Michael Sheen says “it’s hard to accept” non-Welsh actors playing Welsh characters

Actor Michael Sheen has said “it’s hard to accept” non-Welsh actors playing Welsh characters, in a new interview.

Speaking to The Telegraph about his new project, Best Interests, the actor reflected on the extent to which actors can play parts that are far away from themselves. He began talking about this in the context of characters with disabilities being cast with non-disabled actors before extending this to ones of national identity and class.

The actor, who is from Port Talbot, said: “You know, seeing people playing Welsh characters who are not Welsh, I find, it’s very hard for me to accept that. Not particularly on a point of principle, but just knowing that that’s not the case.

“That’s a very different end of the spectrum, but a part like Richard III is such a great character to play, it would be sad to think that that character, you know, is no longer available or appropriate for actors to play who don’t have disabilities, but that’s because I’m just not used to it yet, I suppose. Because I fully accept that I’m not going to be playing Othello any time soon.

“Again, it’s not particularly a point of principle, but personally, I haven’t seen many actors who have come from quite privileged backgrounds being particularly compelling as people from working-class backgrounds. If you haven’t experienced something, you know, the extreme example is, well, if you haven’t murdered someone, can you play a murderer?”

Back in 2020, Sheen returned his OBE so that he could air views on the monarchy without being branded a “hypocrite”.

The actor, who received the honour in 2009 for services to drama, said the decision came after researching the history of his native Wales for his 2017 Raymond Williams lecture. Speaking in an interview with journalist Owen Jones in 2020, the actor said he decided not to announce his decision in 2017, fearing some people would find it insulting.

“Raymond Williams famously wrote a piece called ‘Who Speaks For Wales’ in 1971 – and I took that as my starting point for the lecture as in who speaks for Wales now?”, Sheen said. “And in my research, to do that lecture, I learnt a lot about Welsh history.”

He continued: “By the time I finished typing that lecture… I remember sitting there and thinking ‘well I have a choice’ either don’t give this lecture and hold on to my OBE or I give this lecture and give the OBE back. I wanted to do the lecture so I gave my OBE back.”

Sheen went on to explain that he meant “absolutely no disrespect” by returning the OBE, and that he had felt “incredibly honoured” to have received it. He noted that it had helped his career both inside and outside of acting.

“I just realised I’d be a hypocrite if I said the things I was going to say in the lecture about the nature of the relationship between Wales and the British state,” he concluded.

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