Officially Digital Spy's favourite actor after his victory at our Movie Awards, Michael Sheen followed up on his riveting turns as David Frost and Brian Clough last year by snagging big Hollywood roles in New Moon and Tron Legacy. With Michael voicing the White Rabbit in Tim Burton's trippy spin on Alice In Wonderland this week, we caught up with our 'Actor Of The Year' for a bumper chat about rabbits, vampires, light cycles, Tony Blair and wanting to be Miss Moneypenny...
When Tim Burton asks you to do Alice In Wonderland, that must be something you can't really say no to?
"Yes - I was like 'Tim who? Alice in what?!' No, I've been a huge fan of Tim's films since his first short film Vincent, which is amazing. I've loved everything from Beetlejuice through to Sweeney Todd so to get to work with him at all was amazing but on this - such an iconic story - it was great!"
Were you a fan of the Lewis Carroll book growing up?
"Yeah, I can't really remember a time when I didn't know the characters from the story. The characters are so ingrained in our consciousness. It helps because you don't have to do any research, it's all in there already."
What do you think makes it such an enduring story?
"It's like a dream, almost. There's obviously something very archetypal about that story. The character who gets sucked down into this underworld and sees characters who are familiar on the one hand and yet very strange. The rule is that there are no rules and anything can change in a second. It taps into what it's like to be a child in an adult world where adults are being very nice to you and making sure you're okay and the next moment they're shouting at you and you've done something wrong - you never quite know where you are with them."
It's surprisingly dark for a children's story as well...
"It seems to tap into what life is really like under the veneer of civilisation and culture and society. Somehow underneath we sense that there's danger and unpredictability. Nothing is quite how it seems and this story reminds us of that and taps into that and that's why we keep coming back to it. It's so difficult to pin down. It's like a dream in that you can't find the edge of it and because of that we're drawn to it. We can't put it in a box and categorise it and put it to one side. We're compelled to come back to it because we never quite understand it."
Your White Rabbit is quite neurotic and Woody Allen-esque - did you know how you were going to play him straight away?
"I just tried to think about what all the qualities of the White Rabbit were that I'd seen in all the different versions of it. There is that nervous energy about him. Also I realised that he's the only character from Wonderland who goes into the human world, all the other characters stay in Wonderland. Alice is the only other character who goes through both as well. I think, certainly in this version, you hear him say early on, 'It was terrible. I had to be up there for weeks! You should see what they do to animals up there'. So that nervousness comes from having to be in the adult world. Also I always found that there was something double-edged about the White Rabbit. He seemed like a warm, friendly character but he was also working for the Red Queen. He could be quite sharp with Alice now and again. He's never quite what he seems, like all the other characters."
What do you think about films like this where technology is replacing locations and actors?
"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. In some ways this way of doing things - although I didn't have to do it because I wasn't doing any of the green screen stuff - the idea of being in a room where there's no set and you have to imagine there's a monster there and imagine there's a tiny character there speaking to you, it's a bit more like the way we first learn about acting. We call it pretending then, when we're kids in a room and you go: 'Well I'm a pirate!' and you don't have to wear anything piratey or be on a ship. Everyone just believes you're a pirate because you say you are. It's the power of belief. In a way it's a purer form of acting that takes you back to your childhood. There tends to be a lot of rubbish spoken about acting sometimes, I understand it but 'the conditions must be perfect for me to be able to give my performance!' - we don't need that when we're kids, we just go 'I'm this and that's that.' I quite like that."
There doesn't seem to be much snobbery in your film choices. Do you approach something like Twilight in the same way you would Brian Clough?
"Absolutely. From doing films like Underworld and the Twilight films it really shows what I always felt - that there is so much snobbishness and elitism about genre films. My taste in watching things runs from dramas and low-budget films to high-end fantasy/science fiction. My rule of thumb is that I want to do things I'd like to go and see myself. The idea that somehow there's lowbrow and highbrow is a load of old b*llocks to be honest. I love taking part in all these different things as long as it's something I would like to go and see and that it's entertaining in some way. That's one of the things about the stuff that Peter Morgan's written that I've done. On the surface they seem like they're going to be hard going and actually they're just really entertaining films. That's why films like The Queen and The Damned United and Frost/Nixon have been very popular, because they're about big subjects but they're ultimately very entertaining films."
You said that after this next film you're done playing Tony Blair - is that still true? Blair seems to be a gift that keeps on giving.
"I don't know. Special Relationship will be the third one when it comes out and that's a nice number. I don't know if I'd want to do it again but you're right - he just doesn't let up does he? The other thing is I know that once Gordon Brown isn't Prime Minister anymore, whenever that may be, Blair's book will be coming out which will be telling the story from Blair's point of view of the Blair/Brown years and that's going to be fascinating. I still think that in a way the most interesting film might be the one about what was actually going on between Blair and Brown whilst Blair was Prime Minister, and of course that one hasn't been done but it would take a lot to persuade me to don the Blair suit again."
What's it been like being involved in the Twilight phenomenon?
"Well, I'm certainly more popular at my daughter's school when I go and pick her up - I know that! It's been great - in a way I didn't have to deal with any of the downside of being involved in it because I'm not Robert Pattinson or Kristen Stewart. I don't get mobbed wherever I go. I got to swan in for a week on set and be top vampire for a little while and wear the red contacts and look weird, then go home again and be part of it all and go to the premiere and see all the excitement and get lots of brownie points from my daughter! I've not had to experience anything bad about it, it's great."
So there's been no mad fan encounters at all?
"Not really, no. The younger kids don't really recognise me that much from the film because I've got the long black hair and the red eyes and everything but every now and again their mum or dad will say 'This is the guy who plays Aro in Twilight' and suddenly they just go completely crazy - that's quite fun, watching that!"
You're also going to be in Tron Legacy...
"Funnily enough I got the call saying, 'You've been offered this part in Tron and the director wants you to come in and the producer's going to pitch to you and convince you why you should be in this'. The moment I heard Tron I was like 'Yep! I'll do it!' I had to pretend I had to be convinced but there was no way I wasn't going to do it - I was such a big fan of the first film when it came out. I was about 12 and it had a huge effect on me, that film, I loved it. To be in it and to work with Jeff Bridges and to go back to things like the light cycles with all the technology we've got now - I think it's going to be an amazing film."
Who are you playing in the film?
"I play a character who runs a nightclub - an entertainer, showman... again sort of an ambiguous character. Without giving too much away he's a bit like an Alice In Wonderland character where you don't really know what's going on there and you think he's one thing and he turns out to be something else. It should be fun."
Are there plans for a third Tron?
"Who knows? I guess they'll see how this film goes but there's certainly the scope for it."
Having worked with Jeff Bridges on that would he be your pick for the 'Best Actor' Oscar this year?
"I don't want to be disloyal because I know there's some British interest there but I thought Jeff was fantastic in Crazy Heart and it was a great film. I think he's an underappreciated actor - maybe less so now, certainly among my generation there's a bigger appreciation for him - but I think it should be his year."
There was a rumour a while back linking you to Blofeld in the next Bond film. Was any of that true?
"Peter Morgan has written the story for the next Bond film so there was that connection and then a journalist wrote as a joke that I would be playing Blofeld and that went viral. When people ask me I always say I'm playing Miss Moneypenny, which I wish was true but is not! I suppose it's hard to play Blofeld now because of the Austin Powers films where Mike Myers plays Dr Evil. Roger Moore dropped him down a chimney didn't he, so he'd have to come back all f**ked up!"
Alice In Wonderland opens in cinemas worldwide this Friday.
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