One of Britain’s most cherished actors is ready to abandon the profession at the height of his career to fight the rise of far-right populism.
Michael Sheen has declared that he will leave Hollywood to commit himself to political activism and to opposing demagogues and fascists.
The actor, currently appearing in the Hollywood science-fiction film Passengers, says he will move back to Port Talbot in Wales to begin grassroots organising.
He is uncertain whether his relationship with Sarah Silverman, the actress and comedian based in Los Angeles, will survive the move.
“In the same way as the Nazis had to be stopped in Germany in the Thirties, this thing that is on the rise has to be stopped,” he tells The Times Magazine today.
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Sheen, who is renowned for his roles as Tony Blair, Brian Clough and David Frost and for performances in the Twilight franchise, is expecting a “jackboots” backlash when he switches from acting into activism.
“It will be a big change for how people relate to me. Once I’m in, I’m fully in, and this is big. As soon as you start to be effective, then people try to crush you, because it’s dangerous.”
Sheen reveals that his involvement with the National Theatre of Wales’s 72-hour “theatrical happening” The Passion — which was staged in 2011 in Port Talbot with hundreds of local people — first connected him with community organisations.
He says that greater political engagement was a “natural progression” as he moved away from “actual performance towards having a more direct influence”.
Last year he gave a speech in Wales in defence of free healthcare during which, after quoting Aneurin Bevan, he told the crowd: “There is never an excuse to not speak up for what you think is right.”
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He tells the magazine that the response to his speech had left him “quite scared . . . by the idea that people could feel that I could do something”.
He says that he can “do a good speech” and he has the platform to bring people together “who wouldn’t normally sit there . . . even if they just want me to sign their Twilight books for their kids”. Sheen has already made fact-finding trips around Wales, the Midlands and the Basque country in Spain to find examples of community projects that could be adapted for Port Talbot, the steel town where he spent most of his childhood. He says the town’s decision to vote for Brexit at first left him “sad and frustrated” but then determined to fight back.
However, the election of Donald Trump as US president injected “massive urgency” into his thoughts.
He adds: “It’s not going to look like this in ten years’ time. Everything has shifted. The dice are being rolled again.”
He says that while the current climate is “terrifying” there is also “a freedom in it”.
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The star has cleared his diary of acting commitments and when asked if he will be “completely” stopping as an actor he replies: “Yeah. Certainly for the time being.”