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Role Call<\/a><\/p>\n \n Role Call is a series in which Vulture talks to actors about performances they\u2019ve probably forgotten by now, but we definitely haven\u2019t.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI was being more flamboyant than any showgirl. He was giving it large, really, wasn\u2019t he?\u201d If there\u2019s one person who completely understood the over-the-top assignment of Tron: Legacy, it was Michael Sheen.<\/p>\n By 2009, when the Welsh actor was cast as the nefarious program Castor in the much-hyped follow-up to the 1982 cult classic Tron, Sheen had pretty much already done it all. A massively experienced theater, film, and TV actor, Sheen was also game for the genre trenches, appearing in three Underworld films (as the wonderfully hot-headed werewolf leader Lucian) and the Twilight saga (as unsettling vampire ancient Aro). He knew how to go big, even in a project where elaborate fight scenes and wacky beings compete for our attention. The result was Tron: Legacy\u2019s most perfectly grandiose performance. Sheen struts around in iridescent makeup, high heels, a lit-up bodysuit, and a codpiece as a duplicitous nightclub owner flirting with human interloper Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) before betraying him. The neon-hued, gorgeously lit End of Line club is Castor\u2019s playground in the virtual world of the Grid, and Sheen knew how to make the practical set and the character his own.<\/p>\n He high-steps, air-guitars, and sashays around as a program who abandoned his once-rebellious origins to survive the danger of the Grid. Looking back on the experience now, Sheen is thoughtful about why Tron: Legacy was divisive upon release. Reviews were mixed at the time: Roger Ebert<\/a> gave the film three out of four stars, noting its complicated narrative (\u201cIt also can\u2019t be understood, but looks great\u201d), while other critics were less kind to the de-aged CGI version of Jeff Bridges. (From Manohla Dargis<\/a> at the New York Times: \u201cTwice as much Jeff Bridges does not necessarily mean twice as much entertainment \u2014 bummer.\u201d) But in the years since, as Disney has churned out countless would-be blockbusters with far less distinct visuals<\/a> and barely a fraction of Tron: Legacy\u2019s bombastic flair, fans have embraced the film as the kind of wild-swing sequel that doesn\u2019t really get made anymore. (The film was recently released as a 4K steelbook, and will play in theaters for one night only on October 8.) Sheen wasn\u2019t entirely surprised by the divided reaction then, pointing out that even the first Tron took a while to find its footing \u2014 and when it did, it became a cult classic with undeniable influence on the sci-fi genre. Fifteen years later, the follow-up to Legacy, Tron: Ares, opens in theaters on October 10. Unfortunately, Sheen isn\u2019t in it. But you bet he\u2019s got an idea for what Castor would be up to if the character, and his nightclub, had made it out of Legacy intact.<\/p>\n When I say Tron: Legacy to you, is there a first thought or memory that comes to mind? You\u2019d already done some genre and franchise work \u2014 Underworld, Twilight. How did Tron: Legacy compare to those other franchises? Did it feel smaller, did it feel bigger? Tell me about developing Castor and the rebel leader he once was, Zuse. Do you remember how much time there was between you meeting with Joe and then starting work on the film? There was a codpiece, right? We have to talk about your first scene in the film as Castor. It\u2019s inside the character\u2019s End of Line club, where Daft Punk is playing. What do you remember about filming that? This was a club, my club. I have to dominate it. But it\u2019s your first day. It\u2019s a big film. There\u2019s a lot on your shoulders, and you haven\u2019t really done it yet, so you\u2019re nervous. When you do a scene with a lot of extras, it\u2019s more like a theater scene because everyone\u2019s kind of watching it. They\u2019re in the scene, but it is like having a big audience, and it ups everything, the adrenaline rush. You\u2019ve got to be careful not to tire yourself out too soon. I knew I had to be big and really perform at a high level all day, in a very uncomfortable outfit, so you\u2019ve got to be careful because it can really push you. The kind of character he was allowed me to really go for it. When you take a big swing like that, the danger is that it doesn\u2019t work. But when we weren\u2019t in character, Garrett would laugh at me, and not in a mean way \u2014 like he was enjoying what I was doing. That gave me a lot of confidence. I don\u2019t think Garrett ever knew how nervous I was, and how unsure. Him enjoying what I was doing really made a difference.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also this very funny moment where you call him \u201cpretty miss,\u201d and I remember thinking while rewatching, \u201cIs Castor flirting?\u201d Now I have to ask about literal kicks. You\u2019re almost doing choreography as this character \u2014 slides across the club floor, doing air guitar with your walking stick, those high kicks. How much of that did you figure out on your own? We must discuss the Daft Punk of it all. What do you remember about working with them? This movie had a mixed critical reception at the time but has gone on to become a cult classic. Have you felt this reassessment of the movie as the years have passed? I do think it has been reassessed as a film that was really visually distinct. Castor is implied to die at the end of Tron: Legacy when his nightclub gets blown up, but I\u2019m curious if you had a dream scenario in which you would find Castor in Tron: Ares. Was there anything you took from the Tron: Legacy set?
