Michael Sheen: Lily Displeased by Role in New Moon

Big Pictures/Bauer Griffin

Landing the role of Aro in the upcoming film New Moon was quite a coup for actor Michael Sheen. Although his daughter Lily Mo, 10 ½, is a fan of the Twilight book/film series her reaction caught dad by surprise, however. “She was a bit overwhelmed,” Michael tells PARADE. “It was like when I was a kid — if there was something I was really into, the last thing I wanted was my mom and dad to be into it as well.”

So angered was Lily, she cried — and actually kicked her father — but there are no hard feelings between the two now. Michael adds,

“I think it was just like her fantasy imaginative world suddenly colliding with reality. She did punish me a bit. When she kicked me, I think that was sort of acting out her frustration.”

Lily’s own film career is off to a fast start in Everybody’s Fine, costarring film legend Robert De Niro — a role that has Michael himself green with envy. “I totally admired him growing up, and he was a large part of what made me want to be a film actor,” the 40-year-old Frost/Nixon star shares. Recalls Michael,

“So I said to Lily, ‘What did you call him? Did you call him like, Bobby or Mr. De Niro?’ And she went, ‘No, I called him Sir.’ So I said, ‘Right. And from now on you shall call me Sir…’”

Lily is Michael’s only child with ex-girlfriend Kate Beckinsale.

New Moon hits theaters Nov. 20; Everybody’s Fine — in which Kate also appears — is in theaters Dec. 4.

Source: PARADE

– Missy

Comments

Hummm – she kicked her dad? WOW!

- Vanessa on October 9th, 2009

She kicked her father??

- Myrallison on October 9th, 2009

Any 10 year old that can’t control their emotions and kicks their father needs a lesson in respect and should be disciplined. This was not a cute story in my mind. It comes across as a passive parent who lets the child rule the roost.

- Angel on October 9th, 2009

WOW! Kicking her father at age 10? That is something that kids usually try at age 2 or 3 before they get a full handle on their emotions and are taught other healthier ways to respond to emotion and even then it is seen as hugely innapropriate. 10 years of age kicking her Dad??? I’m just so shocked!

- BD on October 9th, 2009

I hope he was exaggerating. If not, that child needs the reins pulled in a lot. I certainly hope he has not become a scapegoat to her- someone she takes her anger out on. Maybe she has divided loyalties since it seems she has this new instant family with Kate’s new husband. They should curb this over the top behavior right away!!

- Jane on October 9th, 2009

she kicked her dad over a movie?! come on Lily, calm down and moreover don’t kick your dad!

- H on October 9th, 2009

By kicking her own father. The child is showing more anger to fame and doesn’t want to be placed in the celeb family world unlike most celeb families I know. Good for her!

- Rose on October 9th, 2009

Rose, how many celebs family you know? LOL.. Anyways, normally I think people judge here but if this story is not an exaggeration then I would have to agree that a 10 year old kicking a parent is NOT okay.

- Karen on October 9th, 2009

Yeah, that is so not okay for Lily to kick her father, no matter how frustrated you are. I hope she got in trouble for it.

- Names4Real on October 9th, 2009

I agree with the others, that is crazy! A child of that age kicking their father? I would expect that from a 2 year old but a 10 year old would find themselves grounded for a month, at least in my family.

- Shawna on October 9th, 2009

maybe it was like a “play” kick? who knows… but at least lily knows how to express herself

but seriously, there are obviously some complicated emotions playing out in this situation with her dad… and I would address those first. It does no good to focus on the symptom (kicking), without trying to understand what caused it. If she got sent to her room right away she would just get more frustrated and the cycle might continue.

i’m not saying you should negotiate every single tantrum your child throws, but in this case it seems like it would be the right thing to do, rather than focusing only on the kicking incident.

I think the goal with children is not to have a perfectly behaved child (even though that would be lovely), but to have one that knows how to express themselves and handle emotions in a healthy way.

- fuzibuni on October 9th, 2009

What the heck? She KICKED her father over a role in a movie and she’s 10? Sounds like she needs some anger management! Unreal.

- Brianne on October 9th, 2009

Is everyone assuming the issue of Lily kicking her father wasn’t addressed, simply because he didn’t say anything, or am I missing something? And I wouldn’t think that age has anything to do with it. It wouldn’t be any more okay for a 3 year old to kick a parent than for a 10 year old to, and it sounds from Michael’s story like Lily hasn’t been prone to doing that kind of thing before.

It might be “just a movie” to the rest of us, but for actors and their families, it’s a job. And the things 10 year olds get upset about….well, that’s a long list nobody has time to hear. I can certainly imagine that a 10 year old with a thing for the fantasy of Twilight might be a little upset that the fantasy is about to be ruined because her dad (her dad!) is playing one of the characters in the movie. Would you be able to stay immersed in a fantasy world if your dad suddenly appeared on the screen in vampire garb???? I’m 25, and I can say that would pretty much ruin it for me.

