Michael Sheen has revealed that locals in his hometown still occasionally heckle him, even during routine errands like a supermarket trip. The multi-award-nominated actor, 57, moved back to Port Talbot near Swansea in Wales from the USA in the 2010s and has since worked on film, television and charity projects.
Supermarket encounter recalled
In an interview on The Romesh Ranganathan Show around a year ago, Sheen described a specific moment at his local supermarket. He told Romesh: “I go to the supermarket. I’m standing by the ice cream area looking for some ice cream for my kids and a voice goes, ‘Oh look at you by the ice cream. Typical’.”
He continued: “I don’t know who this woman is. People are just taking pot shots at me as I’m walking around. The idea of being at home and it’s like, ‘Oh you could be you, could be anyone’. It’s not like that, but it’s wonderful. I mean it’s marvelous. I do love that.”
Celebrity Traitors challenges
Sheen, who lives in Wales with his second wife Anna Lundberg, 32, and their two children Lyra, seven, and Mabli, four, has spoken enthusiastically about his time on series two of Celebrity Traitors, where he plays a Faithful alongside comedian Romesh Ranganathan. Ahead of the series launch, he doubted his chances of winning due to assumptions about his profession.
He told the BBC: “I do think it's a disadvantage to be an actor because people immediately go, 'oh well, he pretends for a living'. I don't think that is the case, because the whole point of acting is that you have to trick yourself into believing that what you're doing is true. If you are consciously aware that you're pretending or you're saying things that aren't true, then it's bad acting. It's just bad. Just for me being an actor, I think that's a disadvantage because people are already suspicious of that.”
Praise for the show
Despite his pessimism about his chances, he praised the programme for capturing the public's imagination. He added: “I think for a show to be so popular and to grab the cultural imagination so much, it has to have the ability to go beyond what its genre is.”
Sheen returns to UK screens this evening (October 15) as guest host of House of Games from 6pm on BBC Two and appears in Celebrity Traitors from 8pm on BBC One.
