Michael Sheen
I sat down with Michael Sheen, a.k.a. Prime Minster Tony Blair in The Queen, for a quick lunch on Friday afternoon. I’ll be writing something about it tomorrow or Monday, as the recording of our chat was mostly ruined by clattering dishes and the loud, insistent voices of three or four women sitting two tables away. I don’t know if they were drinking wine or not, but they sounded like they were. At least they didn’t shriek with laughter. Not too much, I mean.
I can at least say two things about Sheen, who’s a very easy bloke to talk to. He seems more and more favored to emerge as one of the five Best Supporting Actor contenders for his performance in Stephen Frears‘ film. (And I’m not just saying that.) And perhaps even more importantly, the odds are very likely that he’ll portray David Frost in Ron Howard‘s feature version of the hit London play “Frost/Nixon”, to which Sheen will be returning fairly shortly, and in which he’ll continue to costar in (along with Frank Langella, I think) when it opens in New York City next March.
Perfect.
http://www.gasolinealleyantiques.com/celebrity/images/TV/tv-nixon.jpg
Who’s left to play Nixon though? Setting aside Langella (who’d be great; I thought his William Paley waltzed away with Good Night and Good Luck, but he’s not a star) it’s tough to think of an actual star of the right age who could play him credibly. Maybe Jack Nicholson, if he goes back into toned-down About Schmidt mode, but that’s probably too big a clash of personas.
So– Tom Hanks? Ed Harris with latex jowls? Or Geoffrey Rush?
I say get Phillip Baker Hall to suit up as Nixon once again. He’s not looking TOO old and he rocked the hosue in Secret Honor.
Even before George Clooney and Frank Langella teamed up for Good Night and Good Luck, Langella gave one of the best performances of his career in Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Unscripted. He plays a sleazy, womanizing acting teacher perfectly… almost too perfectly (if you know what I mean).
Perfect.
http://www.gasolinealleyantiques.com/celebrity/images/TV/tv-nixon.jpg
Who’s left to play Nixon though? Setting aside Langella (who’d be great; I thought his William Paley waltzed away with Good Night and Good Luck, but he’s not a star) it’s tough to think of an actual star of the right age who could play him credibly. Maybe Jack Nicholson, if he goes back into toned-down About Schmidt mode, but that’s probably too big a clash of personas.
So– Tom Hanks? Ed Harris with latex jowls? Or Geoffrey Rush?
I enjoyed Sheen in The Queen, but my one criticism (maybe any readers from the UK can correct me) is that he didn’t feel like the Tony Blair I know from the news. Sheen’s Blair is twinkly and kind of a fresh-faced babe in the woods. The real Blair seems to me to be a very slick politician, with a manipulative and cunning edge. Or is this just the difference between the early days of Blair’s tenure and now?
I hope you asked Mr. Sheen some ? about working with Kate in the Underworld films. Ooo la lah.
Jeff, if you’re talking about the Blair from the most recent news that we Americans have been seeing, there may be a good reason for that. The Blair played by Sheen was when he was just starting as Prime Minister and it was sure to take a toll on him.
Jeff, isn’t Michael one of the nicest guys you’ve ever met? Definitely a star in the making.
Thrud: Michael used to be married to Kate so he probably has some great stories about “working with her”.
Nice pic of Sheen on the right. He looks like a long lost brother from “The Proposition”.
Re: Blair, partly I think they exaggerate the regular-guyness to make his home life* more of a contrast with the 19th century Windsors and their court and staff, and partly it’s supposed to evoke a time a decade earlier when Blair was the fresh-faced kid of Labour who wrestled it away from the doughfaced old guard and did things like remove from the party platform the (also 19th century) boilerplate language about working toward a worker-owned society, etc.
* Incidentally, if you poke around YouTube you can find a thing where the new Tory chief did a little video chat at his house with his kids interrupting and so on, designed to show him as a regular guy; and then a Labour backbencher did a parody of it in which he’s dressed up as a soccer hooligan type and invites you round to ‘is place to watch telly, have a shag wiv ‘is Mrs., and so on… try to imagine that in our politics!
Just a correction: Sheen and Beckinsale were NEVER married, although a longtime couple as well as the parents of a daughter.
He’s been on the verge for so long now, it is finally nice to see him get the props he deserves.
Re: Blair, partly I think they exaggerate the regular-guyness to make his home life* more of a contrast with the 19th century Windsors and their court and staff, and partly it’s supposed to evoke a time a decade earlier when Blair was the fresh-faced kid of Labour who wrestled it away from the doughfaced old guard and did things like remove from the party platform the (also 19th century) boilerplate language about working toward a worker-owned society, etc.
* Incidentally, if you poke around YouTube you can find a thing where the new Tory chief did a little video chat at his house with his kids interrupting and so on, designed to show him as a regular guy; and then a Labour backbencher did a parody of it in which he’s dressed up as a soccer hooligan type and invites you round to ‘is place to watch telly, have a shag wiv ‘is Mrs., and so on… try to imagine that in our politics!
Yes, Edouglas, I wrote that it was possible that my perception was possibly because of the big gap between Blair ’97 and Blair ’06, and it did work for the film, his modern-day regular guy-ness vs. the insular world of the Royals.
My problem was simply the cognitive leap between what the movie needs Blair’s function to be vs. my own mental fore-knowledge of the man.
‘longtime couple as well as the parents of a daughter’?
sounds like married to me.
They did not formally marry – which made it easier for Beckinsale to leave him for Len Wiseman during the filming of Underworld. She and Wiseman DID formally marry.
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