Michael Sheen on His Latest TIFF Premiere, the Art of Preparation and Breaking Dawn Limbo

In spite of everything, these two are in this together after the tragedy occurs. It's like The Defiant Ones; they're outflanking or fleeing the press, trying to find any escape valve from what's happened.

For them and the audience, the entire experience of the film is as a result of their isolation -- because of everything that's around them. It is hard to think of any other situation where that might happen, other than maybe them being bank robbers, like Bonnie and Clyde or whatever. The idea of them being totally isolated and in that pressure cooker all time -- so that when they do get to the motel, something releases... If they weren't fugitives, it would be difficult to keep that there, I suppose.

Maria and I talked about it, and we tried to build up the life of our characters as much as we could with each other and then individually with Shawn -- so that you can at least get these people in the right place to begin with, then wind them up, let them go and see what happens. Because we mostly shot it chronologically, there was very little discussion between me and Maria about what we might do in a scene or anything like that. It was just trying to make sure we started them in the right place and could work off each other. Which, to be honest, is how I felt about most of the things I've done when they've worked very well, whether it's Frost/Nixon or The Queen: You just try to get all the elements in there in the beginning, and then it's all about the other person. I just sit opposite Frank or Helen or Maria or whomever it might be, and I've done my work. You just forget it and go with what they're doing. I think that's when the best work happens. That's when I'm happiest -- rather then, "I'll do this, you do that." Just let it be what it is.

Organically, I guess?

Yeah, something like that. Let the story tell itself. Sometimes, if you haven't done enough work, you can't get out of the way because you're so scared.You haven't done enough work; you don't know what's going on. You don't feel like you have enough ideas; you have to do something. You have to be interesting. Whereas if you do the work, you have the confidence to get out of the way and let the story tell itself.

Is there such a thing as doing too much work?

Oh, definitely. Yeah. God, yeah. Beforehand, you mean? Oh, yes. But only if it becomes something that you start to wear on your sleeve too much. I suppose... no. You can't do too much work. It's just the relationship to the work you have and the kind of work you do. When I did things like Damned United or whatever, I spent months and months and months working on [Brian Clough]. Not working on how I was going to do scenes or whatever, but just understanding who this man is or trying to find the elements of what was there. Then you've got this very broad palette to draw from. Then, when I'm there in the moment, I don't have to be going away and thinking, "What would he do in this moment?" I want to be like I'm just being myself. Because I've done all that work, it just feels like improvising.

That's funny, because David Frost's downfall in his first interview with Nixon was the agenda he developed from preparing the wrong way.

I guess it's exactly the same for an interviewer, whoever you might be. If you come into something with no preparation at all, then you can just go with what's happening in front of you, but it's probably going to be fairly aimless. There's not going to be any underlying structure informing it. But if you overprepare, it can't ever catch fire. It can't come alive. It's exactly the same balance for acting. In the moment of a scene, I don't want to be thinking about what I'm going to do. I just want to be able to react in the moment. But that's not enough: I need to react in the moment as the character, not as me. That fusing of the character with yourself has to already have happened. There's design, and there's spontaneity.

And now I'll showcase my own lack of imagination by asking about Twilight. We've asked some of the principals here and there how they're feeling about it coming to a close, and with Breaking Dawn on the way, I was wondering about your take.

I think it's a very different experience for me than it's been for a lot of people. I've had very little to do with it, to be honest. I've done one film!

You're part of the culture, though, and--

I'm part of the culture, but in terms of what will it mean to me when it's over? Very little.

Are you not involved with the last two?

Yeah. I mean, hopefully that's going to happen. And it might be different then. But it's totally different for Rob and Taylor and Kristen and Ashley and everyone. They've gone through the whole thing. It's changed their lives completely. Ultimately I did two weeks on the set and one press junket and the premiere. And it was fantastic. I loved being a part of it. It's such a delight that my daughter is into it. I've loved being a part of it so far. It hasn't had the same impact for me; maybe by the time Breaking Dawn comes around, it will have.

I only ask because you've been reported to be attached.

Well, my character is in it. It's not done and dusted yet or whatever. But I'm hoping.

So you're not actually confirmed?

Not yet, no.

Hmm. Well, I hope that works out.

Me too!

In other news, Tony Blair was in the news recently for having attributed some of Peter Morgan's words and thoughts to himself. Did you hear about that?

Yeah! Weirdly, when I was doing the research for The Special Relationship, and lot of documentaries had come out since I did the research for The Queen -- because obviously he had stopped being prime minister. So I was watching this one interview with him, and the interviewer said, "Is it true that when you went to meet the queen on your first day of premiership, you got the etiquette wrong? You kissed her hand, and you weren't supposed to?" You see Blair kind of being evasive, and he's not sure what to say. Eventually he says, "Well, what do they do in the film?" As in, that's what happened. So it was interesting: He says he's never watched the film, so how he can use the evidence of that is anybody's guess. But also, that he was using what we did to answer questions. So he's really only gone one step further to actually quote from the film. But you know, Peter has a very uncanny ability to get close to what happened, so I wouldn't be surprised.

[Top photo of Michael Sheen at TIFF's Beautiful Boy premiere: Toby Canham/Getty Images]

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