Top 105 Quotes & Sayings by Michael Sheen

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Welsh actor Michael Sheen.
Last updated on November 21, 2024.
Michael Sheen

Michael Christopher Sheen is a Welsh actor, television producer and political activist. After training at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), he worked mainly in theatre throughout the 1990s and made notable stage appearances in Romeo and Juliet (1992), Don't Fool with Love (1993), Peer Gynt (1994), The Seagull (1995), The Homecoming (1997), and Henry V (1997). His performances in Amadeus at the Old Vic and Look Back in Anger at the National Theatre were nominated for Olivier Awards in 1998 and 1999, respectively. In 2003, he was nominated for a third Olivier Award for his performance in Caligula at the Donmar Warehouse.

If someone has an ability to impress an audience there's a tendency to be tempted into doing just that.
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 don't find the life in Hollywood all that meaningful or inspiring. — © Michael Sheen
I don't find the life in Hollywood all that meaningful or inspiring.
My taste in watching things runs from dramas and low-budget films to high-end fantasy/science fiction.
I was obsessed with football when I was growing up.
'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 live a very Kenneth Williams-like existence.
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.
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.
I love watching Jeff Bridges act. He's brilliant.
I'm not a Christian.
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.
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.'
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.
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 can be a lazy dresser. — © Michael Sheen
I can be a lazy dresser.
I would like to be taller, thinner and more rakish looking.
Everyone deserves compassion.
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 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 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 think the best acting is when you allow yourself to be kind of vulnerable in the moment.
I am prone to get carried away thinking about creative projects.
I'm a huge fan of science fiction and fantasy - not so much horror because I get a bit scared.
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 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.
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 suppose I'm something of an eccentric dresser.
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.
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.
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.
It's weird that I've ended up playing so many real live people, because I was never any good at impersonations at school.
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.
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.
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.
I'm not a Tony Blair impersonator.
A lot of the times when I've auditioned for parts in America, the answer is, 'Sorry, we need a bigger name.' — © Michael Sheen
A lot of the times when I've auditioned for parts in America, the answer is, 'Sorry, we need a bigger name.'
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.
I suppose I've got a reputation for playing quite extreme characters and making them quite believable.
If you can define what God is, I can tell you whether I believe in it.
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 would never use prosthetics. I don't like sticking things on. I don't really like wearing wigs, either.
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.
I don't do the whole L.A. nightlife thing.
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.
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.
Hopefully, any character I play has an anchor in reality.
The secret to acting is don't act. Be you, with add-ons.
I'm happy in my life. — © Michael Sheen
I'm happy in my life.
I've never met anyone normal.
My rule of thumb is that I want to do things I'd like to go and see myself.
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.
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.
My tragedy is that all I want is a dog, and yet I have been cursed with cats all my life.
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've always found it hard to say sorry.
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.
We see death constantly on film.
This site uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. More info...
Got it!