‘Twilight’: Michael Sheen’s Daughter Is the Reason He Took the Role
Michael Sheen may not be the first actor most people think of when it comes to the Twilight franchise. Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, the two young stars of the movies, had their careers made thanks to the popular vampire films. But Sheen was a big part of the casts. Diehard fans will recognize him as Aro, the leader of the Volturi. His character made him a lot of fans, maybe even too many. But he almost didn’t take the role.
Michael Sheen took the role of Aro because his daughter loved ‘Twilight’
The Volturi are essentially a kind of vampire government in Twilight. Aro and his gang of bloodsuckers keep order among the vampires, no matter where in the world they are. Part of Aro’s duties is to make sure humans don’t uncover the existence of the vampires. That’s what leads him to rip the head off of another vampire in the first scene. Aro is just keeping order, and Sheen gets that. It’s clear that Sheen grew to appreciate the character of Aro, even though he almost didn’t take the role.
Sheen just wasn’t interested in Twilight, but his daughter, Lily, who he shares with Kate Beckinsale, had other ideas. According to Sheen, “I was mainly excited about it because I knew I would make my daughter very happy. That was the main reason, and then I read the books and I really enjoyed them. I didn’t think I was going to, but I really did.” It could be that Sheen connected with Aro because it wasn’t his first time playing a supernatural creature. He played a werewolf in Underworld, and in some ways, the part of Aro was easier.
Michael Sheen wishes the Volturi had fangs
When Sheen played a werewolf, he had to use huge contact lenses that totally changed the color of his whole eye, including the whites of the eye. In comparison, his costume for Aro was a lot easier. The Volturi have red eyes, so Sheen had to wear red contacts. In fact, most of the cast had to wear color contacts. Even Stewart wore brown contacts to make her eyes match the description of Bella in the book.
But Sheen wished his Aro getup could have included more than just red contacts. He really wanted to be a fanged vampire. According to Sheen, however, the wardrobe for a vampire is still preferable to a werewolf. “The tailoring is so much better as a vampire although we don’t have fangs, do we?”
Michael Sheen’s daughter has at least one picture of him on her wall
Sheen’s daughter Lily, who was 10 when he first appeared in the Twilight franchise, has a lot of posters from the movie. Unfortunately for Sheen, most of them aren’t of him. She has at least one, however, although Sheen isn’t sure of her motives. “My daughter has pictures from Twilight and New Moon everywhere in her bedroom. I have just this little picture – and I think she only did it out of pity.”
Lily may have only one little picture of Sheen up in her room, but thousands of fans have something better. Aro has his own action figure, modeled after Sheen himself. He has one at home, although it’s not for Lily to play with. It’s only for Sheen. The Aro doll isn’t his first action figure. There was a toy made of Sheen’s Underworld character, too. According to Sheen, the two action figures spend a lot of time together on his shelf.
