Outlook for working-class actors 'quite scary', Sheen tells festival

Michael Sheen has warned that the pathways that helped him break into acting have all but collapsed, as he said the "bank of mum and dad" would be unable to support aspiring actors from poorer communities.

- Michael Savage

The Welsh actor, who grew up in working-class Port Talbot, said he had benefited from school support, youth theatres and grants that have since come under financial pressure or been abolished entirely.

His journey, he said, was also aided by a supportive family and the knowledge his hometown had already produced acting royalty in Richard Burton and Sir Anthony Hopkins.

However, he said the prospect for actors from underprivileged backgrounds now looked "quite scary".

"Having those school plays where the drama was happening in my school - then there was a youth theatre that was funded through the education department of the council, and then I got a grant to go to drama school," said Sheen, speaking at the opening of the Edinburgh TV festival.