\n Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photo: Douglas Curran\/Walt Disney Pictures\/Everett Collection\n <\/p>\n
The first Tron was a big film for me when I was growing up. To be part of the Tron world was just thrilling. Playing the video game with Jeff Bridges one day, hearing him tell me stories about when they were making the first film. Probably the thing that I have told people the most about is having lunch with Daft Punk without their helmets. That was pretty great. The costume I wore was incredibly uncomfortable but also kind of amazing. We all pretty much had to be sewn into these outfits. Once you\u2019re in them \u2014 certainly mine, anyway \u2014 you couldn\u2019t sit down. They had to get us these special, like, the thing<\/a> that Hannibal Lecter is rolled around on. When you wanted to rest on set, you had to lean against these things that you got sort of strapped to. That tells you what the costume was like. It had electricity running through it, it was able to light up, it had all these wires. And poor Garrett, I remember during the fight scenes, he got constantly electrocuted. His body was burnt because he was sweating from doing the fight scenes, and this thing was just electrifying him.<\/p>\n
It felt bigger. The Underworld films were on a much lower budget. The first film we shot, it was pretty grotty where we were filming \u2014 Budapest is lovely, but we were filming in some pretty horrible, dank locations in order to make it work for the film. It didn\u2019t feel like you were on some big, glamorous film. And I\u2019d only done one of the Twilight films at that point, and it didn\u2019t feel like a huge film, even though there was the whole Twilight phenomenon. I remember there being one moment on Tron where we were rehearsing something in the club. It was when Garrett first comes to meet me, and we were on the set, me and Joe Kosinski and Garrett, chatting away. I had this cane thing, and I remember almost half-jokingly saying, \u201cWouldn\u2019t it be cool if, as I walked up the steps, if I put my cane down, just tapped it on the floor, and it just stayed there?\u201d Literally about five minutes later, someone comes up and goes, \u201cThat\u2019s been sorted out for you now. There\u2019s been a magnet fitted under the floor and a magnet in your cane. If you just put your cane there, it\u2019ll stay there.\u201d And I was like, \u201cYeah, no, this is a different kind of movie.\u201d [Laughs.] Even when I first met with Joe to talk through the concepts \u2014 I went into the studio in L.A. and he showed me in a screening room some conceptual stuff that had already been made, and he was telling me about the character and all that. I hadn\u2019t done that before. Normally you just get an e-mail or, if you\u2019re lucky, a chat over lunch somewhere. This seemed like a much bigger deal \u2014 and for a film that I needn\u2019t be sold at all. If someone just said \u201cTron,\u201d I was there.<\/p>\n
When Joe showed me an idea of the character, it didn\u2019t look anything like what I ended up looking like. He\u2019s a sort of emcee character, a circus ringmaster. He\u2019s larger than life, and a double character as well. I remember talking with Joe about someone who can shape-shift and change character and take on different personas. Castor is a program, and I thought of him as being a popular-culture mashup program that churns out all these different things. That led me to David Bowie and Ziggy Stardust, and Bowie being a chameleon, and a bit of Chaplin. At one point, I did a bit from Beverly Hills Cop, Bronson Pinchot\u2019s \u201cI make it myself.\u201d<\/a> It\u2019s fun to think, Maybe someone will get this. I do another bit that\u2019s completely David Bowie from \u201cDrive\u2010In Saturday,\u201d<\/a> where he goes, \u201cDrinks for everybody!\u201d I was being more flamboyant than any showgirl. He was giving it large, really, wasn\u2019t he?<\/p>\n
