Michael Shannon Quotes

I am an accidental actor.

I'm a journeyman actor.

I was a kid who went to film school and fell into acting.

My whole life, I wanted to be an actor. Perhaps the seed was planted when I saw Sigourney Weaver in 'Alien', wiping the floor with the men on the ship.

You know, when you start, especially with me, I didn't really know I was going to be a movie actress. I thought I was going to do theater.

I didn't want to do film or commercials or television.

I've always wanted to act and I grew up a little on film sets when my dad was working as an actor.

Most actors will tell you that it takes a while to figure out what you want to be because we just want to do everything we see on TV and don't know that 'actor' is a job yet.

My chosen occupation isn't necessarily movie star; I see my chosen occupation as actor.

I was lucky enough to have a plethora of types of roles before and during the horror movie part of my career.

I wasn't a child who wanted to be an actor.

I didn't picture myself as a movie actress. I began to think about it around college. I remember thinking, 'Well somebody has to be in them,' so maybe I could do that eventually. It's all been a surprise.

I didn't intend to become an actor.

I didn't grow up wanting to be an actor, and I didn't go to acting school.

I started as a director and just fell upon acting.

You never really know why you become an actor: it's a visceral thing, an emotional thing.

I love movies, I've always been interested in them, but I wanted to wait for the right time to start acting.

I didn't really make up my mind to be an actor until I did 'The Hitcher' with Rutger Hauer. I was about 17 or 18 when I did that, by which point I'd probably done a dozen or more movies or TV things, but 'The Hitcher' was the experience that made me want to study and commit and learn how to do this for my life.

I sort of fell into acting.

I was so green, and my background was mostly in theater. The only thing I'd done in front of a camera, besides an infomercial and one commercial, was 'Brothers McMullen.'

I started taking acting classes when I was 14. That's when I knew I wanted to try it professionally. Before that, I watched movies, always, but I didn't think it was a real job. I watched Turner Classic Movies with my parents. I've always loved the old classics.

I had no idea how one became an actor. I didn't know things such as drama schools existed. It all just sort of happened accidentally.

I decided when I was very young, when I first saw movies, that I wanted to be an actor.

Besides stray instances of acting in school and college, I hadn't prepared myself to be an actor.

Be it commercial or offbeat, I want to establish myself as an actress.