USA: Michael Sheen speaks about his role as famed English football manager Brian Clough in "The Damned United" ahead of it's U.S. release

Record ID: 336219

  • Title: USA: Michael Sheen speaks about his role as famed English football manager Brian Clough in "The Damned United" ahead of it's U.S. release
  • Date: 25th September 2009
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 21, 2009) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) MICHAEL SHEEN, SAYING: "My team when I was a kid was Liverpool. In fact it was the Liverpool team that appears in the film, so that was quite weird to be walking out at Wembley with the team that were my heroes as a kid, walking next to me."
  • Embargoed: 10th October 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVADAXSSZVMSLQMAI5AL47W9D3G
  • Story Text: Michael Sheen takes on the role of famed English football coach, Brian Clough in new drama, "The Damned United".
    "The Damned United" tells the story of famed English football manager Brian Clough and his doomed 44 day stint as the manager of the reigning league champions in 1974, Leeds United.
    Michael Sheen, who played Tony Blair ("The Deal," "The Queen") and David Frost ("Frost/Nixon"), now plays the mercurial, outspoken English football striker-turned-celebrated manager.
    Sheen says he remembers Clough as a larger than life personality when he was growing up.
    "Clough had been such a huge figure when I was growing up, certainly," said Sheen. "For everyone in Britain really. Way beyond football or sports, he was just this amazing character in British culture and life."
    The screenplay, based on a 2006 fact-based novel by David Peace, imagines an epiphany of sorts took place with Clough's failure at Leeds.
    Prolific English screenwriter Peter Morgan clearly is attracted to duels between historical figures. "The Damned United" is no exception. However, here the personalities are less familiar to North American audiences because they dwell within the storied ranks of English football.
    Although American knowledge of English football history may be limited, an audience can know little about soccer and appreciate the clash of personalities depicted in the film.
    "Well it depends on how you tell the story, doesn't it," said Sheen. "If you talk about professional rivalry, or if you talk about a marriage that goes wrong, or if you talk about how someone can do something that they know is going to be bad for them, they know is going to mess things up but can't help themselves doing it. And you talk about the characters and their characteristics and their relationships, then I think anyone can relate to that."
    "United" did so-so business in the U.K. in the spring. Sony Pictures Classics is launching the film in Los Angeles and New York on October 9.
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