Michael Sheen Quotes
Actor
'Hamlet' is one of the most dangerous things ever set down on paper. All the big, unknowable questions like what it is to be a human being; the difference between sanity and insanity; the meaning of life and death; what's real and not real. All these subjects can literally drive you mad.
I think the best acting is when you allow yourself to be kind of vulnerable in the moment.
My taste in watching things runs from dramas and low-budget films to high-end fantasy/science fiction.
I cry when I feel moved by incredible generosity or a connection to someone. We spend so much of our lives being separated. It's the relief of connection that produces the tears.
My dad is a Jack Nicholson lookalike and a frustrated performer, my mother's into reading and poetry. I suppose the thing I owe them most is my confidence.
Hopefully, any character I play has an anchor in reality.
I think when you work on a Woody Allen film the actors become a real company, probably more than on any other film.
My tragedy is that all I want is a dog, and yet I have been cursed with cats all my life.
I suppose I'm something of an eccentric dresser.
The secret to acting is don't act. Be you, with add-ons.
When you look at all the miracles attributed to Jesus, they're all about change.
I think a good story's a good story and a good character's a good character.
If you can define what God is, I can tell you whether I believe in it.
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.
I've always found it hard to say sorry.
My chief gifts are - naturally good at all sports with a raw talent for pretty much everything, which if nurtured could develop into improper talent.
I live a very Kenneth Williams-like existence.
I'm a big fan of vampire movies generally and that sort of tradition of characters.
I'm not a Christian.
I would like to be taller, thinner and more rakish looking.
I think it's quite tough for people like Tom Cruise where you can never really get away from being Tom Cruise in something. You're so familiar to people and people know so much about your life.
I perceive and relate to the world through where I grew up; that's part of me. It's what I judge everything else against.
I am prone to get carried away thinking about creative projects.
A parent can seem very kind and gentle, but as any child knows, as soon as that parent gets stressed, they can suddenly turn and get a bit angry.
I love watching Jeff Bridges act. He's brilliant.
A lot of the times when I've auditioned for parts in America, the answer is, 'Sorry, we need a bigger name.'
I'm not a Tony Blair impersonator.
Normal people - i.e., people who aren't actors - are the most bizarre people you can ever come across. I'll talk to someone and come away thinking, 'They are clinically insane.'
I'd love to go back to Europe in the '20s and '30s, for the beginning of the Psychoanalytic Movement, and Freud and Jung, and all that was going on with discoveries in quantum physics. The whole nature of reality was changing and being challenged.
If someone has an ability to impress an audience there's a tendency to be tempted into doing just that.
Stories have always been the things that entertain me and make me feel happy and sad and move me and give me the experience of being able to live many lives in one lifetime. It's the best thing about being alive.
I can be a lazy dresser.
I've never met anyone normal.
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.
Although my family - parents and sister - all work in the personnel management business, their real passion is performing, amateur operatic societies and so on.
I always say if I'm not good at something it's just because I've not had time to focus on it... it's just uncrafted, like a slab of rock that contains the statue of David within it.
I was obsessed with football when I was growing up.
I've always had an eye for what looks good on a man. But I've not always found it easy to find clothes that look good on me.
It's weird that I've ended up playing so many real live people, because I was never any good at impersonations at school.
We see death constantly on film.
The first thing, when I read the script, is that I need to care about what happens and feel compelled by the story and engaged by the characters. It needs to resonate with me, even if what the characters are going through is not something that I have experienced in my life. I have to feel like it has some sort of meaning to me.
I am very impatient.
My rule of thumb is that I want to do things I'd like to go and see myself.
In some ways any film that you do has an artificiality about it. Even when you're doing the most kitchen-sinky, gritty, realistic scene you've still got 50 people standing around watching you with cameras and lights and things.
I think I'm becoming more relaxed in front of a camera. I suppose I'll always feel slightly more at home on stage. It's more of an actor's medium. You are your own editor, nobody else is choosing what is being seen of you.
I suppose I've got a reputation for playing quite extreme characters and making them quite believable.
Everyone deserves compassion.
Part of the fun of life is interacting with people and not knowing what the truth is inside. Letting them reveal that to you is what binds you to people.
There are times in my career where I can see it would be helped by having a bit more of a profile, but it's not like I refuse to do interviews, no, not 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'd love to go back to Greek times and see the birth of theater and performing, in that time. It would be so extraordinary to see the need that theater came out of, in the first place. I think we could probably all learn a bit from that.
I'm happy in my life.
I would never use prosthetics. I don't like sticking things on. I don't really like wearing wigs, either.
By the time you are 30 you are still trying to make your 15-year-old self happy but you are a different person. You need to be brave and let go of that.
I don't do the whole L.A. nightlife thing.
I have a terrible temper. I have absolutely no problem with getting shouty or a bit physical. It's not something I'm pleased about and it doesn't happen very often, but it's very much there.
For a culture that has such a problem with death, we seem to deal with it in a quite bizarre way. We see people shot, killed and blown up, and we find it funny and sexy and all those things. But, the reality of it is that every day people die, and people are really sad and they grieve and they go through a really difficult process with it.
Getting older is a struggle. I always feel that just under the surface of acceptance and enjoyment of the ageing process is a terrible hysteria just waiting to burst out.
On the one hand Twitter gives you the opportunity to engage with people, which is great, but on the other there are people who feel they can say whatever they want, put poison out there, really, without fear of any repercussions.
I'm a huge fan of science fiction and fantasy - not so much horror because I get a bit scared.
I'm always aware that there are, broadly speaking, two different ways to act: there is acting, and then there's being, and I'm always more interested in that.
When I'm in America, I like to be near the sea, listen to music, watch films, read and write.
While I enjoy spending time in L.A., Britain is my home.
A lot of children are interested in fairies, especially young girls, and Tinker Bell is the ueber-fairy. She's the pin-up girl of fairies. She's the ultimate fairy, but she's also got a mischievous spirit and she's very strong-willed. I think a lot of youngsters recognize themselves in Tinker Bell.
Americans are much more open than people in Britain.
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 have a daughter, and fairies meant a lot to her growing up.
I think the story of 'Alice in Wonderland' in a way is a reminder that life is frightening, it can shift on you at any moment.
Acting itself is quite scary. Some people say that actors are show-offs, very egotistical and all that kind of stuff, but it is quite scary.
I think parenthood is a wonderful balancing act. On the one hand, you want to spend as much time with your children as possible. On the other hand, you want to set an example for them to see that you're fulfilled in your life and in your work.
You know, we're each the hero of our own story and we perceive what's going on around us, and especially in a relationship, from the kind of viewpoint of, 'Well, this is my story, and I'm the hero of that, and I justify what I do around it.'
I think being a parent is the most challenging thing you do. That's why we're here. It's at the heart of what it is to be a human being. It's the ultimate experience because it questions everything about who you are. But it's difficult.
I've always loved animation and animated films.
I don't find the life in Hollywood all that meaningful or inspiring.
As a general thing, I've always been drawn to characters who appear to be one thing on the surface, but are actually something else underneath.
My own daughter is a big fan of the 'Twilight' stories, the books.
Sometimes you see things in a script, and it doesn't necessarily mean the director sees the same things. And if you think you're going to be making a different film, then that's not gonna work.
For me, what makes life enjoyable is having a shared culture and shared references.