EW Interview With Michael Sheen (Aro)

EW.com’s Pop Watch has a quick interview with Michael Sheen

You have great command of the scene with the Volturi and you can tell that those other actors had great respect for you.

It helps coming into something where they all know each other and have already done one movie together. They’ve also been involved in the whole phenomenon together so I think they’ve bonded a lot. So when you’re coming in to do a big scene like the one we did in the film, it helps if the character you are playing is higher status than the other ones. At least it gives you a bit more confidence. So that certainly helped.

What do you think audiences are responding to with Twilight?

I think it’s a whole combination of things coming together. Especially for adolescent girls and also for older audiences, Stephenie [Meyer] takes the incredibly powerful experiences you have as a teenager and treats them absolutely fearlessly and gives them the respect they deserve. The first book and film are about the first time you fall in love. And New Moon is all about the first time your heart is broken. These are some of the most powerful experiences you can have in your life, regardless of your age. And there is a tendency to kind of trivialize those things as you get older, to kind of be patronizing about those things. And Stephenie treats them absolutely seriously. She also, very cleverly in a way, said that the vampires are stunningly gorgeous as a way to lure their prey. That’s very clever because in casting the film you have very beautiful people who are very good as well.

Read all of Michael’s interview here.

Fansite Interview With Michael Sheen

This weekend several fansites were fortunate enough to have phone interviews with Michael Sheen and Kristen Stewart. Below is the Michael interview. Look for Kristen tomorrow.

Michael: Has every one seen the film yet, or has nobody seen the film?

Us: No, we haven’t!

Michael: Right, ok. So I can say anything and you won’t know if I’m telling the truth or not!

Us: Laughing

Michael: I promise I will tell the truth!

Laura from TwilightSource: What is your perception of Aro as a character? DO you think he shows some blurred line between good and bad given that he puts an ultimatum on Bella becoming a vampire rather than killing her?

Michael: I think that Aro thinks that he’s a really good guy. I love the idea that Aro thinks that he’s just a sentimental old fool and a romantic at heart, and he’s totally unaware of how vicious and violet and psychopathic he is. And I think that’s kind of makes him more creepy in a way, more scary that he’s not even aware of how frightening he is. And I think he thinks he’s just doing the right thing and doing what’s best for the world of the vampires. I don’t think he thinks that he’s being cruel or mean in any way. I think he really thinks of himself as a really old, cuddly grandmother type.

Lauren FB: I actually did get to see the film yesterday.

Michael: Oh, now you’re going to know if I’m fibbing!

Lauren: Were you inspired by anyone or anything to kind of channel yourself into the role of Aro?

Michael: Well, the first thing was obviously Stephenie’s book – Stephenie’s description of Aro. There’s one line that really stood out to me where she says that Aro’s voice was like feathers. That sort of set me to thinking and became the key to everything really. That someone who had a voice that sounds like feathers, that’s soft and warm and comforting and very pleasant. Sort of lulling you into a false sense of security kind of thing. And then I found myself, as I was starting to use that kind of a voice, I found myself thinking of things that when I was a kid, films that I’d watched and characters that had stayed with me that were really disturbing, unsettled me as a kid and stayed with me. I thought of things like the child catcher from the film Chitty-chitty Bang Bang. Like “Lollipops!” trying to lure the children, and the Blue Meanie from Yellow Submarine (breaks into singsong, mellow voice)who talks like that and has a very comforting voice, and yet is really mean and evil. Things like that really that kind of set my imagination going. But it all really came from what Stephenie had written originally.

Evie from TA: How did you prepare yourself to look like you were using your ability to read minds? It’s a difficult power to make come across on screen.

Michael: Fortunately I had a lot of time before hand to spend time with Kristen and Ashley and Rob, and we developed a telepathic link that became really useful when we were filming then. Cause then I just could read thoughts so I didn’t have to act. Cause I don’t like acting. I like doing it for real. No… I’m… I’m… er… The important thing was to really – and I always feel like this. As an actor when you’re doing scenes, I have to be totally committed to what I’m doing and really believe what I’m doing. Because if I don’t believe it then the audience aren’t going to believe it. So I had to really believe that I could see and her inside their heads when I was doing this stuff, and really see it. Not just acting seeing things or hearing things. I had to really really see it. So I had to work out exact images that I would see, just let my mind kind of go and try and really let things come into my head. Try to forget about the cameras and forget that I’m acting and all this make up on and wearing these contact lenses and all that. Just really try and see it. Hopefully that come though.

