On The Tonight Show, Michael Shannon talks skipping the Oscars, playing the first feline Bond villain

Shannon fielded Fallon’s questions with that same mix of amiability and charmingly offhand strangeness throughout. Asked about the online movement for him to play the next James Bond villain, Shannon responded that he’d only be right for the role if his cat were cast, with Shannon providing the cat-villain’s voice. (Which, now that Shannon has put it out there, is the only choice, really.) He also spoke about the famous picture of him watching The Shape Of Water win its many Oscars from a barstool at Chicago’s Old Town Ale House, explaining that he’d ditched the awards show to attend the closing performance of a play he’d directed (Traitor, at Chicago’s A Red Orchid Theatre), and then gone to the noted dive bar to get “completely poleaxed.” He also skipped the Golden Globes earlier this year, in order to do what he described as “a feeble impersonation” of Iggy Pop at a Chicago David Bowie tribute concert in January. (Although the shirtless, slinky, thong-sporting picture of Shannon Fallon showed looked appropriately Iggy-esque.)

Finally getting around to talking about Fahrenheit 451 (premiering May 19 on HBO), Shannon called co-star Michael B. Jordan “the sweetest, nicest guy I’ve ever worked with,” before smilingly brushing off Fallon’s joking suggestion that Shannon and Fallon should team up in a movie. “That’s never gonna happen,” responded Shannon, leaving Fallon (and everyone else) simultaneously amused and unnerved. Such is Shannon’s way.