Martin Sheen, his 16th arrest behind him and a new movie about death ahead of him, rests his Nikes on a desk, fires up a Camel Filter and explains that he`s not as serious as some people might think.
”I`ve lightened up considerably in the last 10 years,” the 47-year-old actor and peace activist said. ”Despite what some people think, I do have a sense of humor and a lighter side.
”I don`t do a lot of comedies,” he said, ”but I have struck a balance in my life now. I know when to take something seriously and when to lighten up.”
”Da,” his latest film, is a seriocomic mix about a New York playwright
(Sheen) who returns to his native Ireland after the death of his eccentric father (Barnard Hughes). While sitting in his father`s house, Sheen`s character is visited by his father`s ghost, and the two men relive their stormy relationship.
Sheen said he fell in love with the Hugh Leonard play when he saw it in Los Angeles in 1982. But it took Sheen and partner William Greenblatt six years to bring it to the big screen.
”The trouble began after we acquired the rights, trying to convince the studios and the networks that we had a project they should invest in. After all, there was no violence, no car chases, no big-name stars and an unknown director (Matt Clark). We had none of the ingredients that spell big box office.”
Sheen and Greenblatt found a backer and distributor for the film and shot it in Leonard`s home town in Ireland for about $4 million, a pittance by today`s movie standards. In fact, $4 million would barely cover the salaries of Sheen`s famous acting sons, Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen if they had appeared in ”Da.”
”My sons are far and away bigger draws than I`ve ever been. But I wouldn`t want their lives. They can`t even walk down the street or carry on a conversation in public without a whole to-do.”
Sheen, who will direct Charlie in a new film to be shot in West Germany, said he is extremely close to his four kids (Renee and Ramon also are actors) but is at a loss to explain why they followed in his footsteps.
”I promise you, I had nothing whatsoever to do with it,” he said.
”They came along with me on location when they were little, but I never encouraged them. No one is more surprised by their involvement and more stunned by their success.
”But they`re all extraordinary people. They`re some of the best people I`ve ever known in my life. I would gladly choose them as friends if they weren`t my kids. They`re bright, compassionate and individualistic. And they possess something I never had when I was their age, a keen sense of humor. They take everything with a grain of salt.”
Sheen`s 26-year marriage and large family are an outgrowth of his childhood in Dayton, Ohio. Born Ramon Estevez, the seventh son of a Spanish-born father and an Irish-born mother, he began acting in high school and left home at 18 to pursue a career in New York.
When he hit New York in 1959, Ramon Estevez became Martin Sheen. ”I`ve never legally changed my name to Sheen,” the actor said. ”It is just a stage name, and all my documents still say Ramon Estevez.”
In 1964 he appeared in the Broadway production of ”The Subject Was Roses,” and repeated the role on screen in 1968. Other film roles included
”Badlands” and ”Apocalypse Now.” But he is better-known for his television roles, including ”The Execution of Private Slovik” and ”The Missiles of October,” in which he played Robert F. Kennedy.
Sheen said it is no coincidence that many of his film and television projects are political.
When he was a 12-year-old caddy in Dayton, he led a caddy walkout to gain higher wages. Because he had been raised on Irish Republican Army fight songs, played on the family piano by his mother, such an act seemed perfectly normal for a 12-year-old, he said.
In 1986 his passion erupted into full-scale activism, when he joined the picket line at the Nevada test site and was arrested for civil disobedience, the first of 16 arrests.
”It scares the hell out of me,” he said of the arrests. ”There`s no one more concerned on the picket lines. I don`t like being called names and getting threatening phone calls and letters. I don`t like people thinking I`m being un-American. I love America enough to take it to task for what it`s doing.
”I`m the biggest coward I know,” he added, ”but you`ve got to take a risk. You`ve got to put your body on the line. They`re practicing the end of the world out there in the desert, and somebody has to speak up for the Earth.”
