Michael Shannon Will Never Play Donald Trump: ‘F—k That Guy’

Michael Shannon has played murderers, philosophical drug dealers, and Elvis Presley, but there’s one person he’ll never portray: Donald Trump. The two-time Oscar nominee is asked whether he’d be at all interested in doing so in the upcoming issue of Playboy, responding with an unequivocal “no” before detailing exactly why.

“He’s having the time of his life,” Shannon replies when asked whether he believes Trump is struggling with demons. “He doesn’t even have to work. All the hard work that most people have to do to get to be president of the United States, he just skipped all that. The fucking guy doesn’t even know what’s in the Constitution. He doesn’t have any grasp of history or politics or law or anything. He’s just blindfolded, throwing darts at the side of a bus.”

The actor scoffs at the notion of even empathizing with Trump: “What is there to be empathetic toward?” he asks.

Asked what he thinks Trump contemplates at 4 o’clock in the morning, Shannon is similarly blunt. “He’s probably thinking, I want some fucking pussy. I don’t know. I’m not going to remotely contemplate the notion that Trump is capable of deep reflection.”

“In any form!” he adds. “It doesn’t happen. Fuck that guy. When he’s alone with his thoughts, he’s not capable of anything more complex than ‘I want some pussy and a cheeseburger. Maybe my wife will blow me if I tell her she’s pretty.'”

The issue isn’t available online yet, but Shannon’s thoughts have been excerpted on Twitter: