He stole the show in The Runaways, is garnering wide acclaim for his lead role in 2011 TIFF premiere Take Shelter and on Saturday night, actor Michael Shannon took to the stage in Whistler to accept the first-ever Spotlight tribute award from the festival.

Very tall and known for taking on dark, and not exactly handsome roles, Shannon sat down with CBC’s Fred Lee for a Q&A that ranged from his shoes (Calvin Klein. Socks: cashmere) to his start as an actor in Chicago to shooting the big-budget Man of Steel in Vancouver this fall.

“It’s unusual, I’m still very young in my career” he said of accepting the Spotlight award at the fest, noting that he was nonetheless pleased: “I’ve done a lot of things in my career and it feels like people are finally starting to watch them.”

Shannon currently stars as federal prohibition agent Nelson Van Alden on Martin Scorsese’s Boardwalk Empire, as well as the lead in Take Shelter, currently in theatres.

He was nominated for an Oscar for his supporting role in 2008’s Revolutionary Road and is portraying the character of General Zod in the Superman reboot currently in production in Vancouver.(A personal favourite Shannon role of mine is his portrayal of The Runaways manager Kim Fowley in the movie of the same name. The festival even showed the best clip in the film, when creepy Bowie wannabe Fowley finds a 15-year-old Cherie Currie in a club and asks her to sing in the band. When she agrees, the camera follows Fowley as he walks out of the bar, manically gleeful in his victory: “Jack f**king pot! Jail f**king bait!”)

Often portraying dark or complex characters, Shannon bristled slightly when asked if he thought being called a character actor was an apt description – “I don’t understand that – I’ve never seen an actor not play a character” – but admitted that, unsurprisingly, the characters he plays are in part a reflection of his own persona: “I’m not a smoothie. I’m kind of a volatile person.”

On the power of festivals, Shannon had much praise for Whistler (see headline) and said one of the things he likes best about festivals is educational, or professional-development programs, sharing that Take Shelter‘s theatrical existence is a direct result of the Sundance Feature Film Program Lab.

Lee wrapped the Q&A by asking if Shannon felt a little more comfortable in his career these days, given his recent high profile roles and Oscar buzz around his Take Shelter performance, to which Shannon said no, and added that he hoped he never would be.

“If you want to be successful, you have to be uncomfortable.”