- Stephanie on October 9th, 2009

I don’t think Michael Sheen was saying his daughter regularly kicks him. I took it that it was a fit of pure frustration. I know when I get really, really upset I might toss something, like my phone or a book, and it immediately makes me feel better. I am not offended like a lot of the other people who commented. I am also not going to speculate on the psychological issues of a stranger’s ten year old child.

- Mary on October 9th, 2009

Hi Stephanie,

I am not assuming that it wasn’t addressed. I just find it weird that at ten she would do it in the first place. There’s no way I would even think of kicking my father or even worse my mother for any alleged misdeeds that may been committed against me and believe you me at ten my parents committed plenty of misdeeds(Not allowing me to get a dress a wanted, not letting me stay up late, etc) but no matter how major it was I NEVER ever kicked them at that age.

- Karen on October 9th, 2009

I agree with the general feelings of the majority here. Something isn’t quite right here if a child’s reaction is to physically strike out at a parent. I hope Lily is disciplined for this kind of behaviour, if she’s still striking out at this age, the parents are setting themselves up for trouble later. I didn’t find this story funny at all.

- Alex on October 9th, 2009

I dont know about kicking a parent

- Bella on October 9th, 2009

It seems to me like she is just overly indulged and used to getting her own way. She has 3 parents that dote on her and they just may soil her a bit, so she might think it is ok. I have no idea though as I don’t know them and we really can’t put too much stock in written interviews. He may have been joking or exaggerating. Who knows? I do know that physical displays are not acceptable rather it be children toward parents or parents toward children. Slapping a kid and saying don’t hit just doesn’t teach much.

- BELLE on October 9th, 2009

thank goodness for fuzbuni, the voice of reason. all these ‘she must be disciplined’ reactions are rather shocking. behaviorism went out of vogue long ago for a reason; that reason being that simply addressing behavior and attempting to ‘correct’ it ignores the root cause of that behavior. Ignoring the root cause will only serve to let it grow stronger, and the next time the release may not be so tame as a kick (and yes, a 10 year old’s kick is very tame compared to, say, a drug problem, a self-harm problem, etc). it sounds like she most likely has alot of anger towards her father, for a whole host of reasons that we will never know or understand, but the point is, that these reasons are what should be addressed and dealt with; it sounds like the kicking was just the final point (ie, the outward, physical, visible manifestation) of a long process of hurt on Lily’s part. Poor kid, i really do hope her parents try to work through this with her rather than ‘punishing’ her, which only to leads, believe me, to much, much greater problems, problems will make a ten-year-old kicking her father something her parents would wish for.

- Cass on October 9th, 2009

Man I’d be just as concerned that a 10 year old is reading the Twilight books as I am that she kicked her father! I read those books, and I’d be reluctant to let my daughter read than at 15, certainly not at 10! Sounds like some parents are overindulging a little bit here. I know that sounds judgemental, but I can’t imagine a 10 year kicking her father. That is way too old for tantrums like that!

- Shannon on October 9th, 2009

No, its not possible that Lilly Mo could be…gasp….spoilt? Not in Hollywood. Surely not.

- loopsy on October 9th, 2009

once again the judgement has started with a child you don’t even know. Anger issues, spoiled. Do any of you know this family? Didn’t think so. I hit people when I get unexpected surprising news. Not in a mean way, it’s just something I’ve always done. Like Elaine on Seinfeld she pushed people. I encourage people to stop with the judgements when reading any news story. A lot of things are taken out of context and people are miss quoted all the time. How would you like if you said at a PTA meeting that your kid is annoying you right now because he/she isn’t listening to you. Next day is quoted in a PTA news letter that “Mrs. Smith hates her kids.” Not what you said right? it happens all the time.

- Judgemenot but you will on October 9th, 2009

Im surprised by how many people here are shocked at the kick. I don’t find it shocking for a 10 year old to kick her father. When I was her age and was angry or frustrated I remember kicking my dad, playfully most of the time but sometimes with actual intent to hurt him (he addressed it either straight away or eventually) and I don’t think I have turned out a bad person. If she were kicking someone she didn’t know I would find it a lot harder to understand but its her father and we don’t know if he punished her for it or spoke to her about so why judge the actions of the parent when we don’t know how he handled it.

- herewego on October 9th, 2009

Shannon, just curious, why would you be reluctant to allow a 15 year old to read Twilight? I’m not directing this at you in a negative way, just generally curious.

I’ve read the first two so I know the content in both and don’t find anything inappropriate. I can understand, though, that a ten year old might find the books confusing.

- Liliana on October 9th, 2009

Kicking a parent (or anyone) at 10 is not cute or excusable UNLESS the child has a serious mental problem. I don’t care if the kid has famous parents or not. It’s just ugly behavior.

