The New Murrey and Blue blog

Well, this only such-and-such actors can play such-and-such roles has reared its silly head again. I thought the whole point of being an actor was to play (and immerse yourself in) numerous different roles, but now we have Michael Sheen pronouncing that only Welsh actors should play Welsh roles, see here. Eh? Why, pray? Aren’t actors of other nationalities good enough? If that’s it, Mr Sheen is very conceited and arrogant.

I’m very tempted to rearrange his view—”only Welsh actors for Welsh roles”—so that it reads “Welsh actors can only play Welsh roles”. That would limit careers considerably, including Mr Sheen‘s, so I wonder if he’d still be so prejudiced and emphatic! After all, he has gladly played the likes of Kenneth Williams, Chris Tarrant, David Frost, Brian Clough and Tony Blair! Very Welsh roles. Oh, but of course Mr Sheen, being a Welshman, can play anything brilliantly. Nothing is beyond him. Well, there aren’t many two-legged asses around to play Bottom, but I suppose if Bottom were Welsh, Mr Sheen would be at the front of the queue.

As I understand it, his explanation for his view is that no one else can ‘do’ a Welsh accent properly. More arrogance. I’m all for being proud of my heritage (I had a Welsh mother and English father and was born and brought up in Wales) but there’s a difference between that and trumpeting extreme nationalist views no matter what. To me Mr Sheen is an opinionated professional Welsh nationalist, always complaining and voicing extreme opinions. (Why am I irresistibly reminded of a certain South Park royal episode?)

But there is one thing in the above link that startled me for a different reason. I quote: “….[Sheen said] it would be ‘sad’ if non-disabled actors were not allowed to play Richard III, who had radial dysplasia….”  

What? Not only is that a complete contradiction of the such-and-such actors for such-and-such roles mantra, it’s completely untrue. Richard III suffered from scoliosis (i.e. curvature of the spine). There was nothing whatsoever wrong with either of his arms, as his skeleton proves beyond all doubt. It was Shakespeare who popularised the ‘withered’ arm thing.

When I looked a little deeper into Mr Sheen’s assertion, I find that he has made a mistake (good grief!) If you go here you’ll see that an actor who does suffer from radial dysplasia has played the role of the Bard’s Richard III. Tut, tut, Mr Sheen.  

The actor in question is Arthur Hughes, of whom you can read more here.

So please, Mr Sheen, if you’re going to make a song and dance about things, at least get your lyrics right!

The Bard’s Richard III was an invention – the king couldn’t have fought in battle if he’d been that disabled! The real Richard was more as played by Harry Lloyd in The Lost King (see top illustration). But he did have Welsh blood (more than Henry Tudor!) and so I suppose Mr Sheen could, at a pinch, play part of him.