Michael Shannon is about as big a weapon as there is in Hollywood right now, and his conduct during yesterday’s Academy Awards is a pure and glorious testament to that.
Shannon, as you’re all probably aware, had a leading role in The Shape of Water, which wound up taking out the Best Picture award in something of a boilover.
While most of the film’s cast and crew were in attendance at the Dolby Theatre to collect the Oscar in person, Shannon was conspicuous in his absence. And, as it turns out, he wasn’t even in Los Angeles at the time.
The story goes that Shannon was over in Chicago, where he was completing a run of the play Traitor, which he was directing, at the Red Orchid Theatre where his career began. Don’t forget where you came from, etc.
That didn’t stop him from watching on as the film he starred in was awarded the industry’s most prestigious honour. Not by a long shot.
But while other non-attendees got dolled up in their finery to attend formal viewing parties, Shannon took the far sensibler route and watched the ceremony, in street clothes, while posted up at the bar of a shitty dive joint while absolutely pounding froth dogs. The boy. The absolute boy.
https://twitter.com/GeriatricGenius/status/970816180515753984
How’s that. No sound. Jukebox pounding. Watching his work getting acknowledged on the grandest stage of all. Bloody how about it. You’d hope he chucked back a celebratory $5 shot of malort after the big win.
Even further cementing his status as a proper Chicagoan and all-around top bloke, his choice of watering hole – the Old Town Ale House – is routinely singled out as one of, if not the, best dive bars in the city.
Look at him. He’s even tipping properly.
That’s how it’s done, right there. No glitz, no glamour, no fanfare. Just a coupla cheeky Froth Whitlams and then back to work the next day. Beautiful stuff.
