W e all know robots are not to be trusted in the movies. There is Bishop in Alien and the many Terminators coming from the future to annihilate the leader of the revolution, John Connor and his mum, Sarah. Even groovy Austin Powers’ one true love, Vanessa Kensington, turns out to be a fem bot out to kill him and when Thalaivar played a robot in Enthiran , he too becomes self-aware and turns against his maker.
“Audience are suspicious of the robot character,” says Michael Sheen who plays Arthur, a robot bartender in Passengers , which opens on January 6. “It was fun to play with that,” the award- winning actor says over the phone from Los Angeles.
Passengers is a sci-fi romance starring Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt as the only ones awake on a spaceship carrying 5,259 passengers, thanks to a malfunctioning sleep chamber on it. Talking of preparing for his role, the 47-year-old says, “It was a physical challenge. I was strapped to a machine and it took lot of practice to work with it. Then there were the tools of the trade. I had to be the perfect bartender. I also had to be in the background and not take away from Chris and Jen. I aimed for fluid, controlled movements.” An actor’s face is a calling card. On reconciling that with playing a robot, that doesn’t have any expressions, Michael said, “The robot, Arthur, is programmed to be as human as possible. His awareness, the striving and struggle to do so I feel is the essence of being human.”
Talking about how he got attached to the project, Michael said, “When I got sent the script, I was surprised as it is rare that a big, massive, expensive science fiction movie could also be so intimate and small.”
Michael said he wanted to collaborate with director Morten Tyldum. “I was impressed with his work in The Imitation Game and Head Hunters . I was excited to work with him.” Of his co-stars he commented, “Jen and Chris’s strength is their playfulness.”
Michael has wowed theatre audiences with incandescent performances whether it is in Hamlet or Look Back in Anger and has been quoted as saying he is “slightly more at home” on stage. However responding to a question of which he prefers, The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art-trained actor says, “Each medium I work in has different challenges. Theatre is a different way of life. I have a daughter who is going to college and the commitment theatre demands is not conducive to family life. But I love the live audience of theatre and would not like to choose one over the other.”
On film Michael has been equally comfortable playing real people from former British Prime Minister Tony Blair ( The Deal, The Queen and The Special Relationship ) to broadcaster David Frost ( Frost/Nixon ) or a werewolf in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans and a mind-reading vampire in The Twilight Saga: New Moon . “I believe it is called acting,” Michael says with a laugh. “I enjoy the variety, the challenge. Big scale, small scale, TV, stage, radio… it opens up avenues.”
Batting for genre fiction Michael says, “I do not have a favourite, but enjoy reading science fiction and fantasy — Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Philip K. Dick, I enjoy them all. There is a lot of snobbishness and ignorance attached to genre fiction. The best of this kind of fiction works within the genre, promises escapism but dislocates our minds to reveal a different perspective. Many of Shakespeare’s plays such as The Tempest or A Midsummer Night’s Dream look at life through the prism of fantasy. The classic science fiction movie, Forbidden Planet is actually based on The Tempest .”
