Michael Sheen's penguin impersonations and more
British actor Michael Sheen, who portrays Tony Blair in the Oscar-nominated movie The Queen, participated in a Q&A with Who Magazine last month, where he talked about his daughter Lily, 8, and why he punk’d his ex Kate Beckinsale. Here are the highlights:
- Michael splits his time between London, where he lives, and Los Angeles, where Kate and Lily reside with Kate’s husband, director Len Wiseman. Although he says he would never move to L.A. because "the rest of my life" is in England, Michael tries to visit as often as possible. "Unlike most actors, I’m not there for the films but for my daughter."
- There are no hard feelings between Kate and Michael, who were together from 1995-2003. The two remain very close, so much so that Michael, 38, had no qualms when Ashton Kutcher approached him to punk her.
Kate is a huge practical joker, so I said absolutely. I didn’t want anything that would upset her in the wrong way or involve my daughter though. It was the most stressful experience ever, because it’s so difficult to plan and you have to do it in secret. But afterwards we really laughed and Kate really enjoyed it in retrospect. I live in dread of her getting me back because she loves practical jokes. I absolutely hate them.
- One thing Michael has in common with Ashton is that he has a good relationship with Len, similar to the one Ashton has with Bruce Willis. Incidentally, Len is currently directing Bruce in the next Die Hard sequel, Live Free or Die Hard. "It’s great. The relationship that Kate, Len, Kate’s husband, and I have is really good and we’re really good friends."
- Michael is developing a knack for impressions ever since Lily started requesting her father to become characters she saw in films or read in books.
Because she’s a totally non-judgmental audience, I felt confident enough to have a go at them. I got better and better at doing it and that’s probably what’s behind all these real life characters that I’m playing now. The last thing she really loved was Happy Feet so I’m going to have to study the penguins.
- The Underworld film series are very special to the family – Kate and Michael starred in the movies, directed by Len, which is how the couple met, and Lily played the young Selene, Kate’s character, in the second one.
It’s lovely that there’s one film that she, her mother and I are all in at the same time. That’s a nice family memento to have for years to come. Whether she carries on doing stuff, I don’t know. She says she wants to be a pop star and a writer so we’ll see what happens with that.
Source: Who
