Michael Sheen has admitted he has considered going into politics, but said he wasn’t sure he could “toe some sort of party line”. The Port Talbot actor has, over the years, shared his opinions on topics like Welsh politics or independence.
He has also backed a number of social causes, such as ending youth homelessness via work with charity Llamau and called for a Fair Banking Act to help tackle the unaffordable credit crisis in the UK. In 2019, he self-funded the Homeless World Cup in Cardiff when its £2 million funding fell through at the last minute.
In an interview with Nation.Cymru, the actor, who lives in Wales, said he had, for many years, considered entering frontline politics. “It’s something that I have thought about for many years now. For the latest Welsh news delivered to your inbox sign up to our newsletter
READ MORE: Serious accident closes Newport road after person ‘trapped under car’ – live updates
READ MORE: This £22m school opened in September. So why are staff now facing redundancy and being told state of the art facilities may never be used?
“Ultimately, I come back to the same thing, which is that I feel like I don’t want someone else to tell me, ‘Oh, no, you can’t vote for that’, it’s that I don’t want to be beholden to other people. I’ve got a freedom and a platform for what I believe in, and I don’t necessarily have to edit or censor that to toe some sort of party line for now. Now, I can see why that’s the case in politics and see why you need to be able to do that, but I feel like I’ve got more license and more ability to create the change I want to see by being independent. So whilst that remains, then I wouldn’t want to get involved. But you know that can always change.”
Last week, the actor said he was putting his own money into launching a new institution, Welsh National Theatre, replacing National Theatre Wales, he will be the artistic director of the new organisation. You can read more about that here.
He described the initiative as a “new dawn for theatre in Wales”, adding: “We’ll be a home for our greatest talent, bringing them together to create ambitious theatre which makes our national story come alive. That’s what national theatres should do.
“Our plays and performances will tell the stories of Wales’ past, present and future, as well as classics seen through a Welsh lens. They’ll be produced on the grandest stages around the world, by world-class Welsh talents. We want truly ambitious writing from Welsh playwrights for the best actors in Wales, to be the pinnacle of our creative talent, raising the bar for excellence in entertainment.
“We want to help create a world where the stories of Wales help us make sense of tomorrow. Where the people of Wales understand their power to change society thanks to the spark of a performance on our stage. Where Wales is respected as a nation with a powerful voice and a story to tell.”
Sheen has declared himself a ‘not-for-profit actor’, announcing that he would be giving all of his future earnings to his various charitable and community causes. It has recently been revealed that the actor had written off the personal debts of hundreds of people in South Wales. He did not publicly announce the move, but fans discovered it when they spotted Facebook posts in local community groups from a television production company which is making a documentary about Sheen’s highlighting of the debt crisis in the UK.