Top 44 Michael Sheen Quotes

We see death constantly on film.

The secret to acting is don’t act. Be you, with add-ons.

I don’t do the whole L.A. nightlife thing.

Hopefully, any character I play has an anchor in reality.

My chief gifts are – naturally good at all sports with a raw talent for pretty much everything, which if nurtured could develop into improper talent.

Part of the fun of life is interacting with people and not knowing what the truth is inside. Letting them reveal that to you is what binds you to people.

I don’t want to do something that I’ve done before; I can’t see the point of it.

I am very impatient.

Getting older is a struggle. I always feel that just under the surface of acceptance and enjoyment of the ageing process is a terrible hysteria just waiting to burst out.

I’m not a Tony Blair impersonator.

I’m a big fan of vampire movies generally and that sort of tradition of characters.

I think the story of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ in a way is a reminder that life is frightening, it can shift on you at any moment.

I love watching Jeff Bridges act. He’s brilliant.

In some ways any film that you do has an artificiality about it. Even when you’re doing the most kitchen-sinky, gritty, realistic scene you’ve still got 50 people standing around watching you with cameras and lights and things.

Normal people – i.e., people who aren’t actors – are the most bizarre people you can ever come across. I’ll talk to someone and come away thinking, ‘They are clinically insane.’

I enjoy doing things that involve research because it’s part of what I enjoy about acting.

I perceive and relate to the world through where I grew up; that’s part of me. It’s what I judge everything else against.

A parent can seem very kind and gentle, but as any child knows, as soon as that parent gets stressed, they can suddenly turn and get a bit angry.

I have a daughter, and fairies meant a lot to her growing up.

Sometimes you see things in a script, and it doesn’t necessarily mean the director sees the same things. And if you think you’re going to be making a different film, then that’s not gonna work.

I think I’m becoming more relaxed in front of a camera. I suppose I’ll always feel slightly more at home on stage. It’s more of an actor’s medium. You are your own editor, nobody else is choosing what is being seen of you.

While I enjoy spending time in L.A., Britain is my home.

My own daughter is a big fan of the ‘Twilight’ stories, the books.

‘Hamlet’ is one of the most dangerous things ever set down on paper. All the big, unknowable questions like what it is to be a human being; the difference between sanity and insanity; the meaning of life and death; what’s real and not real. All these subjects can literally drive you mad.

I would never use prosthetics. I don’t like sticking things on. I don’t really like wearing wigs, either.

I was obsessed with football when I was growing up.

I find increasingly that the more extreme are the things going on in your life, the more cultural reference points fail you. More mythical reference points actually help, and you realise that’s what myths are for. It’s for human beings to process their experience in extremis.

I suppose I’ve got a reputation for playing quite extreme characters and making them quite believable.

As a general thing, I’ve always been drawn to characters who appear to be one thing on the surface, but are actually something else underneath.

There are times in my career where I can see it would be helped by having a bit more of a profile, but it’s not like I refuse to do interviews, no, not at all.

I’m always aware that there are, broadly speaking, two different ways to act: there is acting, and then there’s being, and I’m always more interested in that.

If you can define what God is, I can tell you whether I believe in it.

I think the best acting is when you allow yourself to be kind of vulnerable in the moment.

I’d love to go back to Europe in the ’20s and ’30s, for the beginning of the Psychoanalytic Movement, and Freud and Jung, and all that was going on with discoveries in quantum physics. The whole nature of reality was changing and being challenged.

I live a very Kenneth Williams-like existence.

Americans are much more open than people in Britain.

I’d love to go back to Greek times and see the birth of theater and performing, in that time. It would be so extraordinary to see the need that theater came out of, in the first place. I think we could probably all learn a bit from that.

My rule of thumb is that I want to do things I’d like to go and see myself.

A lot of children are interested in fairies, especially young girls, and Tinker Bell is the ueber-fairy. She’s the pin-up girl of fairies. She’s the ultimate fairy, but she’s also got a mischievous spirit and she’s very strong-willed. I think a lot of youngsters recognize themselves in Tinker Bell.

I always say if I’m not good at something it’s just because I’ve not had time to focus on it… it’s just uncrafted, like a slab of rock that contains the statue of David within it.

I’ve always loved animation and animated films.

When you look at all the miracles attributed to Jesus, they’re all about change.

I can be a lazy dresser.

When I was at drama school, I wanted to change the world, and thought I had some great wisdom to impart to people about humanity. Now that I’m older, I know enough to realise that I know nothing at all.