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"He&amp;#039;s been on our screens since the early &amp;#039;90s and now Michael Shannon is getting suited up as General Zod in Man of Steel, which is released in cinemas today (June 14). Well known for playing characters with an unstable edge and an evil glare, Shannon will be battling against Henry Cavill&amp;#039;s Superman in the highly-anticipated film. Here are ten things that you may not know about the man behind the villainous Zod.   1. Shannon was born in Kentucky on August 7, 1974. His mother is a lawyer and his father was an accounting professor. He was raised in both Kentucky and Chicago after his parents divorced. 2. He began his career in theatre, where his first acting role was in Winterset at the Illinois Theater Center. Since then, Shannon has appeared in off-Broadway shows in New York as well as in London&amp;#039;s West End, such as Killer Joe and Bug. He also co-founded a theater called the Red Orchid Theater in Chicago, where he still regularly performs.  3. Shannon&amp;#039;s first on-screen role was in 1993, in the dark and dingy music video for Every Mother&amp;#039;s Nightmare&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;House of Pain&amp;#039;, where he played a troubled boy running away from his abusive lifestyle. 1993 also brought about Shannon&amp;#039;s first movie role - a groom in the comedy Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray.       4. The actor admits turning to his profession because he was never athletic. During a chat with Interview, Shannon said: &amp;quot;One of the reasons I&amp;#039;m an actor is because I was no physical specimen as a child. I wasn&amp;#039;t athletic and didn&amp;#039;t have any prowess in that regard... I was on a flag football team when I was in second grade for a couple of weeks, but then we moved before our first game, so I didn&amp;#039;t get to play. I wanted to rip those flags right out of those little boys&amp;#039; pants - just rip those little shreds of fabric right out of their waistbands - and I never got to do it. I&amp;#039;m still chasing that flag.&amp;quot; 5. Shannon&amp;#039;s role in Revolutionary Road, alongside Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, earned him an Academy Award nomination for &amp;#039;Best Supporting Actor&amp;#039;. The actor admits to having an embarrassing encounter during the ceremony when he spoke in a fake British accent without realising during a chat with director Sam Mendes and fellow co-star Winslet.  6. When an explicit email from a Delta Gamma sorority member went viral, Shannon put his theatre experience to good use and teamed up with Funny or Die to produce a dramatic reading of it, complete with atmospheric background music and moody lighting. (Warning: strong language)   7. Shannon is in a relationship with actress Kate Arrington. The pair have worked together in the stage show Grace. Arrington said: &amp;quot;We leave home, we have an hour apart, and then I see him at the theatre and I&amp;#039;m really happy to see him. I&amp;#039;m like, &amp;#039;Look, it&amp;#039;s Michael Shannon&amp;#039;.&amp;quot; The pair have one daughter together, Sylvia. 8. If having an acting career wasn&amp;#039;t enough, the 38-year-old formed his own band Corporal back in 2002. On the band&amp;#039;s website it says: &amp;quot;The members of Corporal are too old to form a boyband. They play songs that have woken them from their sleep.&amp;quot; Their first album took over 18 months to complete due to the conflicting schedules of the members.  9. Michael Shannon has many celebrity fans, one of which being James Franco. Franco cast Shannon in one of his short films called The Broken Tower in 2011, and has nothing but praise for the actor. He said: &amp;quot;You can put Mike in almost any situation, and it feels genuine. He is the kind of actor other actors look to because he possesses great depth and mysteriousness. I think he can do anything.&amp;quot; 10. While shooting Man of Steel, Shannon admits that he did not have much faith in the CGI technology when starting filming and says that he felt &amp;quot;ridiculous&amp;quot; shooting in the motion capture suit. He said: &amp;#039;&amp;#039;Literally the first shot I did, I was supposed to be coming out of a spaceship, which was basically some wooden stairs they&amp;#039;d built and painted neon green. I walked down them in my unitard, acting like I&amp;#039;m General Zod... It takes a lot of faith, because the first day you&amp;#039;re there and you wanna go home and cry, because you just think no-one&amp;#039;s ever gonna take this seriously.&amp;#039;&amp;#039; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/10-things-about/news/a489122/ten-things-about-michael-shannon/>