Lori from TLex: You have played lots of real life people. Is it more difficult to play a real life person where everybody knows their mannerisms and their voice and their personality, vrs an imaginary character that so many fans have embraced and read about and contemplated? Which one is more difficult to take on?

Michael: Well, in some ways playing a character like Aro is more difficult because like you say, there are so many – and I know this because my own daughter as well. My daughter had a very specific idea of what Aro was like, and it was completely different to what I was doing. When I first asked my daughter about Aro she said, “He’s bald” which freaked me out a little bit. I thought I was going to have to go bald for the film, but fortunately I wasn’t. Some ways it’s harder because at least when you’re playing a real person that people are familiar with, you know, I know what they look like and I know what they sound like and everyone else does. And I’ve got to get as close to that as I possibly can. With a character like Aro – I mean it would be different if it were a character form a book that not that many people knew. But when it’s a character that so many people have such a particular idea about, and these are character that the audience have really taken to their hearts and mean a lot to them. So there’s a big pressure to – I mean you’re never going to get it right really, because everyone will have a slightly different idea of who their Aro is or who their Edward is or their Bella. But I hope that I do justice to the character. And hopefully people will be okay with it even if it is slightly different from the way they see it in their heads. Because the best stories and the best characters are the ones that are in our heads, really. No one can do justice to that. But hopefully it comes a close second best.

Amanda TExaminer: How did your daughter received – if she hasn’t seen the movie yet she has at least seen the clips – how has she received your work? Has she been approving?

Michael: The greatest compliment that I could have had from her – you know her room is covered in Twilight and New Moon pictures and posters and things, and the greatest compliment I could have got was when I went in there one day and there was a little picture of me in the corner. I do slightly think that she did it out of pity just to include me in it as well. But that was a great compliment. She hasn’t seen the film but she’s seen the trailers, and she said that I look really creepy, and she said that it was really creepy when she saw me taking someone’s head off. Apparently her street credit has gone up enormously in school.

Kimmy from HGE: I was wondering about your stunts for the film because the Volturi scene is very action packed.

Michael: Fortunately I didn’t have to get too involved in the fighting because Aro thinks that it’s all a bit messy and dirty and doesn’t like getting involved. It’s all a bit rough and tumbly for him because he’s a very delicate creature. So he sort of keeps away from all of that unless he absolutely has to get involved. So I just kept to the side slightly. But I wanted to get more involved, having done all the Underwolrd films I get to do a lot of the stunts in that and get really physical in it. I love doing all that. But as Aro – I think Aro feels that he’s a little bit squeamish. Doesn’t like to see the sight of blood, just likes to drink it.

Amanda from TMoms: Did you have any hesitancies of accepting the role in New Moon having already done a supernatural film with the Underworld series?

Michael: No. Well it meant that I got to see how the other half lives, or the undead lives, or whatever. Having been a lycan for many years now and having to watch those dark vampires walking around in their finely tailored suits with their lovely hair styles and their high cheekbones, I finally got to see how green the grass is on the other side. So I had no qualms about that at all, no. I was lsightly conserved for anyone who had seen the Underworld films as well whether they would find it difficult to accept me as a vampire now and not as a lycan. But I think I look so different in the two films obviously that’ snot going to be a problem for people.

TST: Are there any other literary characters that you would like to portray?

Michael: Oh, there’s so many aren’t there. I’m a big fan of Neil Gaimon’s writing, his graphic novels and stuff. The Sandman series of comics is a big favorite of mine. To play Sandman would be amazing, that’s a great character, but I don’t know how you’d ever make that into a film, really. I’m a big fan of Stephen King’s writing as well, so any character in a Stephen King novel would be great. And I was also a fan of – back in the day when I was a kid I was very into Elric who’s in a series of stories by a writer named Michael Moorcock. And Elric is an albino, sort of drug addicted, melancholic prince and I always loved his character. They always tend to be character form sort of science fiction and fantasy. Which is not the main thing I’m known for, I suppose, but I always love those characters. There’s so many of them, but those are the ones I’d be most into doing I suppose.

