Interview: Michael Shannon on his new Hulu series “Nine Perfect Strangers”

By Abe Friedtanzer

Michael Shannon's onscreen career deserves more recognition. Yes, he is a two-time Oscar nominee thanks to Revolutionary Road and Nocturnal Animals, but he wasn’t even nominated for his best roles, including Take Shelter, 99 Homes, The Shape of Water, and The Iceman. He also deserved Emmy recognition for his first regular TV role on Boardwalk Empire, which he strangely didn’t get. 

Now, the talented always busy actor of stage and screen, who at one point debuted a whopping ten films in a single year (2016), is returning to television for the limited series Nine Perfect Strangers, based on the book by Liane Moriarty, author of Big Little Lies...

He plays Napoleon Marconi, husband to Heather (Asher Keddie) and father to Zoe (Grace Van Patten). The Marconi family accounts for one third of the title group looking to achieve tranquility at a mysterious and very shady retreat program run by Masha (Nicole Kidman). 

I had the chance to chat briefly with Shannon for The Film Experience (see the video above) as his new show makes its debut with the first three episodes now available on Hulu. I was particularly interested to learn how he felt about playing such a positive, optimistic character who is far from the Shannon standard. Let us know what you think of the show in the comments!

Comments

[NATHANIEL R]

Of course this was me watching this and hoping he'd say something about Nicole Kidman with that question about his costars ;)