How Frost/Nixon star Michael Sheen keeps it real

THE RECENT award of an OBE to Michael Sheen looks likely to be just the first of many honours coming the versatile actor's way judging by a stellar list of new films set to make him Britain's fastest rising star in Hollywood.

ICONIC Sheen plays David Frost interviewing ex President Nixon in the acclaimed movie Frost Nixon ICONIC: Sheen plays David Frost interviewing ex-President Nixon in the acclaimed movie Frost/Nixon

Playing interviewer David Frost in the acclaimed Frost/Nixon film will be swiftly followed by roles as football manager Brian Clough, Lucian, the king of the werewolves, a Muslim terrorist and even the Cheshire Cat.

Sheen is also to star as Tony Blair for a third time, following The Deal and The Queen, in The Special Relationship, about the former Prime Minister's dealings with Bill Clinton, set to be played by Russell Crowe.

"Each of these characters is unique and different and such roles stop me being typecast, " says the actor.

DISCOMFORT As Tony Blair in The Queen DISCOMFORT: As Tony Blair in The Queen

However, the 39-year-old Welshman is quick to point out that his has not been an effortless, easy-going gallop to the top: "I find every role hard. If you find yourself having fun playing someone, I would suggest you're doing a bad job. If it's good, it's uncomfortable. Acting is about being exposed and vulnerable. It's costing you something."

FROST/NIXON: WATCH THE OFFICIAL FILM TRAILER NOW!

Sheen is best known for brilliantly playing real-life figures: Blair, Frost, Clough, Kenneth Williams, HG Wells and Nero.

Perhaps the gift for impersonation is in the blood as his father Meyrick has worked for years as a Jack Nicholson lookalike.

Michael says: "There's always a real responsibility to playing a real person that everyone in the audience is going to know and recognise but the more I do it, the more I enjoy it. I love playing real figures because those roles push and stretch me."

The latest has been David Frost, a part he played on stage in London and New York before repeating it in the upcoming movie about how the broadcaster secured, but struggled to finance, an explosive TV interview with disgraced ex-President Richard Nixon. Sheen quickly came to realise there was much more to his subject than the "Hello, good evening and welcome" catchphrase.

He says: "Frost was an iconic broadcaster and the epitome of a jet-setting figure, always seen with a beautiful young woman on his arm. I wanted to get under the veneer of lightness.

"What comes through in the film is the insecurity and desperation, the desire to be liked and yet feeling that things are going badly."

The description doesn't sound a million miles away from the underlying discomfort in his portrayals of Tony Blair, of whom Sheen says: "He says he got into politics to change things and, in a way, that led to his downfall over his association with George Bush and the war in Iraq."

Next, in The Damned United, he tackles the tempestuous Brian Clough, who tasted glory managing Derby County and Nottingham Forest but found his arrogant style didn't go down well everywhere. "It's about the troubled 44 days he spent as manager of Leeds United in the Seventies," says Sheen, who was a promising footballer in his youth and had the chance to join Arsenal before deciding on a career in acting instead.

Like Frost/Nixon and his Tony Blair movies, the Clough film was written by Peter Morgan and the pair clearly have British cinema's best actor-writer relationship since Hugh Grant and Richard Curtis.

Sheen says: "I enjoy doing the stuff Peter writes because he humanises celebrities and powerful people in a way we can relate to, so we feel less alienated from that world."

The in-demand actor is working with other movie-makers too, including director Tim Burton, whose upcoming take on Alice In Wonderland features Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, Alan Rickman as the Caterpillar and Sheen as the Cheshire Cat.

In the Hollywood thriller Unthinkable, Sheen has been playing a Muslim terrorist, which explains the bushy black beard he's been wearing lately.

It was a beard, hair extensions and plenty more prosthetics too for his role as werewolf king Lucian in the upcoming Underworld 3: Rise Of The Lycans.

Sheen, who like acting greats Richard Burton and Anthony Hopkins hails from Port Talbot, now has homes in London and Los Angeles. He spends most of his spare time in California so he can be close to his nine-year-old daughter Lily, who lives with her mother, Sheen's former girlfriend Kate Beckinsale, and Kate's movie director husband Len Wiseman.

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Lily is already following her parents into film and has a small role in the upcoming Robert De Niro movie, Everybody's Fine. Sheen says of his daughter: "She's physically and intellectually confident and I like that."

He will no doubt have made her proud of him with his OBE in the New Year Honours List, of which he says: "I am both thrilled and slightly mystified but very grateful. It'll be nice to meet the real Queen at last."

Sheen recently admitted he was a little jealous of all the attention that came Helen Mirren's way for her Oscar-winning title role in The Queen while his efforts as Tony Blair were largely ignored.

"I would be lying if I said that it wasn't in some ways difficult because you're both playing the leads and there was a huge discrepancy between the reaction to Helen and the reaction to me but the fact she's such a gracious woman and gave a brilliant performance made it a lot easier to deal with."

However, the reaction to Sheen's work in Frost/Nixon looks like a case of history repeating itself as co-star Frank Langella was nominated for best actor at tonight's Golden Globe Awards for his role as Nixon while Sheen's portrayal of Frost was overlooked.

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However, if he keeps on turning in such excellent performances, it surely won't be too long before the OBE is just one of many awards on Sheen's mantelpiece.

Frost/Nixon details how David Frost was able to scoop all rivals by landing an exclusive television interview with Richard Nixon with a huge fee paid from his own account, even though he didn't then have the funds to back it up. It was just one of many classic interviews the broadcaster was able to secure in an audacious manner.

The sweet-talking presenter persuaded Prime Minister's wife Mary Wilson she would be seen as Britain's answer to Jackie Kennedy if she gave his viewers a behind-the-scenes tour of 10 Downing Street.

He secured a lengthy interview with John Lennon and George Harrison on his show by allowing them time on the broadcast to talk about their then obsession with transcendental meditation.

Frost bagged an interview with Prince Charles just prior to his investiture as Prince of Wales by making a donation to charity and promising Charles the footage would be seen on US TV.

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