I remember it was a case of me going, \u201cI\u2019ll do it.\u201d It was pretty quick that I knew I was onboard with it. Then we had the first costume fittings, and that was when they were like, \u201cIt\u2019s going to be uncomfortable, and you\u2019re probably going to have to wear some kind of corset. It\u2019s not something that has buttons or zips. We have to sew it on to you at the beginning of the day and then cut you out of it at the end of the day\u201d \u2014 like you\u2019ve been in a car accident.<\/p>\n
Oh yes, there were codpieces, and contact lenses. I had to go and be fitted for these contact lenses. I had contact lenses for the Twilight movies, and I\u2019d also had them for Underworld. The ones on Underworld were horrific. They had to be almost half my entire eyeball at one point. When we came to do Twilight, they were better. Still, they made everything look sort of pink, and I had to constantly be having drops. Coming to Tron, I was like, \u201cOh God, not contact lenses again.\u201d But actually, those ones were pretty easy. They were just to make my eye look like a hexagon, and they weren\u2019t bad at all.<\/p>\n
Your first scene of a film, you learn a lot. It\u2019s like that Mike Tyson quote, \u201cEveryone has a plan until they get punched in the face.\u201d The first time you\u2019re in the outfit and you\u2019re in character on the set with the other actors, you learn so much. You can\u2019t really know what that character is like, what they really sound like, what they really move like, what it really feels like to be there and how they interact, until you\u2019re doing it. I had the set. Whenever you walk onto a soundstage and there\u2019s a big set, I don\u2019t care whether you\u2019ve been acting for years and years and years, it\u2019s always a thrill to go, \u201cWow, welcome to Hollywood.\u201d It looked incredible. Garrett and Jeff Bridges and Olivia Wilde were having to spend a lot of time doing stuff against a green screen and pretending you could see things, whereas I had the full thing. Daft Punk were there, actually playing music, DJ-ing music in the club, for real.<\/p>\n
Absolutely. I had license because of this duality of the character. Because he was actually someone else, with his mask, I could sort of do anything I wanted, go as far as I wanted, because it\u2019s all to distract from the fact that he\u2019s this other person. Picking up on the Bowie thing, and is he straight, is he gay, it was just really interesting. I think I just made that up myself. I don\u2019t think that was in the script, \u201cpretty miss.\u201d And again, Garrett got a kick out of that.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s all me. It\u2019s the Chaplin thing, it\u2019s classic Hollywood. The slide thing, that\u2019s a move from West Side Story. The high kicks and using the cane as a gun, during that, I shout in a sort of German accent, and that is from the original conversation with Joseph where he said Castor was like an emcee. I thought about the emcee in Cabaret, and so there\u2019s a moment where I totally just do Joel Grey<\/a>. The high kick is like a goose step, a little bit, and a showgirl; it starts to go a bit fashy at the end. Joe basically said to me, \u201cMaybe you start dancing to the music. The music\u2019s getting crazier and you\u2019re pumping up the music when the fight\u2019s going. It\u2019s almost like you\u2019re emceeing the fight and getting off on it.\u201d I remember when we did the take, there was nothing else happening. It was just me. It seemed like I was there forever, going further and further and doing more and getting more extreme, and trying to think of every single possible thing I could do with that cane. It was all just made-up, really. I\u2019m amazed that I could do it in that costume. Thinking about it now, I\u2019m amazed it didn\u2019t all just rip and fall off, become a different sort of movie. I sort of didn\u2019t ever want to see the costume again.<\/p>\n
