Sheen ready for Blair role again

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Film star Michael Sheen has been talking about his latest Tony Blair role during a visit to a school.

Sheen is to play the former prime minister in The Special Relationship, about his time with ex-US presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush.

The Welsh actor is expected to star alongside Dennis Quaid, as Clinton.

The Frost/Nixon and The Damned United star was visiting Porth County School in the Rhondda as part of a scheme which uses films to inspire children.

Sheen has already played Tony Blair twice in screenplays by Peter Morgan, who is writing the latest film.

"I'm going to be playing Blair again in a film about Blair and Clinton called Special Relationship. We're filming that in July and August this year."

The actor said he met Blair recently which he described as a "very interesting" experience, after his portrayals on the big screen in The Queen and also the TV drama, The Deal.

Sheen has previously played the role of late entertainer Kenneth Williams

"He seemed like someone who had been let out of school on the summer holidays. I think not being prime minister any more obviously suits him," Sheen told BBC Wales.

"He said he hadn't seen the film. I don't know if that's true or not or whether he was just avoiding any uncomfortable questions about it!

"He said it was very accurate which I was surprised about - not surprised it was accurate, surprised he said that or so he had been told, so it seems like we got it fairly close."

Sheen's profile has risen after taking on the roles of real people, including comic actor Kenneth Williams, journalist David Frost and most recently football manager Brian Clough.

But he said he said it was possible he would never play such roles again.

"It's been weird over the last few years. I've been playing a lot of real people and they've been written mainly by the same person, Peter Morgan," he said.

"I think me and Peter now want to try something different and go off on a different route. It might be that I never play another real person ever again and this will be this weird part of my career.

"At the moment I've just come back from Vancouver where I've just got back from doing a film called New Moon which is the sequel to Twilight, which I know is very popular with young people," he said.

'Inspires them'

"I've got a film coming out called Unthinkable that I did with Samuel L Jackson and a film I did with Tim Burton called Alice in Wonderland so there's plenty coming on."

Sheen was in Porth to meet pupils as part of the Filmclub project, which aims to broaden children's minds through film and is running in Wales as a pilot scheme.

Pupils can select from more than 60,000 films and post their own reviews and enter competitions.

Sheen said he was delighted to be back in Wales lending a hand.

"I love talking about films and being able to come and talk to young people about it, I just thought was a great idea," he said.

"And it meant I could come back to Wales as well. It gave me an excuse to come to the Rhondda.

"It's been brilliant - a bit nerve-wracking. I haven't had to come back to school and talk to a group like this for a long time and I worry that anything I've got to say about anything is not going to be interesting.

"Hopefully there will be someone who watches a film I mentioned that might have a big effect on them or just inspires them to have a life in film."