Michael Shannon is astounding The Iceman. In fact, Movie Fanatic believes that if this film were released later in the year, say in October, he would be a lock for an Oscar nomination. What is so fascinating is how the actor went directly from filming Man of Steel on a Friday, where he portrays the villain General Zod, to Monday morning inhabiting the real-life mob killer teased in The Iceman trailer.
Shannon met Movie Fanatic recently for an exclusive interview where he talked how nice it was to film The Iceman after closing Man of Steel. Shannon stars as General Zod in the Superman reboot and welcomed the thespian challenge of moving from that movie villain to another shade of evil with his portrayal of the mob assassin he plays in The Iceman.
“Man of Steel was a six month shoot. By the end of that… you get to the point where you’re ready to do something else for a little while,” Shannon said. “Towards the end of Man of Steel, we were doing a lot of technical stuff like stunt-y stuff. That stuff is fun for a while -- then it gets a little bit monotonous. I was ready to get back and actually do a scene where I talk to somebody.”
Shannon portrays Richard Kuklinski in The Iceman, a for hire killer who was responsible for hundreds of deaths across decades. Meanwhile, he had a family and wife (Winona Ryder) at home who were all completely unaware of his murderous vocation.
There was an award-winning HBO documentary that chronicled the real life killer and Shannon found a “fountain of life” from the doc. “I spent a lot of time watching that,” Shannon added. "I got the unedited version!"
The Iceman is in theaters now and Man of Steel lands June 14.