Hollywood actor Michael Sheen has written off £1m of people’s debts using £100,000 of his own money.
Sheen has set up a debt collection company to help 900 people in South Wales.
The closure of the last blast furnace in Port Talbot, which marked the end of traditional steelmaking in South Wales, is being documented in a new Channel 4 programme called Michael Sheen’s Secret Million Pound Giveaway, which is set to air next week.
The programme aims to expose how some banks and finance companies are profiting from the most vulnerable in society.
Sheen said he did not have £100,000 “to throw away” and so wanted the project to be “productive”.
Despite initial misgivings, an encounter with a woman who shared her story of the “tears of steelworkers” who lost their jobs at a Port Talbot cafe convinced him to go ahead.
This comes two months after Sheen announced that he would fund a new theatre company to fill the void left by the closure of the National Theatre Wales.
In 2021, Sheen declared himself a “non-profit” actor, pledging to use all the money he earns for good causes.
The 56-year-old, who has starred in films such as Frost/Nixon and The Damned United, also sold his homes to ensure that Cardiff hosted the 2019 World Cup without homeless people.
Appearing on the One Show on Tuesday, the actor explained exactly how the loan scheme works.
People’s debts are put into a bundle, so that a company that buys the debts can buy them at a lower price.
The amount owed by people remains the same, and the companies that own the debts can sell them at lower and lower prices.
Sheen said he was able to set up a debt acquisition company with £100,000 of his own money, and bought £1m of the debts as they had fallen in value.
The system was “strange” and he was initially “unsure” about how it worked, Sheen said, adding that “it seemed like a good thing to do”.
The company was not set up in Sheen’s name and he had to “stay out of it”.
He did not know the identities of the people he paid, only where they lived and what kind of debt it was.
Sheen added: “I never knew who they were – I still don’t know who they were.”
In making the documentary, the process was much more complicated than he had anticipated.
“I thought I would only be working on this for a few weeks or a month or something like that, and it turned into two years because we had to do it secretly,” he said.
Sheen added that it took a long time to set up the company, and at one point he felt like he wouldn’t be able to keep it going.
His mindset changed after filming in a cafe in his hometown of Port Talbot, as the local steelworks was about to close.
“The lady who worked at the cafe we were filming at sat at every table in tears and told me stories of men who had lost their jobs,” he said.
“I thought — well, that really feels homely, I thought anything I could do [to help].”
The hour-long documentary will air on Channel 4 on Monday 10 March – five months after the last remaining blast furnace in Port Talbot closed – bringing an end to the traditional way of making steel in South Wales.
As a result, Tata Steel decided to cut 2,800 jobs, causing uncertainty and stress for many families.
Sheen confirmed that 900 people across South Wales had already been helped with their loans.
He said the “stigma” surrounding money negotiations meant some people were unaware they had paid off their loans, so he urged people to check their accounts.
