Posts Tagged ‘The Special Relationship’

The official list of nominations for the 2011 Philips British Academy Television Awards, which takes place on Sunday 22 May, has been announced today.

The Special Relationship, which was shown on BBC 2 last September, has been nominated in the Best Single Drama. It is up against Eric and Ernie, I Am Slave and The Road To Coronation Street.

For the full list of nominations, please visit BAFTA’s site HERE.

Okay – can someone explain to me why Michael Sheen keeps getting overlooked in favour of his co-stars when it comes to handing out awards?

The nominations have just been announced for the 68th Golden Globes, and while I am happy that ‘The Special Relationship’ got 2 nominations, neither were for Michael. One for Denis Quaid in BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION, and one for Hope Davis for BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION.

If the committee consider Denis Quaid’s role as LEAD, then logic dictates they must consider Michael Sheen’s performance as Tony Blair as the a supporting role – then where was his name in that category?

For anyone that may be interested in blowing raspberries at the television, the Golden Globes will be televised on 16 January 2011.

Stuck for ideas on what to buy your loved ones this Christmas?Why not share the Michael Sheen love, and buy them something Sheen-related and improve the family’s viewing this festive season!

For Dad:

	A hilarious look at the most entertaining football bosses of all time. Fresh from his critically acclaimed portrayal of the legendary Brian Clough in The Damned United, Michael Sheen presents this highly entertaining guide to that most thankless of jobs – the football manager.  On DVD
	Based on the best-selling book of the same name, The Damned United is the story of one of Britain’s finest ever football managers, Brian Clough, and his curtailed 44-day reign at the helm of Leeds United.  On DVD Also available on BluRay

For Mum:

Nice guy Colin is everybody’s pal. By day, he runs a corner store. At night, he heads to the pub to play darts and that’s pretty much his life. His wife, Sandra has never been very faithful, but when she runs off with local policeman and fellow darts enthusiast Geoff, Colin realizes that he needs her and takes off to Blackpool on a moped in order to win her back.  On DVD

For three years after being forced from office, Nixon remained silent. But in summer 1977, the steely, cunning former commander-in-chief agreed to sit down for one all-inclusive interview to confront the questions of his time in office and the Watergate scandal that ended his presidency. Nixon surprised everyone in selecting Frost as his televised confessor, intending to easily outfox the breezy British showman and secure a place in the hearts and minds of Americans.  On DVD Also available on BluRay

For Sister:

	Bella Swan is left devastated by the abrupt departure of her vampire love, Edward Cullen, but her spirit is rekindled by her growing friendship with Jacob Black. Suddenly she finds herself drawn into the world of werewolves, the ancestral enemies of the vampires, and finds her loyalties tested.  On BluRay Also available on DVD
	An imaginative new twist on one of the most beloved stories of all time. Alice, now 19 years old, returns to the whimsical world she first entered as a child and embarks on a journey to discover her true destiny. This Wonderland is a world beyond your imagination and unlike anything you’ve seen before.  On DVD Also available on BluRay

For Brother:

	A powerful new look at the human side of iconic world leaders. In 1993, Tony Blair was a rising young star in British politics. Three years later he ran for Prime Minister and began a “special relationship” with U.S. President Bill Clinton that endured through triumph, conflict and personal scandal.  On DVD Also available on BluRay
	Somewhere in the United States, three nuclear weapons are about to detonate. There are only 2 days to find them and only one man knows where they are. To FBI agent Brody’s surprise, the terrorist is already in their hands and a mysterious interrogator named H, is charged with getting the crucial information by all means necessary.  On DVD Also available on BluRay

The Kids:

What would you do if you met a fairy? Witness the historic moment when Tinker Bell first meets a human being, and it’s not who you think. Years before meeting Wendy and the Lost Boys, Tinker Bell met Lizzy, a little girl with a steadfast belief in the power of pixie dust and the magic land of fairies.  On BluRay Also available on DVD

And for yourself?

