Michael Sheen: Playing Aro

Welsh actor Michael Sheen is not new to the supernatural genre. He has played a werewolf before and will take part in the Tim Burton adaptation of Alice in Wonderland next year. But this fall, he will play a vampire leader who relishes killing his own kind.

“I think a good story’s a good story and a good character’s a good character,” Sheen said. “There are things that I’ve done . . . especially, ‘The Queen’ and ‘Frost/Nixon,’ they just happen to be in the world of politics. The thing that draws me to them is they’re compelling stories. . . It doesn’t matter to me if they’re in the world of politics or in the ‘Twilight’ world of vampires.”

Sheen was introduced to the world of Twilight through his daughter Lily. He is particularly fond of Aro’s character and is keen to impress the fans most especially his daughter.

“I thought it would be exciting to play a vampire instead of a werewolf, go across to the other side of the tracks,” he said with a red-lipped grin. “I’ve never played a character who delights in his own evil before.”

“People have such passionate feelings about the books as I know through my daughter — there’s nothing more terrifying in some ways than the passions of teenage girls,” he said, adding that it will be impossible for him to embody every reader’s notions about Aro. “I remember my daughter said, ‘Aro is bald.’ Clearly he’s not, but that’s her picture of him. Maybe she was thinking of Nosferatu.”

jediyoda