Inside Michael Sheen & David Tennant's friendship

I think of you as one of those actors who's both the kind of an actors actor and a people's actor in a way you've managed to cross that boundary between the sort of the daily tenants and the Daniel Day Lewis's uh do you ever get a sense of that in a way like the Warmness you you get from kind of people in general but also the acting community that reverence or oh not to embarrass you I don't I don't know about that but I I mean I I live back a home where I grew up now you know and um so I have I have a sort of slightly distorted view of things because you know I'm basically around family and and where I came from all the time so everyone's you know always very friendly and and um I it's it's rare that people throw things at me in the street but I don't know if I ventured outside of my little corner of South Wales maybe they would there's always a place somewhere where people someone will throw something in the streets yeah um I have had a great pleasure recently binging out on Rob brydon's podcast and last night I listened to his chat with you from a couple years back and you guys were talking about that kind of a point in career where you feel almost a greater sense of relaxation and satisfaction of knowing who you are and the things you enjoy doing not thinking I should be just doing really serious things but I'm gonna do what right yeah kick out of yeah and in in your career these last couple of years barring covert and all that they look to me from the outside as possibly the most satisfying couple of years an actor could have you've looked like you've had so much fun with with staged and with this and all this kind of new Duo that people love with you and David uh is that accurate are you kind of more getting more satisfaction now than you have done in previous years yeah sure I mean I think yeah there is a a big difference I think as an actor from when you feel like you're sort of trying to make a name for yourself and establish yourself and and um and then later on once you know if you're lucky enough you feel like well the pressures are different now you know um and you can sort of just if you're fortunate enough to be able to have choice you know and um yeah the last few years I've I've really enjoyed I think um they were yeah I think there was a period of time I remember Ian McAllen started doing things like you know he was doing panto and he was doing Coronation Street and I remember thinking see he's just he's just doing what he wants to do it's great and I found that quite a big inspiration and um so I love I love being able to do things that I just enjoy doing and um uh you know I've always I mean I've never done jobs because I I you know I felt anything other than I just really liked the material and I would want to watch it myself pretty much and that's why I think I've had quite a variety of of you know almost different careers in a way you know um I've done a lot of kind of fantasy and sci-fi and and people can sometimes look down on that kind of more genre thing I think oh it's not as serious as the the frost Nixons or the queen or you know that kind of stuff but there's no difference for me I've thoroughly enjoyed everything and I feel very lucky that I've got to do so many different kinds of things but definitely over the I would say maybe the last 10 years yeah I've I've wanted to do things that are that are much more personal to me I suppose in some ways um and and there's there's something wonderful about that yeah I think the the numbers don't lie and I think when when you're making so many given enjoyment to so many people through anything from like the damage united through to things like good Omens and states and stuff like that I think that's the only thing that kind of matters at the end of the day in any kind of art form in a way it's like for the people um speaking about good Omens of course that's we're here to see about and I'm a huge fan of staged as well and I remember a few years back now when it was first announced for good Omens that they were putting you guys together yourself and David Tennant to kind of really beloved actors uh of of these Isles I there was so much excitement and and so much kind of Goodwill about that happening let's fast forward four years you guys have just in each other's Pockets so often uh what's that ride been like and how much has your relationship kind of shifted and changed and evolved over those few years well yeah I mean we we'd been in something together but we hadn't acted together in years and years ago and we'd sort of known each other socially a little bit but um yeah it was only when we first started doing this first series that uh the first series of good elements that we got to properly know each other and of course you had no idea how it would work with these two characters I mean on the whole we'd I think coming through in you know talking about starting your careers off and trying to establish yourself we'd probably been up for the same Parts a lot of the time so we wouldn't be in something together because we'd be up for the the same character um and so then being put together it wasn't until that first day of the read-through on the first series of this that we got any sense of how it would how it might work together and it just sort of clicked just the dynamic between us playing these particular characters sort of just worked and and then filming that first series we were obviously together a lot of the time um and it was just easy you know it was it was there was no ego involved and there was no there was nothing extraneous it was just the work I'm just having a nice time together uh and then when we were in front of the camera together it just you know seemed to take off and and worked really well and then then we had we had our daughters at the same time just after good Omens and so our family started to become friendly I mean our daughters now send each other video messages to each other and you know we um you're tied together yeah Georgia has just been in the thing I've directed and um so yeah we're so entwined now and um and it seemed to move on to Stage as well that you know it wasn't just these characters you know the Dynamics still seemed to work quite well in another format so um so yeah I hope it continues you know a bit like being in a band now almost a successful band and you go off and do your own things so you guys going to get together do another album yeah yeah yeah well I mean you know who knows how long this will go on for um and I think you know stages probably come to an end now but you should never say never but um I mean I think we'll always be looking for something to do together because we've just enjoyed it so much and I have to ask quickly for myself uh I'm such a huge fan of uh the deal and fantabulosa and of course damn unites and who millionaire stuff like you you've you really have kind of embodied so many great people in some great work over the years I kind of wish Tony Blair would return to Frontline politics just so we can get something else with you in in the future is there anyone is there anyone on your mind who you'd like to have one more person you could have a crack at you think oh gosh I mean it's never really been about the person it's it's you know it's always the script that comes along really so I've never it's not like I had a list of people or I want to play as people but when the right person with the right script comes along and um then then it's really exciting I'm going to be playing playing a night in Bevin uh next year on stage so I'm looking forward to that that's really exciting but yeah just interesting to see what if and when any of those sort of characters come along again well fingers crossed that does another Foss Nixon and jumps onto screen down the line that'd be nice to see uh so it's been a pleasure to meet you uh fantastic series I absolutely love it I hope we get many many more uh with with you guys and yourself and I'll say in the blur to watch thanks brilliant thank you uh [Music]

Channel: On Demand Entertainment

Views: 44,540

Keywords: Michael Sheen, Good Omens, Staged, David Tennant, friendship, interview, Jonny Nelson

Id: P-2xnMQwKog

Length: 7min 17sec (437 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 24 2023