Michael Sheen worried how youth can get into acting

Sheen spoke about his experience attending youth theatre in Port Talbot

Hollywood actor Michael Sheen has said he is worried about how tough it is for young people to get into acting.

He discussed his experience attending youth theatre where he grew up in Port Talbot and said many of the opportunities he had as a young person "have gone".

"I've realised as time has gone on how important it is to see where you come from represented on the world stage, and to know that it's possible," he said.

The actor made the comments while in conversation with Jane Tranter, chief executive of Bad Wolf, at the Edinburgh Fringe TV Festival.

Reflecting on his career and how he got into acting, Sheen said Port Talbot was not currently somewhere you would expect actors to come from.

"I never questioned whether you could be successful as an actor, because [Richard] Burton and [Sir Anthony] Hopkins were and they came from this town," he added.

He added that if young people are relying on their parents, it's "really tough" to move to London.

"That's why it's so important to get stuff out of London and around the country."

Earlier this year, Sheen launched a theatre company called Welsh National Theatre, which is envisioned as separate from but complementary to Theatr Cymru, which was established in 2003 as the Welsh language national company.

National Theatre Wales closed its doors in its current form as a theatre company in December 2024, after funding was withdrawn a year earlier.

On TV, Sheen has starred in series including US period drama Masters Of Sex, sitcom 30 Rock, and fantasy show Good Omens, alongside David Tennant.

He has portrayed a number of real-life public figures including former prime minister Sir Tony Blair in 2006 film The Queen, journalist David Frost in 2008's Frost/Nixon, and the Duke of York in Prime Video mini-series A Very Royal Scandal.

On stage he has played Welsh Labour Party politician Aneurin "Nye" Bevan in the show Nye, which recently finished at the National Theatre.