Sheen was advised against meeting Frost

NEW YORK, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- British actor Michael Sheen says he was warned against meeting David Frost until after he started performances of the play "Frost/Nixon."

Sheen played the TV personality in the West End and on Broadway. He reprises the role in Ron Howard's upcoming film adaptation of Peter Morgan's stage drama about how Frost secured exclusive interviews with former U.S. President Richard Nixon after Nixon resigned due to the Watergate scandal.

Sheen told UPI in New York recently that Morgan warned him before they went into rehearsals for the play that even though Frost was willing to talk to him, Sheen shouldn't meet him right away because Morgan didn't want Sheen to "get too close to (Frost) too soon."

"Now I understand what (Morgan) means," Sheen added. "(Frost) is so charming and so engaging and the part that I had to go on playing as him is a fairly warts-and-all thing kind of thing and it's not the most flattering portrayal of a person possible and maybe I would have resisted going down certain areas of the character if I had gotten to know him earlier."

Sheen went on to say that as soon as he had agreed to wait to meet Frost, he started seeing him everywhere he went.

"I had to hide from him," Sheen recalled. "Because he knew that I was playing him and he wanted to come and presumably do just that (tell me) -- 'Don't do this' and 'Don't do that' and 'Make sure you …' And so I had to hide."