- Erica on October 9th, 2009

So, I live in LA and saw Lily, Kate, and Len Wiseman (stepfather) at the Brentwood Market earlier in the summer. I don’t know if it was because people were noticing who they were but Miss Lily was putting on a show. She put her hand up to her mother at one point like” talk to the hand”, twirling her hair and sticking her tongue out. I just assumed she was showing out because she had an audience but it still didn’t make it right. I’m a transplant from Alabama and I’ve noticed some of these LA kids seem to have this air of entitlement. “Don’t you know who I am? Don’t you know who my parents and step-parents are?”. Not saying Lily is that as I only witnessed this one event, but I could see her being on the spoiled side and as alot of kids do, LA or not, playing the let-me-guilt-my-parents-because-they’re-divorced card.

- Amber on October 9th, 2009

I’m pretty sure he was joking, relax! Michael Sheen’s a funny guy, so he was probably kidding around, no need to get judgmental so quickly. And Liliana, the twilight books get a bit more innappropriate by the third, and the fourth is definitely not appropriate for children IMO.

- Tess on October 9th, 2009

My daughters would be totally excited if I was going to have a role in a movie that they were interested in!! You’d think Lily would find it kind of cool……….

- Momof3girls on October 9th, 2009

I agree with Belle. Of what I have read & picked up, mostly from Kate’s interviews, is that Lily is used to getting her own way. I always wondered how Kate’s husband deals with the situation. Kate even admitted that Lily doesn’t want any siblings, she likes being an only child.

- zub on October 10th, 2009

Yeah, I’m going to have to agree with the majority here. I can’t even imagine kicking my parents when I was ten. I did know maybe two kids who acted out that way when we were growing up and no one thought it was cute except their parents (and those kids were between 2 and 5). Usually by 10, kids have learned to (1) respect their parents and (2) how to deal with anger/frustration in a non-violent way. I really can’t see any reason for a kid to react that way. Every kid on the face of this planet gets frustrated with their parents. Not every kid lashes out like Lily did.

And, normally I would agree that we shouldn’t judge the situation, but Michael shouldn’t have talked about it to the press. Him doing that is obviously going to create talk (which he wanted?). If he doesn’t want his child to be judged, he should not talk about her less-than-adorable moments.

- Sarah K. on October 10th, 2009

I didn’t know Lily is acting. She would have a great career, I think. She is incredibly pretty.

-meream

- All Women Stalker on October 10th, 2009

Not going to comment on the kick as I don’t know if she’s doing this often or not and whether she was disciplined or not. I hope she didn’t think it was ok though… sometimes you do something in a surge of anger and immediately feel guilty and know it’s wrong. Hope she did.

The only reason I’d be surprised a 10-year-old would read Twilight is because they’re quite thick books… otherwise there’s no description of inappropriate things, maybe a little violence but not that’s it IMO. Everyone decides what’s ok for their own children to read though. Lily seems to be an avid reader as I remember her reading the last Harry Potter a few years ago, she was quite young for such a big book especially if she’s read them all. So Twilight is no surprise.

- Alice on October 10th, 2009

Meream – Lily has also acted in Underworld with the rest of her family (mom, dad,stepdad directing). She played young Selene in Evolution,I think it was.

I think people are overexaggerating. The way it is written, yes, it can be viewed in many ways.I hit my mom and knocked out her front filling when I was 15. See,interpret it..yes, it sounds like the actions of a bad child.I often say it like that too, but what actually happened was I was angry at my mom for some reason and in an attempt to lighten thing up, she started to poke me making pilsbury sounds and playfight with me.When she was tickling me, I took one of the couch cushions and hit her with it, initiating a pillow fight, after playing around a bit,I hit her in the face and her filling cracked.See, playful incident gone wrong, but not everyone has the time to go into the small print.

I do love Michael’s “sir” comment to her lol.

- Rach on October 10th, 2009

Oh and PS, it is not a bad thing for any child to read, no matter how young they are.I think reading something this romantic at an age like that seems a bit off for some,but my mom had me reading Jane Austen at that age.Yes, I grew out of my boys are icky stage way to early and started daydreaming about Mr Darcy and the like by 12 lol.

- Rach on October 10th, 2009

Lily must have been pretty frustrated when her father suddenly barged into her daydream and utter frustration makes you do silly things. I am not saying it is ok to kick anyone, but she may not have meant it and as a child she does not have a total command of her impulses yet. The ability to control your impulses while frustrated is, if memory serves me right, one of the last to develope. If I’d been in the room while it had happened, I would have advised him to give her a time out for them both to calm down and then have a mug of hot chocolate together and talk it through. Believe it or not, she may actually have been scared by her own reaction just as toddlers can scare themselves during temper tantrum.

- MiB on October 11th, 2009

I have to agree with the majority of posters here. That kind of behavior is not okay. What if he had of kicked her back? Then we would be screaming child abuse. They need to get a handle on this type of behavior before it becomes more serious. I’m from the South and even though my parents were born and raised on the East Coast respect was demanded and given. Period.

- I♥CBB on November 18th, 2009