Mirium from MSN: If you could play any other role in the Twilight movies without gender or age limitations, who would it be?

Michael: Oh, that’s a very good question. Let me think. Oh, that’s a tough one. Oh gosh. Well I suppose I’d like to stick with the vampires, I suppose. I like Ashley’s character. That’s my daughter’s favorite as well. So maybe I’d want to be Ashley Greene.

Lauren FB: If Aro could have a theme song, what would it be.

Michael: Of it would probably be something lush and romantic. Probably something by Barry Manilow. I Write the Songs. Or Mandy. Maybe it’d be Mandy by Barry Manilow. It would be something that would always reduce Aro to tears cause he’s such an old sentimental fool. Or maybe – Oh I know what it would be. That song by Michael Jackson when he was a kid – Ben, about the rat. “Ben, the two of us…” OH! Or even better Season’s in the Sun. I don’t remember who sang that, but I think, yes, that would be it. “We had joy, we had fun. We had seasons in the sun.” And then it’s all about someone dying. And it’s such a really romantic, lovely, beautiful summer’s day song, but it’s actually about someone that he’s probably killed.

Lori TLex: Charlie Bewley mentioned that the Volturi looked like a bunch of pansies in their costumes until he had the eyes put in for his contacts. He said it was really that moment that he understood the character of the Volturi. What was it for you?

Michael: The moment you put the contacts in does have a big effect. Cause up until that point I had the hair and the white face and the black clothes. And you put the red contact lenses in and it’s just like ugh – it makes you suddenly – it suddenly becomes unsettling and creepy looking. So I like that. So I’d probably go along with it. And also having the big thrones. You know to sit on the thrones in the room there. That helps as well to be able to sit on the big thrones.

Amanda Bell: With New Moon it seems that they are trying to branch off a bit with what kind of demographic would be interested in this picture. I was just wondering if you think Aro is the type of character that is esoteric to the Twilight fans or if it’s something that people universally can appreciate?

Michael: In some ways he somewhat fulfills the role of a kind of bad guy in the film, I guess, even though I don’t think he is a bad guy. So I think everyone kind of relates to the idea of this sort of powerful group anyway, the Volturi. I suppose he’s esoteric in so much that – I like the fact that there’s sort of something about him that’s different from everybody else and that’s different from the characters that everyone has come to know in the first film, first book, that there’s something that slightly sets him apart – and the other Volturi – sets them apart. And I wanted him to sort of have a quality of sort of “otherness,” of something that’s slightly unknowable and hidden. So I like that and I think it’s important for the story because you have to have someone who represents that kind of a thing so that the stakes are high. So that it matters – that there’s kind of an element of danger and mystery.

Amanda TMoms: I was wondering what you favorite most memorable Twilight related moment has been since you started on New Moon?

Michael: When I was filming in – cause I didn’t get to go to Italy unfortunately because all our scenes were interiors, so I didn’t need to be in Italy for that. So I filmed all my stuff in Vancouver. And I would have loved to have been there because Dakota was just telling me this morning about being out in the square in Volterra and like 5,000 people showed up to watch, and that would have been really really exciting. And I’ve been working and I’ve been away a lot, so I haven’t really had a chance to get involved with any of the kind of Twilight madness stuff. But I did have one little moment where – I was buying a pair of jeans in Los Angeles and I went into the little cubicle to try them on. Came out quite tentatively of my little cubicle to have a little look in the mirror, you know worried about that moment. And as I pulled back the curtain there was a woman on the other side holding various items of clothing, shaking, and saying, “You’re Aro, aren’t you?” So I went back in my cubicle and hid. That was a slightly scary moment. So if that’s anything like what’s about to come, I might have to go around with a bag over my head.

Evie from TA: You mentions that you took inspiration from the Blue Meanies for Aro’s voice. What made you think of them for Aro?

