-Our first guest tonight is an Oscar-nominated actor
you know from films like "Nocturnal Animals"
and "Revolutionary Road,"
as well as the HBO series "Boardwalk Empire."
He stars in the Showtime Limited Series "George & Tammy."
The finale airs January 8th. Let's take a look.
-♪ He said, "I'll love you till I die" ♪
♪♪
♪ She told him, "You'll forget in time ♪
♪♪
♪ As the years went slowly by ♪
♪♪
♪ She still preyed upon his mind ♪
-Please welcome back to the show our friend Michael Shannon,
everyone! [ Cheers and applause ]
[ Up-tempo music plays ]
♪♪
Welcome back! -Thanks. Thanks, Seth.
-First guest of 2023. -Oh, wow.
2024 -Yeah.
[ Laughter ] I'd get in that DeLorean.
-You would? -Yeah.
-You'd go a year into the future?
-It was nice of you to go to the party with him.
-Yeah. I mean I worry about him.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -He used to be America's mayor,
and now I feel like he's a little down on his luck.
-And senile. -Yeah.
Where would you go if you had a time machine?
-Oh, dear Lord.
I would have liked to have been here in New York in the '70s.
-Yeah. I think that people
who were actually here in New York in the '70s
think we're crazy for wanting that.
-They do. -But I kind of agree with you.
-I would have gone to CBGB's every night, you know?
-Yeah. -That's the kind of guy I am.
-It's interesting 'cause that's what draws you --
that's the kind of music you'd be drawn to, right?
New York in the '70s. George Jones --
you seem like a natural, but country music
was not part of your growing up, huh?
-Yeah. I mean, I grew up in Kentucky, so --
-Whoo! -Yeah, thank you.
It's just below the Mason-Dixon Line.
-That sounded like the wind going through a holler.
[ Laughter ] -No, that's Mitch McConnell
and Joe Biden down there right now.
Whoo! Whoo! [ Laughter ]
-That was like somebody blowing it over a jug.
-Yeah, yeah. Whoo! [ Laughter ]
But, um, yeah.
So, you know, ostensibly, I guess,
everybody from the South is supposed to be
tremendously familiar with country music.
But, yeah, I -- my only contact with it, really,
was seeing it on "Hee Haw." every now and then.
-Yeah. -We'd watch "Hee Haw" on TV.
-So, did that make it easier to take on playing George Jones,
that you didn't sort of grow up married to that music?
-Yeah, I suppose so, because -- Yeah, it wasn't like I was
trying to step into one of my idols' shoes,
although as I was researching him
and getting to know him better and better,
I became quite fond of him as you're, I guess, supposed to
if you're playing somebody. But, yeah.
[ Light laughter ] I guess, at the outset,
I didn't really know enough about it
to be super intimidated. But the singing
was very intimidating. -Because you're doing
your own singing. -Yes.
-You're obviously playing this great vocalist,
not someone you're familiar with.
And also, I think people don't understand --
it's wonderful to watch -- I've loved what I've seen
so far -- you guys sound great,
but, of course, to film music, you've got to sing all day long.
-Yes, and you have to sing -- ultimately,
to get the good sound on the track,
you have to sing a cappella, which means that you have
a little earwig in your ear, and you can hear the song.
But all the extras out in the audience
just hear your voice.
So you're singing a cappella
in front of hundreds of strangers.
[ Laughter ]
And there was one particular day where we had --
Jessica and I, we had a daytime outdoor concert,
and then I had, that same day,
a nighttime outdoor concert all by myself.
And it was freezing cold, and, yeah, we --
I mean, our wonderful music producer, Rachael Moore,
she said I was out there singing, you know, 14, 15 hours.
And she kept telling me --
because we did have prerecorded tracks
that I could lip-synch to -- and she said, "You know,
we've already got the track. Stop. What are you doing?"
I said, "No, I think I can do it better."
So I just kept doing it over and over and over again.
-I really feel like doing it in front of strangers
is my full nightmare.
It would be like going to a karaoke bar
where they say, "The machine's down,
but we'd still love to hear you --"
-"But you know the words, right?"
-"You know the words." -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's exactly basically what it's like.
-What was the music you listened to in your house,
growing up? -Oh, dear.
[ Laughter ] Well, I mean --
Uh, I-I-I -- We didn't really --
it was more of a TV house than a stereo house.
I got a boombox around when I was 12 years old --
a little tape player -- and the first two tapes I bought
were Phil Collins "No Jacket Required"...
-Yep, classic.
-...and Stevie Wonder, "Part-Time Lover."
-Really good start, yeah. -Were my first two cassettes,
Yeah. And I wore those out.
And then, when I started high school,
I got into the jazz band and started playing bass --
jazz bass -- and really started getting into jazz music.
-Alright. -Yeah, yeah.
-I should have asked this when you first came out,
but what did you do for New Year's?
-[ Laughs ]
[ Laughter ] Well, [Chuckles]
uh, it was -- it was legal. [ Laughter ]
-Great. -Yeah, yeah.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-[ Laughs ]
-Right now, I'm doing a play here in New York, actually.
We got one more week. It's called "Des Moines,"
if you find yourself in Brooklyn.
And anyway, we had two shows on New Year's Eve
and two shows on New Year's Day. -Oh, wow.
So there's not a lot of partying between there?
-No. After our nighttime show on New Year's Eve,
I went to a restaurant down the street
and had dinner by myself. -By yourself?
-Yeah. They said, "We're gonna have
a champagne toast at midnight. Would you like a glass?"
I said, "No, I'm leaving." [ Laughter ]
And I made sure that when it was midnight,
I was walking down the sidewalk. -Now, are you approached
when you have dinner alone on sort of a festive night?
Do you think people say, "Hey, that's Michael Shannon.
I feel awful that he's there"? [ Laughter ]
-There were people that came up and said hello, yeah.
And then I told them to go away. [ Laughter ]
I said, "Mind your own business and don't feel sorry for me,
no matter what you do. I'm fine."
-Before -- Long before you found your way to George Jones,
obviously, you have this musical background.
You were in a high school jazz band.
You also busked here in New York City.
-[ Laughs ] Well, it was Chicago.
-Oh, Chicago, alright. -This was back when
I was acting for free, and five people were coming
to see the plays I was in.
And I was trying to figure out how to get something to eat.
So I had this little bongo --
just like two little hooked up together like that --
and I would go down, and in the CTA, there's a stop,
the Washington stop, that has a tunnel
between the Red Line and the Blue Line.
I would sit in this tunnel and play the bongos.
-How did you do? -Not well.
-Yeah. -Not well.
-Were you good at it? -It's a sense memory.
It's coming back. I can't stop myself.
-Oh, wait, wait, don't stop. -Give me some bongos over here.
-A bunch of change is gonna be chucked up here.
-Yeah, yeah. -Stick around.
We'll be right back with more from Michael Shannon.