Michael Sheen has shrugged off some of the naysayers who have criticised his recent million-pound giveaway.
The Emmy-nominated actor recently put up £100,000 of his own money to buy and subsequently cancel £1 million worth of debt owed by around 900 people in South Wales, where he originally hails from, and now resides.
His process was also documented for the one-off Channel 4 show Michael Sheen’s Secret Million Pound Giveaway, airing on Monday night.
In the lead-up to the broadcast, Michael gave an interview to The Guardian in which he spoke about why he chose to be so public about giving away the substantial amount of money that he has.
He explained: “I’ve heard people say, ‘He can’t be that selfless, because he’s letting everyone know he’s doing it.’ That’s something I had to think about, and I made a conscious choice.”
Michael continued: “I never feel like it’s about me – mainly it’s about working with other people or highlighting what they do. I’m not doing it because I want people to think I’m great; I want us to be able to imagine an alternative to this, because this doesn’t work.
“And in my own little way, I’m trying to create my own alternative. It doesn’t have to be the way it is.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Michael said it was important to him that the money he gave away be his own, as this “shows that you’re serious about what you’re doing, but it also encourages other people to take that step”.
Gareth Iwan Jones/Channel 4
Michael’s documentary aims to highlight how some banks, lenders and other financial organisations actually benefit from vulnerable members of society landing themselves in debts that they are unable to pay off.
Speaking to BBC News last week, Michael claimed that he didn’t have £100K of his own money to “throw around”, and therefore he was heavily focussed on the “effectiveness” of his project.
The Guardian’s interview also references Michael’s efforts to bring the Homeless World Cup to South Wales in 2019, which led to him selling his homes in both California and the UK to pay for the event, when £2 million of funding fell through at the last minute.
“You either commit to this stuff or you don’t,” he told Radio 5 Live at the time, claiming he had initially hoped to scale back his acting work, but would have to “work a bit more” than he’d hoped to in order to pay for the sporting event.
He has since appeared in Good Omens, The Sandman, Quiz, Vardy v Rooney: A Courtroom Drama, A Very Royal Scandal and the Sky panel show There’s Something About Movies, as well as the sitcom Staged, which he also co-produced alongside David Tennant.
Michael Sheen’s Secret Million Pound Giveaway will air on Monday night at 9pm on Channel 4.
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