Michael Sheen gained some insight as to what it’s like to be a member of the royal family while filming his latest project, but can never see himself living as an actual royal.
In a recent interview with People, Sheen discussed his latest project, “A Very Royal Scandal.” He portrays the disgraced Prince Andrew in the days leading up to his interview on “Newsnight” with Emily Maitlis, in which he talked about his friendship with Jeffery Epstein.
While preparing for the role, Sheen did extensive research in order to get into the mindset of a royal, which ultimately led him to the conclusion that he “absolutely” would never want to be a member of the royal family.
“No. The fairytale image of it seems so extraordinary – living in palaces and having everything you want and servants and all that kind of stuff,” he said. “But the reality seems to be that there are far more restrictions than there are freedoms. No amount of wealth or assets or privilege can make up for not being able to have basic sort of freedoms that a lot of us take for granted. So no, I would not want to have that life.”
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Sheen realized being royal isn’t all it’s cracked up to be when preparing to play Prince Andrew in “A Very Royal Scandal.” (Hoda Davaine/Dave Benett/Getty Images)
This was Sheen’s first time playing a royal on screen, and despite having played British Prime Minister Tony Blair in two separate projects, including 2010’s “The Special Relationship” and 2006’s “The Queen,” there are still things he had to learn about the way things work within the monarchy.
“The reality seems to be that there are far more restrictions than there are freedoms. No amount of wealth or assets or privilege can make up for not being able to have basic sort of freedoms that a lot of us take for granted. So no, I would not want to have that life.”
One of the biggest things he learned was that the royals and the media have a special relationship with one another, saying, “I’d always quite naively imagined that the media and the royal family were quite separate institutions.”
“But then it became clear that there’s all these sort of negotiations that go on between them, and there’s a kind of, you know, ‘Well, if you do this, then we’ll do that. And if you give us this interview, we’ll hide this thing.’ You know, it’s a real – there are deals being done all the time between the two institutions, which I found fascinating, and I didn’t realize that. That was a big surprise,” he said.
This relationship with the media is on full display in “A Very Royal Scandal.” The 2019 interview the film is based on featured Prince Andrew as he tried to defend himself against allegations he slept with an underage girl trafficked by Epstein.
The interview Prince Andrew gave on “Newsnight” did more harm than good for his reputation. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
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Prince Andrew is often referred to as having been defensive throughout the interview, and even once said he doesn’t regret forming a friendship with Epstein, because the opportunities that came from it “were actually very useful.”
Throughout his research into the life of Andrew, Sheen watched many other interviews the prince participated in, one of which stood out to him due to a particularly “startling” laugh he felt was unusually “exposed” for a member of the royal family.
“For the royal family, who are usually so controlled, trying to keep things very much under the surface, it was a moment of startling, shocking emotion – even if it was just a laugh,” he told People. “But there was something about it that I thought was quite telling, so that stayed with me.”
Although there is plenty of material available to study in order to nail down the character when playing Prince Andrew, Sheen explained it was more difficult than he expected, as it’s hard to know what to believe.
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Sheen found it hard to know what to believe when it came to the research involved in playing Prince Andrew. (Hoda Davaine/Dave Benett/Getty Images; Karwai Tang/WireImage)
“One of the big challenges with playing Prince Andrew compared to a lot of the people I’ve played is it’s a hall of mirrors with Prince Andrew,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in September.Â
He continued, “The royal family is so controlled with what gets out. So you’ve got, on the one hand, very stage-managed photographs and interviews and personal appearances, and then you’ve got, gossip and rumor and, ‘The person who used to be security guard said…’ And you don’t know what people’s agendas are.”