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Actor Michael Sheen has revealed that he gave up his OBE in order to air his views on the Royal Family without being labeled a “hypocrite.”
The 51-year-old star, who has played the likes of Tony Blair and Sir David Frost on screen and Hamlet on stage, was named an OBE in the 2009 New Years Honors for his services to drama.
But he said the decision to return it was prompted by researching the history of his native Wales and his relationship with the British state for his 2017 Raymond Williams conference.
Port Talbot’s Sheen told newspaper columnist Owen Jones that the “crash course” made him realize that he couldn’t deliver his lecture and hold on to the honor.
“In my research to do that conference, I learned a lot about the history of Wales,” he said.
Sheen made the decision after researching the history of Wales as part of a lecture he was giving.
“And by the time I’m done writing that lecture on this laptop that I’m talking to you right now, I remember sitting there and saying, ‘Well, I have a choice, either I don’t give this lecture and I stay at my OBE or I give this lecture and I have to return my OBE. ‘
The Queen actor explained that the shared history of Wales and England remained a point of contention for many Welsh.
He referenced the decision to change the name of the second Severn Crossing bridge to the Prince of Wales in 2018, with a petition against the measure receiving more than 30,000 signatures.
“These things have power,” Sheen said.
“The idea of the Prince of Wales and that of being English and the history of that.”
He added: “The reason Edward made his son Prince of Wales was because he was part of keeping the Welsh rebellion at bay.
“These are things that happened so long ago, but these things resonate.”
Charles, the current Prince of Wales, will lose the title when he ascends to the throne.
Sheen suggested it would be a “really meaningful and powerful gesture that that title is no longer held in the same way as before.”
He said he decided not to announce his decision to return the honor in 2017 because he feared some people would find it insulting.
“It was not my intention to disrespect him, but I realized that he would be hypocritical if he said the things he was going to say at the conference on the nature of the relationship between Wales and the British state,” he said.