Michael: Just because I remember listening to the Blue Meanie in the film when I was a kid. For someone who is supposed to be like the bad guy and the scary person, I always thought of those people would have very powerful, authoritative, scary voices, but that character had a really soft, gentle voice that made it even more creepy and frightening. And thinking about what Stephenie had written about Aro’s voice it just kind of occurred to me. So I went a bit further with it like that to make him have this very soft, gentle voice. Because you know what he’s capable of and what’s really going on underneath, somehow that combination makes it so much more unsettling.

TST: If you could have any one vampire super power other than Aro’s what would it be?

Michael: We were talking about this earlier on and I’ve now being obsessed with totally useless superpowers. I was thinking a good useless superpower would be to have the ability to blink invisibly. Earlier I said, I was asked what super power I would like to have, and I said I would like to have the ability to always look like I’m standing three centimeters to the right of where I actually am. So now I’d like to start a tread of people thinking up completely useless superpowers.

Us: Thank you Michael!

Michael: Thank you. It was really lovely talking to all of you, and for those of you who haven’t seen the film yet, I hope you really enjoy it and I hope I get to see you again some time.

Thanks Twilight Lexicon for posting this!!!

Michael Sheen on Aro

The Los Angeles Times has a great look at Michael Sheen in his role of Aro in New Moon. Check it out!!

Reporting from Vancouver, Canada – It’s a crisp May morning on the set of “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” and Michael Sheen strides into an elaborate reconstruction of an Italianate marble hall in costume as Aro, the head of the Volturi, a menacing group of age-old vampires that metes out justice in the realm of the supernatural. Dressed in a cloak, he’s sporting long, black locks, bright red lips and matching tinted contact lenses that give him a distinctly malevolent look.

When a reporter asks if it’s uncomfortable to look through the eyes of a monster, he suggests, quite politely and quite to the contrary: “No, I think it’s more uncomfortable for you.”

In take after take, Sheen’s voice glides upward as he welcomes the young lovers into his chambers, a fairly forbidding place, what with a coven’s worth of other vamps lurking around.

Throughout his career, the Welsh actor has demonstrated a rare willingness to move between two distinctly different cinematic planes — critically acclaimed prestige films and not-so-acclaimed but more commercial genre fare. He’s portrayed former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in the 2006 historical drama “The Queen” and the half-werewolf Lucian in two of the movies in the “Underworld” series.

It’s a pattern he’s continuing to embrace. He’s currently starring as soccer coach Brian Clough in “The Damned United,” and following “New Moon,” he’ll appear in Disney’s sci-fi outing “Tron Legacy” and Tim Burton’s lavish fairy tale “Alice in Wonderland,” both due out next year.

“I think a good story’s a good story and a good character’s a good character,” Sheen said. “There are things that I’ve done . . . especially, ‘The Queen’ and ‘Frost/Nixon,’ they just happen to be in the world of politics. The thing that draws me to them is they’re compelling stories. . . It doesn’t matter to me if they’re in the world of politics or in the ‘Twilight’ world of vampires.”

Sheen said he was first introduced to that world of “Twilight” through his daughter, a devoted reader of Meyer’s bestselling series. A fan of science fiction and fantasy, Sheen found the opportunity to don Aro’s robes particularly appealing. “I thought it would be exciting to play a vampire instead of a werewolf, go across to the other side of the tracks,” he said with a red-lipped grin. “I’ve never played a character who delights in his own evil before.”

When filming breaks for lunch, the actor, clutching a copy of “New Moon,” says he understands just how important it is to get every detail of his performance right. He doesn’t want to disappoint Meyer’s legions of fans.

Read more HERE

Fear Net: Interview With Michael Sheen

Jen Amato of Rotten Tomatoes has an interview with Michael Sheen where they cover just how Michael got addicted to Twitter.

“A week after being announced as New Moon’s Aro, you joined Twitter, and your first post read, “Someone is pretending to be me. The f***er will rue the day…” Can you explain what that was all about?

The only reason I went on Twitter was because there was someone pretending to be me who sounded like such an idiot, so it was reflecting badly on me. My auntie, who was already on Twitter, let me know there was this person doing this, so I had to go on and say, “This is me.”

When it comes to celebrities, there are so many fake accounts that it’s hard to tell who’s real and who’s not…

I spent a couple of weeks trying to convince people that I was the real me, and it became sort of a “Twit-off” with this pretender. It was Neil Gaiman who eventually made the big difference when he announced that I was the “official” me. I always intended to end it then and not do it anymore, but I just got hooked on it.

