Welsh movie star Michael Sheen has denied that he’s planning to give up his glittering Hollywood career to focus on political activism.
It came as a bolt from the blue on Saturday when the thespian told the London Times that he has such a strong desire to take action against the “demagogic, fascistic” drift of politics that he “would work less as an actor, and possibly stop”.
But the LA-based actor – who starred in ‘Masters of Sex', ‘Frost/Nixon’ and ‘Passengers’, as well as playing Tony Blair in several movies – took to his blog yesterday to clarify that he has was not “quitting acting and leaving Hollywood”.
He had earlier told the Times: “How can I be most effective? What am I going to do? It’s not going to look like this in 10 years’ time. Everything has shifted … the dice are being rolled again. Once I’m in, I’m fully in, and this is big. It will be a big change for how people relate to me.”
He took to Twitter yesterday to further clarify himself, saying: “Before this gets ridiculous, I said I’m thinking I might start acting less and maybe even stop for a while at some point but don’t know yet.”
He wrote on his blog: “I DID NOT declare that I’m ‘quitting acting and leaving Hollywood’ to go into politics. I said I have become more involved with community issues back at home over the last few years, and because of the political situation, it’s something I would like to focus on more. The interviewer asked me what that meant for my career, and I said it might mean I work less as an actor and maybe even stop for a while AT SOME POINT. But I don’t really know yet.”
He added: “I certainly did NOT equate people who voted for Brexit or Trump with a fascistic ‘hard right’ that must be stopped. The majority of people in the UK, including my hometown of Port Talbot, voted for Brexit. That is the will of the people and is to be respected. That is democracy. Given the concerns around the economy in the area I come from and its industrial history, I totally empathise with the dissatisfaction with the status quo that the vote was partially an expression of.”
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