	Born of a captive Lycan, Viktor keeps Lucian as a pet. Lucian grows up with the ability to change between human and wolf.  Viktor learns of a forbidden romance between Lucian and his daughter and takes drastic steps to prevent the union. Lucian, in retaliation, leads a Lycan slave revolt.  On BluRay Also available on DVD
	Michael Sheen stars as one of two brothers on a stag night in Donegal where they last spent a holiday 16 years ago. Here old passions and love are reignited amidst the unlikely mix of an ex-local gun runner, a suspicious Garda and the British Army. This begins a sequence of misunderstandings and mishaps with hilarious consequences.  On DVD

The small amount of commission this site earns through the sales made from these links, those on the project pages  and our Amazon store, goes towards the total being saved up which will be donated to the NSPCC after all the year’s sales have been calculated. Between us, we have collected over £66 pounds worth this year – so let’s see if we can get it to £100 this year.

You can also order ANYTHING from Amazon, and still contribute to our fund raising.

First, log into your account on Amazon. Browse through and select the items you want to order and add them to your ‘WishList’. Then go to the site, and click on our Amazon button on the menu. You will notice that in the bottom right of the Amazon shop it displays your WishList. Select the items you want and order, then checkout in the usual manner.

For more information, please see the Charity page for details LINK

I have added 378 screencaps of Michael Sheen as Tony Blair in The Special Relationship to the Gallery.

Please click on the thumbnails below.

AOLtv have published a Q&A with Michael Sheen about The Special Relationship. Very similar to the other interviews we have seen so far, but interesting none the less. You can read it below, or online HERE.

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Michael Sheen stars as Tony Blair in The Special Relationship, which can be seen on BBC One [actually, it is BBC2 - they got this wrong!] on Saturday September 18.

It’s the third time the Newport-born actor has played the former Prime Minister in an adaptation of a Peter Morgan script. He first donned the famous Cheshire-cat grin in The Deal, which charted the alleged pact between Blair and Gordon Brown about who would run for leader of the Labour party. The second time was in The Queen, which chronicled the immediate aftermath of Princess Diana’s death.

This time around, we see him heading off to America to meet then-President Bill Clinton.

We caught up with 41-year-old Michael, star of The Damned United, Fatabulosa, Frost/Nixon and Twilight: New Moon, to find out more.

Tony Blair again, then, Michael. Do you look forward to playing him?

No. To be honest I don’t look forward to anything job-wise. I get dread, especially with the ‘real’ people, and I start working so far ahead of time that I don’t have any pressure. That’s the bit I enjoy; the very first bit when I start to dip my toes into someone’s life and with Tony Blair, because I’ve got some form, some history there, it gives me a false sense of security I think that I know a bit about him, but then it’s always the same the closer I get to filming. I panic.

What is The Special Relationship about? And why isn’t it about Blair and Iraq?

People always anticipated that the next Blair programme Peter and I would do would be about Iraq, but it’s about Bill Clinton. I think we both felt the more interesting story, from Blair’s point of view about Iraq, is not during Iraq itself, it’s what went into the choices he made about going into Iraq. The story is about him and Clinton specifically but more about him and America. This story covers his relationship with America and starts form the first time he went to there to speak with people from the Clinton administration, before he was Prime Minister of Britain.

We see him very much a junior person and it follows all the way through to when Clinton gave him his seal of approval before the election. Clinton is clearly a superstar heavyweight. It’s like Star Wars where you’ve got Obi Wan, which in The Deal was Brown and in this is Clinton and the young Jedi, Blair, who becomes the master. We see how Blair begins to understand that special relationship and how he can use that to work for him for Northern Ireland and Kosovo.

Have you met Tony Blair?

I met him in between The Queen and this film, and that made a big difference even though I didn’t speak to him for that long. I was in the same room as him for an evening and just got to kind of smell him, like an animal. I see him and think ‘Oh that’s how you walk through a door,’ you know? You just kind of get a vibe off someone.

How did that meeting go?

Immediately someone said to him ‘So what do you think of the films Tony?’ and he said he hadn’t seen them. I can understand why he says that because if he says he’s seen them everyone will ask what he made of them, and it’d be endless. But he clearly had a pretty good working knowledge of each film, he’s watched it a lot and interestingly doing the research for this one, obviously a lot of stuff has come out since he gave up being Prime Minister.