It’s incredibly addictive, isn’t it?

It kind of is, and I also find it really useful and entertaining. To share things, to let people send me things that I’m interested in… if I’ve watched or read something that I really enjoy I’ll share it with people there. And also, if I have anything I need to find out about, I’ve got this resource of about 50,000 incredibly well-informed and interesting people to ask the question to.”

Check it out on FearNet.

Toledo Blade Interviews Michael Sheen

The Toledo Blade talked with Michael Sheen about his daughter and his character Aro inNew Moon.

Sheen made his movie debut in Stephen Frears’ 1996 Jekyll-and-Hyde tale Mary Reilly, working with the director again as Blair in The Queen and in the TV movie The Deal. He plays Blair a third time in the The Special Relationship, a drama about the prime minister’s bond with President Bill Clinton.

Other screen roles include the werewolf Lucian in the Underworld franchise, whose first two installments starred former girlfriend Kate Beckinsale, with whom Sheen has a daughter, Lily, 10.

Sheen also co-stars as vampire leader Aro in The Twilight Saga: New Moon.

SOURCE

His initial research for Aro came close to home. Lily is a huge fan of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight novels.

“I wanted to find out about the character without having to read the books immediately, but I couldn’t tip my daughter off, because that would get her overexcited,” Sheen said. “I said to her, ‘Oh, Lily, these books you’re reading. Someone was talking about them the other day. Is there a character called Aro in them?’

“She said, ‘Yes, he’s the head of the Volturi. He can tell what people are thinking just by touching them. Are you going to play him?’ I went, ‘No, no, no, no,’” Sheen said, laughing. “It was hilarious.”

Michael Sheen on Craig Ferguson

Here is a video of Michael Sheen’s, who plays the Volturi’s Aro,  appearance on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on October 5, 2009.

First Look at the Volturi

Marcus

Alec

Caius

Jane

Aro

Twilight Saga Cast Up For Digital Spy Awards

Twilight is nominated as Blockbuster of the year. While Kristen Stewart, who plays Bella Swan, was nominated for Best Actress. Michelle Sheen, who plays Volturi leader Aro in New Moon, was nominated for Best Actor in Frost/Nixon and The Damned United.

Voting closes on August 28th, 2009. The results will be announced in October.

 going here to vote!

Naked Volturi Leaders?

 

Jamie Campbell Bower, in a recent interview with MTV.com. There is a scene in the upcoming New Moon, in which the 3 Volturi Leaders are naked -

“We just all sit there, completely naked, for one scene,” revealed “New Moon” actor Jamie Campbell Bower, talking about a racy moment that was added into the upcoming film. “Yeah, it’s me, Michael Sheen and Christopher [Heyerdahl]; we just sit there, naked.”

“We’re just chilling out, just watching the game and having a Bud,” Bower laughed of the scene, which depicts Carlisle hanging with the Volturi back in the day. “No, that doesn’t sound right. I’m so British. I can’t say that stuff.”

In actuality, the scene has a fully clothed Carlisle visiting the Volturi in Italy, only to locate Aro, Caius and Marcus in a bathhouse. “It’s a full-body shot, and then Peter comes in, and it all gets a bit awkward,” Bower said. “[Carlisle] is clothed completely. They’re bathing in sort of a Roman bath kind of thing.”

You can read the interview over at MTV.com.

Michael Sheen on New Moon Sets

HitFix has released a new interview with Michael Sheen, who plays Aro in New Moon, where he reveals some new details from when he was on the set in Vancouver- 

“The first day of filming we did the 18th century stuff and then one of the modern scenes,” Sheen says. “It was a lot to deal with; the wig, and contact lenses all day and the make-up, but it was fantastic. These sets are amazing. And the look of everyone is so strong so it was great to just kind of get right into it straight away. “

Read the entire interview HERE

Picture from www.newmoonmovie.org

Michael Sheen on Playing Aro

Michael Sheen, who plays Volturi leader Aro in New Moon, was interviewed by Empire Magazine, and he talks about what it was like to work on the set of the movie.

Read article HERE