Sheen stays to sidelines
By AP Movie Writer DAVID GERMAIN (The Associated Press)
TORONTO (AP) – Michael Sheen never felt he was playing second fiddle as British leader Tony Blair or TV interviewer David Frost.
It was simply inevitable that his characters would take a back seat to the huge personalities they were up against: Elizabeth II in “The Queen” and Richard Nixon in “Frost/Nixon.”
Sheen prefers characters who are more of a cipher, the 40-year-old actor said in an interview at September’s Toronto International Film Festival, where his soccer drama “The Damned United” played in advance of its theatrical release today.
In “The Damned United,” Sheen plays British coaching legend Brian Clough during his short, disastrous tenure at Leeds United, the championship team he took over from a bitter rival in 1974.
Clough, who died in 2004, was a polarizing figure for British sports fans, always ready to laud his own talents and criticize opponents.
“When he came on the TV, people either hated him or they loved him, and even if they hated him, they still couldn’t help but just laugh and be entertained,” said Sheen, who considered pursuing a soccer career before he took up acting in his midteens. “I always found him quite sort of an unsettling figure when I was a kid, because ... I could sense that there was a real anger in him.”