In one of the interviews I saw recenly the interviewer said ‘When you met the Queen for the first time, you got down on your knee and kissed her hand and you weren’t supposed to do that.’ He sort of ummed and aahhed and said ‘Well what do they do in the film?’ so he’s now using my performance to answer questions about his own life, which is a very strange reversal of things.

Where did you meet him?

I was at a do in New York, as was Rupert Murdoch’s wife Wendy. When she realised I’d played him she said, ‘Oh we’re having a dinner for Tony next week in LA, you must come.’ I thought ‘Must I?’ but then I realised it would involve going to Rupert Murdoch’s house which would be interesting on its own. It was extraordinary. And the Murdoch’s house is very nice, by the way.

What was his reaction upon seeing you?

When I first walked in we were introduced to one another, and for a man who clearly likes to put people at their ease and be charming, it was interesting to see him on the one hand wanting to do that and on the other hand clearly thinking, ‘I don’t know what I want to say in front of you.’ There was obviously a wariness with me but at the same time his natural tendency is to be pally. That was quite weird, you could see that playing on his face, and he really looked me up and down.

What have you discovered about him?

There’s a slight primness about him which seems to be the caricature version of him and I fell into that as much as anyone else, but I’ve picked up over the three films that he’s not prim at all. Someone told me if he’s in a hotel suite and there are going to be interviews with a group of people in the one room, he just sort of walks in with nothing on and goes, ‘Oh sorry!’ People who work with him are constantly going ‘Put it away Tony’. He and Cherie have a slightly bohemian lifestyle and that kind of surprised me too.

And he swears a lot so this time I tried to take the edges off and get away from the schoolboy type of thing, which I think has made it better.

Did he know you were making this film when you saw him?

He knew, yeah. He said ‘So you’re doing one about me and Bill are you? I hope you’re not going to make it look like Bill had all the fun?’ To which I said ‘Yes we are.’

Has playing him changed your opinion of him?

Inevitably people ask me what I think about Tony Blair but the more I play him, the less of an opinion I have. I have a more instinctive understanding of who he is, I hope. So more of an opinion of him as a man, but less of an intellectual opinion.

Is it true Dennis Quaid ate McDonalds every day to put on the weight needed to play Clinton?

Yes, I think it is. He is famously in very good shape – Quaid not Clinton – so it took a lot for him to force himself to get fat. And then I saw pictures of him not very long after we’d stopped filming and he was like cut, ripped. I don’t know how he did it.

Was Blair in awe of Clinton?

I think Blair was inspired by Clinton, and Clinton was able to inspire in Blair that it was a moment where they could really change things, that the whole Special Relationship could have a huge effect and they could make a difference, Batman and Robin-like around the world. A lot of his critics describe him as having this cavalier attitude towards certain things, but I think he would describe it as just wanting to get things done, even if it means taking bold steps. There’s something in him that can’t tolerate having his hands tied and I think that manifested itself when he decided he was going to run for the Labour leadership over Brown, and again with Clinton over Kosovo.

Is there anyone else you’re itching to play?

Not really because it doesn’t really work like that. It’s not like I grew up thinking ‘You know the one thing I want to do is play Tony Blair.’ It’s because a particular script came along with a particular group of people attached to it. Peter and Stephen were able to bring a depth. It’s not like I’m looking for real people to play but I do enjoy the process so there’s part of me that’s hoping real people scripts will come my way,

Are there any other moments of meeting Blair you thought you could use in the film?

Not specifically although I did find out he has a pair of silk union jack boxing shorts. Originally it featured in the film where he’s packing to go to Washington but it got cut. Someone who works for him told me. Tony said to me: ‘I hope he didn’t tell you about the shorts.’

Can you see yourself returning to Blair?

I can’t really see it. I know he’s like the proverbial bad penny, he just won’t go away, so never say never but I think three is enough.

A video interview with WalesOnline who caught up with Michael Sheen while he gave his Filmclub talk to Ysgol Pencae School last week, has been added to the Video Gallery.

In this interview he talks mostly about The Special Relationship, and his role as Tony Blair.

Please click on the thumbnail below.