Michael Sheen
Michael Sheen
Michael Sheen, OBE is a Welsh actor. After training at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he worked mainly in theatre throughout the 1990s and made notable stage appearances in Romeo and Juliet, Don't Fool With Love, Peer Gynt, The Seagull, The Homecoming, and Henry V. His performances in Amadeus at the Old Vic and Look Back in Anger at the National Theatre were nominated for Olivier Awards in 1998 and 1999, respectively. In 2003, he was nominated for a...
NationalityWelsh
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth5 February 1969
CityNewport, Wales
You don't want to get into doing the same thing, over and over again. I know I don't.
My rule of thumb is that I want to do things I'd like to go and see myself.
When I was at drama school, I wanted to change the world, and thought I had some great wisdom to impart to people about humanity. Now that I'm older, I know enough to realise that I know nothing at all.
I find increasingly that the more extreme are the things going on in your life, the more cultural reference points fail you. More mythical reference points actually help, and you realise that's what myths are for. It's for human beings to process their experience in extremis.
I suppose I'm something of an eccentric dresser.
I'm not a Tony Blair impersonator.
I don't find the life in Hollywood all that meaningful or inspiring.
My tragedy is that all I want is a dog, and yet I have been cursed with cats all my life.
I don't want to do something that I've done before; I can't see the point of it.
I enjoy doing things that involve research because it's part of what I enjoy about acting.
I try not to pay any attention to clothes fascism and I'd rather be thought of as someone who has his own sense of style.
Nothing can be left until the last minute, so that everyone knows exactly where they are. Everyone is comfortable and everyone feels safe because we want people to be able to keep coming into this show and taking those risks. There are a lot of risks in this show, not just nudity, but emotional risks. We want the best actors to feel comfortable about coming in and exploring this subject matter with us.
It has to be absolutely believable. It's also going between images and scenes with nudity and sexuality that would be seen, in conventional terms, as kind of sexually exciting. It's up against things that are much more medical and gynecological, and notoriously we, as a culture and a society, have some issues with that kind of thing.
What's enjoyable for me, as an actor, is to do as many different things as possible.