A Feathery Chat with Michael Sheen

Source: Hollywood.com

You arrived on set three days ago. What is it like to come in so late in shooting?
MS: It’s been great shooting at the deep end of it. The first day filming, we did the 18th century stuff and then some of the modern stuff. It was a lot to deal with — you know with the wig and contact lenses all day and the makeup — but it was fantastic. And these sets are amazing and the look of everyone is so strong. So it was great. Just kind of to get right into it.

Is there an irony for you, playing a vampire after playing a Lycan in Underworld?
MS: I feel a bit like a traitor now that I’ve swapped sides. The vampires get to wear much cooler clothes in Underworld and in this. So now I get a nice bit of tailoring instead of raggedy leather.

The nice thing about playing a werewolf is that you don’t have to worry about getting dirty on set. At lunch time, I can have a lie down, and it doesn’t matter because I’m supposed to look rough, versus this where I have to look perfectly tailored and groomed and clean all the time. So I can’t sit down or do anything because I’ve got all this white makeup on, and I'm wearing black clothes. I’ve got to be really careful that I don’t get covered in stuff.

How did you approach playing Aro?
MS: I loved the thing in the books where Stephenie wrote about how the Cullen family is all really beautiful, and that’s what kind of lures people into their web. And Aro is not like that. She describes Aro as being not the same sort of thing.

I like the idea that it’s his voice that lures people in — and his sort of demeanor rather than the way he looks — because he looks very weird and kind of scary. So I’ve tried to sort of go down that route to make him very mesmerizing. That his voice is quite gentle and soft, and yet there’s something kind of unhinged about him. They’re great scenes.

Stephenie was saying that she loved writing this scene that we’re doing now. I read it over and over and over again, that particular bit in the book. There’s a part where she describes his voice as being quite feathery. That’s what gave me sort of the idea of making him very soft and light. I think she describes it as being like a sigh, his voice. And that he’s a bit like a concerned grandfather at times with Edward. Even though he’s this deadly, really dangerous character, there’s something quite sentimental about him, something soft.

Sheen is whisked back off to set before he can answer the next question. An ancient vampire lord’s work is never done.


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Sheen Receives Honorary Fellowship

Reported By: WalesOnline

Actor Michael Sheen received an honorary fellowship from Swansea Metropolitan University today.

Sheen, who grew up in nearby Port Talbot, received two Bafta nominations in 2007 for his performance as Tony Blair in The Queen and for his role as Carry On actor Kenneth Williams in Fantabulosa.

He was also nominated for the Best Actor Bafta in 2005 for his performance in the TV drama Dirty, Filthy Love.

Addressing the audience after receiving the honour, Sheen said: “I would like to congratulate you all on completing your studies and finishing your degrees.

“And a special congratulations on being able to navigate the walk, through the doors and down the steps. The old heels and hat combo is a treacherous one.

“I’d like to say thank-you so much to Swansea Metropolitan University for admitting me to the Fellowship, it’s a huge, huge honour for me and it’s one I’m glad to share with my family who are here today.”

Commenting later on the website Twitter, Sheen said it was the first graduation ceremony he had attended.

He added: “Gave an impromptu speech. All rather nerve-wracking but I got through it. Have to try quite hard not to cry when I do a speech.

“Embarrasingly (sic), get easily moved by occasions like that and if I have to do a speech I can get a bit overwhelmed. Did alright today though.

“Lovely seeing everyone on the lawn outside having photos taken in their gowns with their families and the sun shining down.”

Swansea Metropolitan University vice-chancellor Professor David Warner said: “Critics have compared Michael’s screen gravitas favourably with fellow Welsh and Port Talbot actors Richard Burton and Sir Anthony Hopkins.

“There seems little doubt that Michael is destined to become one of the world’s greatest actors.”

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Sheen reveals his secret for crying on camera

Posted By: WalesOnline

WE’VE seen him morph at will into characters as disparate as Tony Blair and Kenneth Williams, but it seems even natural chameleons like Michael Sheen have their limits.

Faking one’s emotions for example, can sometimes prove a little too difficult, even for that most versatile of Port Talbot acting talents.

But the Welsh star has confessed he has a secret weapon when it comes to crying on camera – he listens to Song to the Siren by the tragic American cult singer Tim Buckley.

“I’ve used it many times when I’m filming and I need to weep in a scene,” confessed the star in a new book, Inspired, which quizzes celebrities on the pieces of music that move them the most.

“Sometimes it can be very hard to come up with the tears, so I plug in my iPod and listen to a bit of Buckley and that tends to get me in the right place.”

Sheen added that one of the main reasons the tune, first recorded by Buckley for his 1970 album Starsailor had such an emotional resonance for him was because he first heard it not long after he and former partner, the actress Kate Beckinsale, had their little girl Lily, 10.

“First of all it’s such a beautiful song and it always makes me cry, mainly because it makes me think of my daughter,” he said.

“I remember listening to it shortly after she arrived and there’s a line in it which goes: “Swim to me, Let me enfold you,” and it just makes me think of her being born and swimming to me, and me being away from her.

“There’s just a kind of terrible beauty to the song which I love, that whole thing about not being able to stop yourself doing something that’s going to be bad for you, something destructive.”

That was certainly true of Buckley himself, the hard-living folk singer having overdosed on heroin in 1975, establishing him in rock mythology to such a degree the plenty of other acts have been similarly drawn to cover his most famous tune – from Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant to Red Hot Chili Peppers’ guitarist John Frusciante.

“Oh, there’s lots of versions, techno ones, trance ones, all kinds of stuff,” smiled Sheen.

“The very first version I heard was by a Northern Irish Elvis Presley impersonator and that’s my favourite version, sung in the style of The King.

“It’s just a wonderful song.”

Also featured in the book, released in aid of The Prince’s Trust and sponsored by Starbucks Coffee Company, is Cardiff-born Catatonia singer Cerys Matthews who cites her love for the traditional Christian hymn How Can I Keep From Singing?

“I love the melody, but it’s the words that get me: “No storm can shake my inmost calm / While to that refuge clinging. Since Christ is Lord of Heav’n and Earth / How can I keep from singing?”

“I remember I performed it in front of Bill Clinton at the Hay-on-Wye Literary Festival.”

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