It was thrilling. I was a big fan of Daft Punk, and when Joe told me they were going to do the music, I was so excited. I didn\u2019t think I was going to meet them, necessarily. I thought, Perhaps I\u2019ll meet them at the premiere. They\u2019ll shoot separately somewhere. They\u2019re probably not even going to be in Vancouver. But they were there! That\u2019s what\u2019s so mad \u2014 and yet it looks like it was done as a sort of insert. They were live DJ-ing the music, they were on set acting and being the characters. It gets to lunchtime, and you know, they don\u2019t walk around with their helmets on all the time. But again, I thought, They won\u2019t just be around as themselves. And lo and behold, there I was, sitting at a table on one of those weird catering buses in the middle of a car park, with the two of them. They\u2019re just two French dudes who are very cool. We were sitting and chatting. I had to sort of keep pinching myself, really. You got to pretend, I have lunch with people like Daft Punk every day. The soundtrack is something I listen to still.<\/p>\n
When I watched the first film, I was 10 or 11. I remember my uncle taking me. I remember which cinema it was. I\u2019d always assumed that it had been a big hit \u2014 well, the first film wasn\u2019t a big hit, either. People didn\u2019t really think that much of it, it was too weird, and then slowly over time, it was seen differently and became massively influential. With Tron: Legacy, a bit of me was like, The same thing might happen, and I suppose it did. I thought it was fantastic. I remember thinking that maybe some of the CG stuff, people might pick that apart a little bit, because it was still very early days of making people look younger. That was a big risk, and I remember thinking, That probably doesn\u2019t quite work. But in terms of the overall thing, it\u2019s right up my street, and because of that, it\u2019s probably not going to be for everyone. I wasn\u2019t massively surprised that it divided people. In terms of how it has changed over time, I hope people have come to see it in a more positive light. People will say to me occasionally, \u201cI love Tron: Legacy.\u201d There\u2019s always one.<\/p>\n
Joe as a director has changed over time. But at that time, I think his aesthetic had a kind of a coolness to it, and I don\u2019t mean just as in, \u201cWow, that\u2019s cool, man.\u201d There was something clinical about it that I really liked, and I thought worked really well for this. Like what Daft Punk did with the music \u2014 it was rousing and dramatic, but it was also kind of glacial. And the way things glide through the world of Tron, there is something slightly frightening about it, and alien. I thought Joseph, as a director at the time, really got that. Certainly at the time, that maybe wasn\u2019t\u00a0 going to make it the most commercial. But it\u2019s what I hope allows people to go, \u201cThat is a really terrific piece of work.\u201d There\u2019s a bit of Kubrick in there.<\/p>\n
I remember at the time, they were talking about, \u201cHopefully, there\u2019ll be more,\u201d and I was sad, because I wouldn\u2019t be able to be in anymore. And they were like, \u201cThey\u2019re programs, and we don\u2019t see you actually die. You could have had somewhere that you slipped out of.\u201d Over time, as I started to hear that there was going to be another film, I was like, \u201cWell, I haven\u2019t had a phone call.\u201d They\u2019re going a different way, which is fine. It will be lovely to be able to go to the new one and not know anything about it. But the great thing is that I developed a character that is a chameleon and a shape-shifter. He could be anything, he could pop up as anything. I like the idea that he has had to go into hiding and is now working as a digital showgirl, in some kind of slightly sleazy bar in a darkened part of the Tron universe. He\u2019s a torch singer, a nightclub act \u2014 in full drag.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think I did. I don\u2019t do that very often. Just memories. I\u2019ve got my Castor action figure. That was quite thrilling. And Jason Sudeikis had a Tron: Legacy pinball machine. He collects pinball machines, and he showed me the pinball machine that he had of Tron: Legacy. He said to me, \u201cI was rolling ball bearings over your head this morning.\u201d<\/p>\n