Michael Sheen

Welsh character actor star of, amongst other things, Midnight In Paris, Resistance, and Tinker Bell And The Great Fairy Rescue. He also is the linchpin of the Underworld and Twiglet franchises. Sheen is however best known for his ability to portray iconic figures from recent British history - playing David Frost in Frost/Nixon, Brian Clough in The Damned United and Tony Blair in The Queen.

Sheen also appears in Blood Diamond, the film which inadvertently led to the coining of the very word Wittertainment and so gets a reference here.

In a bizarre scheduling coincidence, both Frost/Nixon and Underwhelmed: Rise Of The Lychees came out in the UK at the same time, prompting Sheen to muse in an interview with Simon Mayo what the headline for reviewers of the two films would be: his suggestion was Frost Bites. In the same interview, Sheen revealed he was a huge fan of the podcast, and mused at how strange it would be to listen to a review of his films, especially if the review was harsh. Simon pointed out that some actors have wanted to punch Mark for what he has said about their films, but Sheen said that he just wanted "to give him a lovely hug and a tickle under the chin."

Mark Kermode was rather taken with Sheen's appearance in Rise Of The Lychees, in which Sheen wears fabulous leather trousers and runs around with his shirt off - although Mark disliked the film itself, not least because he had to rush to pay to watch it as there was no press screening. Regarding Frost/Nixon, however, Mark felt that Frank Langella (who was nominated for an Oscar) unfairly received all the plaudits, when Sheen was just as good. (He later added that a similar thing had happened with The Queen, which he felt should have been titled The Queen And Mr Blair).

Sheen spoke at length to Wittertainment about his approach to acting the role of David Frost, and the key to emulating a famous figure on screen - that one gets the iconic bit out of the way at the start (in this case, Frost's "hello, good evening and welcome") and then dials it down for the rest of the performance.