Michael sheen has spoken about growing up and becoming an actor in Port Talbot. Read more:
Michael Sheen, 51, is a Welsh actor best known for his portrayal of David Frost in “Frost/Nixon” and as Tony Blair in three films, including “The Queen.” He currently stars in the Fox TV series “Prodigal Son.” He spoke with Marc Myers.
The skyline where I grew up in Wales was dominated by steel mills, tangles of pipes and shooting flames. I loved it all. There was an energy and charm about Port Talbot.
But it could be terrifying at times. As a child, I was obsessed with soccer at school. A bus dropped us off to compete locally, but we were on our own after.
To get to the public bus stop, you tied your soccer boots around your wrist and fought your way out. The rival team was always waiting for us—win or lose.
My entire extended family lived in Port Talbot. When I was 5, our family moved near Liverpool for my dad’s work. Three years later, when we returned, I felt a little like an outsider. I constantly wanted to prove myself, to show that I belonged.
Our house was unremarkable from the outside. It was a two-story detached home that sat on the side of a hill. The elevation gave us an amazing view of the sea.
My father, Meyrich, was a middle manager at British Steel. He did an apprenticeship there as a young man and worked his way up.
His step up at work was a big deal for us. Very few people in our area went to college. They went to work. His job exposed my young sister, Joanne, and me to education opportunities we never would have experienced otherwise.
My mother, Irene, did the same job as my father at a variety of companies. One of them made plastic cases for Sony’s cassette tapes. She was able to bring home music by artists I liked.
Singing in Port Talbot was fundamental to the town’s fabric. So was performing. Anthony Hopkins and Richard Burton were from Port Talbot.
Several operatic societies were in our area that performed American musicals and Gilbert & Sullivan. It was a way for people to socialize.
My entire extended family took part in these societies. Long before I saw a play for the first time, I saw these musical shows.
Given this tradition, acting wasn’t viewed as a silly, pointless pasttime but a legitimate, man’s occupation. My parents admired my early interest in the stage.
I rarely left Port Talbot to travel around the countryside. The exception started on my 12th birthday. My family would drive to a town called Hay-on-Wye. I’d take along plastic refuse bags and whatever money I’d earned to buy second-hand books at the shops.
My introduction to drama was in school. Our Director, Ken Tucker, began casting me in plays. I soon wound up in a more select group, which motivated me.
Ken suggested I join the local youth theater based in nearby Swansea, run by Godfrey Evans. There, as my passion for theater intensified, my life apart from my parents accelerated. A lot of the things that shaped me were part of this other life. I was 14, among 20- and 21-year-old actors. It opened my eyes.
At the residential youth theater, there were four of us to a room. We rehearsed all day and socialized at night. Eventually, I was assigned to work in stage management on “The Crucible.”
When the older acting students arrived, I sat on the rehearsal room floor to watch a run-through. It was the first time I’d seen a play from the audience’s perspective. By the time the run-through was finished, I knew what I wanted to do with my life.
I attended Neath Port Talbot College, where I studied English, drama and sociology. Then I attennded the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
Playing Tony Blair in “The Queen” was a big turning point in my international visibility. In fact, 2006 was a big year. I co-starred in London’s “Frost/Nixon,” “The Queen” opened the Venice Film Festival and I was about to star filming “The Damned United.” Peter Morgan wrote all of them.
But one of my proudest moments occurred in 2012, when I took my daughter, Lily, to the yough theater rehearsal room in Swansea; I showed her the exact spot on the floor where I sat and my life changed. She took it in.
Today, Anna Lundberg and I and our baby daughter, Lyra, divide our time between Los Angeles, Neew York and Wales.
My favorite home is the one on the edge of Port Talbot. The house, built in 1876, belonged to a childhood friend. His father was an artist. I love the bohemian feel.
Being back in Wales is always rejuvenating. It’s where I began and where I belong.
Michael’s Musins
What is “Prodigal Son” about? An FBI profiler enlists the help of his father — a jailed serial killer — in solving a case.
Your role? I play the enigmatic father.
Who was more difficult to play, David Frost or Tony Blair? Tony Blair. He was more complex and elusive.
Favorite Wales pastime? Building up an army of sheep.