No one plays imposing and unsettling quite like Michael Shannon. The looming 6’4″ actor, best known for his characters in Revolutionary Road — for which he was nominated for an Oscar — Take Shelter, and HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, commands attention in every scene he’s ever done, wielding a hollowed-out stare that can even shake audiences seated in the last row of the theater. There’s always a hint of menace behind those unblinking eyes, the potential for something wild and dangerous — even when his character’s intentions are pure.

In The Iceman, which opens in theaters on May 3, Shannon plays a man whose intentions are most definitely not pure. Richard Kuklinski was an infamous mob killer who admitted to more than 100 murders after he was finally captured in 1986. At home, in a leafy New Jersey suburb, he’s the loving husband to Winona Ryder’s willfully naive wife and doting father to their two daughters. But when he goes to work, he’s the grim reaper, dispatching victims with extreme prejudice.

In a way, playing a cold-blooded murderer is just a prelude for what’s next. In Man of Steel, the ginormous Superman reboot that flies into thousands of theaters on June 14, Shannon plays General Zod, the hero’s Krypton-born arch-enemy. It’s by far the biggest movie he’s ever appeared in, and millions of boys and girls will get their first glimpse of that powerful glare, pure, delightful kryptonite to their young moviegoing hearts.

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via Michael Shannon in ‘The Iceman’ and ‘Man of Steel’ | Inside Movies | EW.com.