Michael Shannon recently gave an interview to Vanity Fair’s Little Gold Men awards-insider column. He’s campaigning (not really) for an Emmy for his outstanding work in George & Tammy, plus he’s got a bunch of other projects coming out, like The Flash and The End. In The Flash, he revives his General Zod character from Man of Steel. While The Flash has tons of buzz, it’s also got Ezra Miller playing The Flash. The same Ezra Miller who went on a violent crime spree through the continental United States, plus Hawaii, Iceland and the UK. Miller has been credibly accused (and at times criminally charged) with everything from assault, disorderly conduct, grooming, intimidation, harassment and more. Warner Bros spent a lot of money on The Flash, which means Warner Bros has a vested interest in protecting Ezra Miller as an asset. Last year, someone (probably from WB) finally forced Miller into in-patient treatment and we haven’t heard much about them recently. I would have expected Michael Shannon to just stay out of the conversation completely, but he chose a different route. Some highlights from the VF interview:

Working with Jessica Chastain again on ‘George & Tammy’: “Jessica and I, the way that we got into this business and the way that we were able to accomplish what we’ve accomplished—we didn’t take the easy route. Kind of similar to George and Tammy, we had some hard knocks that we came from and, and so we could kind of identify with that aspect of their lives. Also like George and Tammy, our backgrounds kind of unified us. We’re kindred spirits, I guess is what I’m saying in a long-winded fashion.

He’s quite musical & he loves to sing: “It’s funny because I started doing music before I ever started acting. The first art form I dabbled with was music, when I was a kid. I guess I get a little leeway, because of that. It was a really nice feeling to show up at work and be in a situation where I could sing, and it was my job that day to sing. That felt really nice, as intimidating as it was and as challenging as it was. It still was very exciting to me. I love music and I love singing and I was surrounded—all the people that play the musicians in the show are actual, highly regarded Nashville musicians. Between takes, if I started playing a guitar or something, they could all come in and we’d just start playing a song. That was a lot of fun, more fun doing that than, like, the scene where I start shooting a shotgun in the house or something.

Agreeing to appear in The Flash with all of the DC upheaval: “I initially had some trepidation going into it because I just adore Zack Snyder. He gave me an extraordinary opportunity when he offered me that part [in Man of Steel]. I was flabbergasted when he offered me that part. I never imagined that anybody would ever give me an opportunity like that, and I enjoyed working with him so much, so when all that went down with the Justice League, it really upset me. I know there’s two sides to every story, and I might not have all the facts so I shouldn’t have too strong an opinion about it, but when [director Andy Muschietti] called me about The Flash, first of all, I was just confused. I was like, Didn’t I die at the end of Man of Steel? Am I, like, a zombie or what’s going on?” And I confessed to Andy, I’ve really got to get Zack’s blessing to do this. I’m not going to feel comfortable unless he says he understands. but Zack gave me that blessing and I went and did it.

He didn’t film very long on The Flash: “I wasn’t there very long. It was a totally different experience than Man of Steel, which was months and months of my life, almost a year, if you count the training we did leading up to the shoot. Flash I was in and out of there in a couple of weeks. But I hear there’s been some—I’ve gotta admit, I’m not looking at the trades every morning, keeping my finger on the pulse of things, but I know there’s been some issues. It seems like they’re ready to let it out.

On Ezra Miller: “If you’re talking about Ezra [Miller], I thought Ezra was lovely—very kind to me when I was there. It’s difficult to talk about, but I always give people a lot of slack in this business, because there’s a lot of people in this business that have issues. And some people have more privacy than others. Any time somebody is out in the spotlight getting picked on, I feel for them. Even if it’s warranted, it’s still a horrible situation.

[From Vanity Fair]

I’m surprised by Shannon’s careful wording around Ezra Miller. I suspect that Warner Bros gave him some talking points, or maybe this is genuinely the way Shannon feels and he’s just trying to be nice to a costar. It definitely feels like Miller’s people are leaning towards a defense of “Miller is a troubled person dealing with complex mental health issues,” which may very well be true. But Miller has also hurt a lot of people and committed a lot of crimes. People aren’t “picking on” Ezra Miller – people are literally trying to serve various arrest warrants and protective orders on them. Anyway, I wish Michael Shannon had just said “I’m not going to talk about the Ezra Miller situation” and left it at that.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.