AS a 12 -year-old stepping out of a Neath cinema, Michael Sheen said seminal ’80s movie Tron left him feeling as if his world had changed.
Now, 28 years later, the Port Talbot star, whose world has since altered immeasurably, has spoken of his excitement at appearing in the sci-fi hit’s sequel as it enjoyed its UK premiere last night.
Tron: Legacy, the highly anticipated sequel to director Steven Lisberger’s visionary masterpiece, hits cinema screens this month.
The Welsh Hollywood star plays the role of Castor, the most memorably outlandish character from the original film.
“As a 12-year-old coming out of that cinema, I felt as if my world had changed,” Sheen said.
“It was the feeling that you’d been in a whole new world for an hour and a half, and then you come out and you see everything differently – that’s what I had with Tron.”
The 1982 film tells the story of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), a video game developer who is sucked into a digital universe inhabited by human-looking “programs”.
Tron: Legacy follows Flynn’s son Sam (Garrett Hedlund) entering the virtual world where the father he never knew has been trapped for 20 years.
Speaking ahead of last night’s premiere, Sheen said: “I’m going to watch it for the first time and it’ll be like the ultimate movie-going experience for me.
“I will be able to sit there so excited about watching the new version of Tron — and I’m in it as well!”
“I’m only in it for a couple of scenes but it won’t be one of those ‘blink and you’ll miss me’-type affairs – believe me, you won’t miss me,” he added.
“I’m really excited about this one. They’ve got Jeff Bridges doing some very exciting stuff this time round. People are going to love it.”
Sheen’s enthusiasm for the project has not gone unnoticed by mother Irene, who still lives in the Baglan family home.
She said: “Going to the cinema was a big part of Michael’s childhood. He was very particular about what sort of films he liked. I suppose he was a bit of a film buff from an early age and so I think he certainly finds it quite exciting to have the opportunity to relive those days and take part in a film which he loved as a child, I know he’s thoroughly enjoyed making it.
“It has been nice for him to do these films, which are quite different to his more serious roles.”
She added: “He’s been able to take roles from other childhood favourites like Alice in Wonderland last year and voicing a character in the new Disney Tinkerbell film (based on the Peter Pan character).
“The other aspect, of course, is his daughter Lily, who is now 12 years old, the same age as he was when he saw Tron.
“I think its nice for him to do roles which she can enjoy in films that he loved at that age.”
Flynn’s adventure in “the Grid” – the dark, labyrinthine underworld strip-lit by humming lines of neon and edged by fantastical geometric landscapes – has achieved iconic status.
Makers say it has taken 28 years for the sequel because the technology required to produce the film industry’s next game-changer is only now becoming available.
Director Joe Kosinski even got his hands on 3D cameras more advanced than those used in James Cameron’s 2009 sci-fi epic Avatar, with which it has already been compared.
Producer Jeffrey Silver said: “It seemed obvious that Tron, being a groundbreaking film in the ‘80s, had to be followed with a film equally as groundbreaking in the 21st century. If we were going to do Tron: Legacy right, we would have to push the envelope.”
One of the key sequences is set in the End of Line Club, an exotic nightspot run by Sheen’s character, an outrageously camp, narcissistic figure who provides a measure of light relief.
And having meticulously studied the likes Tony Blair, Brian Clough and David Frost in preparation for his most famous performances, the 41-year-old has once again looked for inspiration for his depiction of Castor.
“I found him very similar to Tony Blair — not human and never was,” he says jokingly.
“The director he told me my character was a showman and to bring huge energy to the part, to make it very colourful and vivid and totally different than everything else that has come before in the film.”
In the movie’s trailer, Sheen is seen swathed in tight white leather, piercing neon contact lenses, a peroxide mane and playing air guitar with his perspex cane.
He added: “My whole life has been inspired by David Bowie.
“And, with Castor, I liked the idea of someone who has reinvented himself over and over again in order to survive, which inevitably led me to Ziggy Stardust.”
