The former British prime minister and the actor who’s played him three times talked via Zoom about British identity, Britain’s place in the world, the belief in better and more for this week’s New Statesman issue. Read it below:
Ler maisOn a Sunday afternoon in mid-February, Michael Sheen and Tony Blair laughed when they first saw one another on Zoom. They are two very different national figures, but their careers are nevertheless entwined, the actor having played the former prime minister three times – most notably opposite Helen Mirren’s Elizabeth II in the 2006 biopic The Queen.
Sheen no longer looked eerily like Blair. Dialling in from Glasgow, where he was filming a new series of Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens, his thick curls had been replaced by a short shock of peroxide blond. Blair, in turn, had cut the long hair he grew during the pandemic, described in the British press as his “lockdown mullet”.
“You look younger,” Blair said. “My lockdown hairstyle was much commented on –but not that I looked younger.”
They had met to talk about the meaning of Britain, which has changed greatly since Blair left office in 2007, and since Sheen last played him in the 2010 television film The Special Relationship (opposite Dennis Quaid as Bill Clinton). During the tumultuous decade since its release, a succession of Conservative-led governments have shrunk the state after the largesse and renewal of the New Labour years. The UK has left the European Union, its identity now split between Little Englander neurosis and Global Britain fantasy – a messy rejection of the globalisation synonymous with Blairism. With the creation of an Irish Sea border, and a Brexit-sceptic Scotland, the Union itself is under threat.
Speaking a week before Russia invaded Ukraine, the two men discussed what a “British Dream” should be, the future of the Labour Party, and the UK’s changing role in the world – questions that have become more urgent since the outbreak of war.
Representing different traditions of the left, Sheen and Blair clashed over what went wrong for Jeremy Corbyn and how Labour can win again, but agreed on one fundamental challenge: watching oneself on screen.
In an interview featured on the Christmas 2021 issue of Total Film magazine, Michael Sheen answers some film quotes posed as questions about his first fight, horror movies, his fears and more. Check out the scan on our photo gallery:
Find out Michael’s first grown-up book he read, first movie he saw at the cinema and more:
Ler maisFirst TV show I watched religiously
Monkey was a Japanese TV series on the BBC. It was about a monkey, a pig and a fish. They were all on a pilgrimage with a Buddhist monk called Tripitaka, who was male, but played by a woman. Monkey had a magic staff which was big, but he could make it very little and put it in his ear, and he would travel on a cloud.First trip to the theatre
It would have been at the Dolman Theatre in Newport; probably a Gilbert and Sullivan show like The Pirates of Penzance or a classic musical like Oklahoma! or Carousel. The first professional play I saw was As You Like It at the RSC in Stratford with Fiona Shaw and Alan Rickman.
In a new interview for Independent, Michael Sheen discusses Last Train To Christmas, shares his opinions on Boris Johnson, talks about becoming a non-profit actor, cancel culture and more. Read it below:
Ler maisMichael Sheen isn’t one to mince his words. Even before Boris Johnson finds himself at the centre of the Christmas party scandal, the Welsh star of Frost/Nixon has our PM in his crosshairs. “He’s the absolute worst of what politics can be,” says the 52-year-old, his voice rich and lilting. “A man who doesn’t seem to care or believe in anything other than his own advancement, and, as a result of immense privilege, has been able to get to the most powerful position in the country and then doesn’t use it to make people’s lives better. Everything is a game to him.” Sheen stops, reloads. “He seems to have no personal ethics, morals, beliefs, value system. So I will be immensely happy to see the back of him, not just from being prime minister but out of the political arena altogether. I hope he goes off and finds a job that has no influence whatsoever on anything in our cultural, social or economic life.” Deep breath. Exhale. “And good luck to him with that.”
Disconcertingly, Sheen delivers this diatribe while sporting a shock of white blond hair, like a vertiginously quiffed version of the Boris bouffant. Unlike Johnson, though, he doesn’t seem to be spouting hot air. The actor, after all, sold his houses to bankroll the 2019 Homeless World Cup. The following year he revealed that he’d handed back the OBE he was awarded in 2009 for fear of being, in his words, a hypocrite. And earlier this month, he declared himself a “not-for-profit actor”, pledging to use future earnings to fund social projects. He’s a walk-walker in a crowd of talk-talkers. That there is any hair similarity today – Sheen’s mane is ordinarily dark, scraggly and flecked with grey – is down to him currently filming a second series of Good Omens, Amazon’s devilishly entertaining adaptation of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s apocalyptic novel.
Michael Sheen has appeared in some radio shows and podcasts to promote his new Sky Cinema movie Last Train To Christmas. In case you missed any of them, here they are:
This post will be updated in case more interviews come up.
Watch an interview Michael Sheen gave to The Sunday Times Culture Show, in which he discussed Last Train To Christmas, doing a festive movie, going back to the 80s and more:
In addiction, check out screencaptures fom the interview on our gallery:
The duo talked about their characters, Tony Towers and Sue, and their favorite Christmas movies. Read more below:
Ler maisWhen Michael Sheen first appears in the film Last Train to Christmas, sporting a blonde mullet wig, you could think you had tuned into a Peter Stringfellow biopic.
And, looks aside, we learn that Sheen’s character Tony Towers is indeed, like the late Stringfellow, a nightclub owner. The year is 1985 and Tony is taking a train to join his family at home for the festive period.
But this is not a film about night-time culture – and this is no ordinary train. Tony realises that by walking through the different carriages he is sent backwards and forwards in time, with his actions in one compartment having major consequences for what happens in the next.
The film could be considered a modern-day Christmas Carol, with a nod to Sliding Doors and a smidgen of Back to the Future.
Michael Sheen and Nathalie Emmanuel gave an interview on Last Train To Christmas published in this coming Saturday (December 18) issue of Radio Times magazine. Check out the scan on our photo gallery:
In an interview to Yahoo UK, Michael Sheen and his co-star Nathalie Emmanuel talked about doing the Sky Cinema Christmas movie. You can see them in this video.
More below:
Ler maisMichael Sheen is seldom shy of an on-screen transformation, having played the likes of Chris Tarrant and an angel in the last few years alone, but Last Train to Christmas called for even more extravagant work.
The film stars Sheen as nightclub impresario Tony Towers, who finds himself able to travel through time as he moves between the carriages of his Christmas train back to Nottingham.
As he flits up and down the train, Sheen changes in age and level of success, requiring some hefty make-up and costuming — with one look requiring eight hours in the chair.
“For one of the looks, I was in the chair for eight hours before I went on set. A lot of them were much shorter than that because we wouldn’t get any filming done.