Michael Sheen Quotes

In Hollywood, you've got a hundred people on set, and shooting the sex scene you're wearing nude-toned underwear and tape on your nipples. Nothing is going beyond where you want it to go.

Nothing can prep you for eight years of sex scenes in one day.

No, we didn't shoot... in the ones that I did there were hardly any sex... there were suggestions of sex scenes but we never actually shot a sex scene as such.

When you go and you tell a studio and that it's an ensemble, that doesn't mean a lot to them. But, my hats off to Paramount and Warner Brothers, because when we told them that these were the kinds of people that we want to get, across the board, they were unbelieveably enthusiastic about it.

See, the first thing about actors is, you're just trying to get a job; and you audition and audition and you finally get them. And you still consider yourself an auditioning actor. I auditioned for One Fine Day, I wasn't offered that. So you're still in that 'Hey, I'm just trying to get a job' thing. Then, you get to the point where, if you decide to do it, then they'll make the film. That's a different kind of responsibility, and it usually takes a couple of films to catch up. And then you have to actually pay attention to the kind of films that you're making.

Any filmmaker, big directors, and I'm not dropping any names - I actually have couple names I want to say, but I will not - we have a ratio. Each thing you repeat, my ratio is one to four.Actually some people are ratio one to 34. I know couple directors, big directors, they are just shooting over and over.

In the horror genre, unfortunately you sometimes have the studio tell you, "No, go with more unknown people because it's a scary movie," and I disagree.

Everything in The Room, we did it the same way the big studios do it. The only difference is the budget and the actors. We put an ad in Back Stage West and in return we got almost 8,000 headshots from people who wanted to be in the film. We then do a process of selection and a rehearsal process after they are selected. The process of audition is very time consuming.

I had never met an actress or an actor when I thought that I might like to be one. I had never been around people in show business or from the theater or from movies or anything. And I say that as an encouragement, I don't know some people who want to be doing what I'm doing or be involved in film. You don't have to be from it to get interested and get involved. I certainly wasn't.

Action is pretty boring to do as an actor. Action and sex scenes are silly because it's all faking.

When filmmakers are kept from making films, there's a lot of different reasons why. Sometimes you work on a film and cast it and do all the work and can be just a month away from shooting, and all of a sudden, the whole thing goes up in smoke. But I do think the advent of a digital revolution is going to provide people with opportunities to make films that they never would have had before. I think you can do some pretty credible stuff now with very, very little money. Which I think is great for young filmmakers.

The producers had seen "In a World..." and that's where they found me out and consequently sought me out for this role [in Man up].

My understanding of the way sex scenes work is that you're surrounded by crew, and you're cold, and you have to do it eight times 'cause they didn't get the lighting. It doesn't sound pleasant, but you think that actors actually enjoy it?

No matter what you're doing, if you're trying to make a movie, you need to be working with people that are really good and who make you better.

There are certain people that when they ask you to do a film, you just say, "Where and when?"

Even a low-budget film costs way more money than a high-priced record. So, it's mo' money, mo' problems. When you have more money, it just creates more people trying to get involved and you have more trouble.

I've made a couple of movies in the jungle, and I don't want to go back to the jungle.

There are a lot of things going into making a movie. So many things can go wrong. So many people that need to show up and bring their "A" game. If one thing is out of place, the whole movie can fall apart.

You need names to get the movie made.

Basically, actors arrive in a bubble. They have a little sealed bubble around them and it's basically [comprised of] their agents, their last film, their next film, their press agent, and their per diems - all these things, they cocoon themselves with and you have to puncture that bubble on each of them to make them be in your film.

The people who work in the fashion industry and the people who work in the film industry have a lot in common. They're very creative. Their eye is very aesthetic.

Movies principally require the best of everybody, all at the same time, being the best they can be. Not just like five people being the best they've ever been, and 10 people not being the best they could be. It's like if everybody is either doing their greatest work, or the whole house of cards falls apart.

We've got a great team of editors, that's true. And we work hard so that when we do the couple of takes that they're good takes hopefully. Not always, that's for sure; there are lots of bad ones, but we try to work hard. Clint Eastwood doesn't more than one or two takes in his films. And he makes some good films.

I've had the chance to work with some really good filmmakers. It's put me in a situation where I've been surrounded by great actors, and for me it's been a lot about standing in the background and watching people work.

Of course, it's always complicated to shoot a sex scene.