Michael Sheen has become one of the world’s first ‘not-for-profit’ actors.
The Welsh star has announced he will distribute all of his pay to worthy causes, after pledging £50,000 ($66,200) over five years to fund a bursary to help Welsh students go to Oxford University.
He also sold off two of his homes to help fund The Homeless World Cup after funding fell through.
Speaking about his decision, he said:
“I realized the difference between that child’s life being a little bit better or not was ultimately a small amount of funding and I wanted to help those people,” Sheen said. “I didn’t just want to be a patron or a supportive voice, I wanted to actually do more than that. That’s when I thought, I need to go back and live in Wales again.”
“I had to make a decision – I could walk away from it and it wouldn’t happen,” Sheen started. “I thought, I’m not going to let that happen. So, I put all my money into keeping it going. I had a house in America and a house here and I put those up and just did whatever it took. It was scary and incredibly stressful. I’ll be paying for it for a long time. But when I came out the other side, I realized I could do this kind of thing and, if I can keep earning money, it’s not going to ruin me.”
Let’s hope more actors follow suit.
