From a 2008 interview I did with Jeff Nichols, the director of Shotgun Stories* (go see it on the biggest, prettiest screen you can find - 35 mm of gorgeously shot film) and the upcoming Take Shelter:

One thing I was curious about, Michael Shannon and his weird head?

It’s enormous, isn’t it? I had never met him in person before, but you couldn’t miss him coming down the escalator at the airport. But there’s something interesting that happens when you put him on film. It kind of evens itself out. 

He’s a fantastic actor with an interesting face that’s handsome from some corners and Willem Dafoe from others.

My fiancée’s maid of honor actually thinks he’s totally hot and I’m just baffled by it.

* In some ways, Shotgun Stories is reminiscent of a David Gordon Green film if David Gordon Green kept going with atmospheric southern art films and didn’t make the leap into the mainstream that brought us Eastbound and Down, Your Highness, The Pineapple Express, and the wonderful-looking (sarcasm) The Sitter. The evolution of David Gordon Green, however, is another post entirely!