bon Jovi.
Actor Michael Shannon has enjoyed a prolific career in Hollywood, acting in small but pivotal supporting roles in films as varied as Curtis Hanson's 8 Mile and Pearl Harbor. That is until he got noticed for his part in the Kate Winslet-Leonardo DiCaprio vehicle Revolutionary Road. That part earned him his first Academy Award nomination, a feat he repeated this year for his righteous, thoroughly Texan sheriff character in Tom Ford's Nocturnal Animals. (His other two films in 2016 were Midnight Special, by Jeff Nichols, whose Loving was a critical darling all season, and Elvis & Nixon.) The late-in-life acclaim has been long in the making, and in his interview with W, he recalled his not so auspicious start: a sex scene with Kim Basinger in Hanson's 8 Mile. Love scenes, he says, is "just like having sex, except without any of the pleasure, but all the horror, fear, anxiety, sadness, and loneliness there is to enjoy."
On "Nocturnal Animals":
"The first time I saw the script, it said Nocturnal Animals on the front of it. It's based on a novel called Tony and Susan, but when I got it, it was a red script, very exciting and it had my name on every page. It was top secret, and I read it, and I was like, 'Man, this is really dark,' and I know I guess I'm kind of known for doing edgy stuff, but it was almost a little bit more than I can handle. But then I met with Tom, at the Carlyle Hotel, in New York City."
On his favorite love scene in a movie:
"Well, you know, my scene in 8 Mile, where I got to have sex with Kim Basinger, that was pretty cool. That was my first love scene."
"I was terrified. It was very strange because there was a woman there whose job was to be Kim's body double while they were lighting, and that's the only reason she was there, and she had to take off her clothes.
And so they brought me to set first, and that woman, whose name I can't remember, sat on top of me while they made sure the lighting was right. And then at the very last second, when everything was prepared, Kim came in, and she had her robe on, and she's like, 'You ready to do this?' I'm like, "Uh, sure," and she threw her robe off and straddled me, and we did a take, and [the late] Curtis [Hanson] was like, 'Yeah, that was very good. I think we'll just go one more time, you know?'
And so we're sitting there on the couch, and I'm trying to not make eye contact. I'm sweating, and the whole thing's just wrong, and there's this green pillow, a really ugly, hideously ugly green throw pillow next to me on the couch, and I said, 'Oh, that's, that's a nice pillow,; or something about the pillow, and Kim was like, 'What?' I said, 'The pillow, uh, I like this pillow.' She's like, 'Oh, okay. Yeah, it's a nice pillow.' And then we did another take, and Curtis was like, 'Oh, I think we got it,' And then we would go on.
And then like a few months later, I was in Louisville, Kentucky doing a play, and I got a package in the mail, and there was a little envelope, and it said, 'Dear Michael, Just wanted to say I really enjoyed working with you. You were such a gentleman, and I thought you might like this as a memento of our time together,' and she had sent me the green pillow from the couch in the box. And I have since lost it. I have no idea where it is, probably the most significant item I've ever received, and I lost it. She's really, really nice."
"I always say sex scenes in movies, it's just like having sex, except without any of the pleasure, but all the horror, fear, anxiety, sadness, and loneliness is all there to enjoy, just none of the pleasure part."
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Michael Shannon on His 8 Mile Sex Scene with Kim Basinger | Screen Tests | W Magazine
4 окт 2024
