By the end of our call, Michael Sheen is animatedly sharing stories of his family’s (potential) UFO sightings in south Wales.
He was 12 or 13 when he was walking home from school in Port Talbot. Coming around the side of a nearby mountain was what Sheen describes as “a formation of lights.” They went out toward the sea, hovered there, and vanished. “I was looking at this and I thought, ‘I need to go in and tell the rest of my family,’” the star recalls. “But then I thought that if I go in, I might miss it. So I just stood and watched. I couldn’t believe what I’d seen,” he continues, “I can’t explain it, and I’m not saying that they were UFOs, but I don’t know what the hell they were.”
Sheen, a prolific actor whose credits include Twilight, Masters of Sex and Good Omens, has hopped on Zoom to discuss his latest Welsh project, Out There, a sci-fi caper from debut filmmaker Simon Ryninks that tackles two seemingly disparate themes: grief and aliens. Backdropped by the nostalgia-packed optimism of 1999, it earns its world premiere in competition at Edinburgh Film Festival on Friday, with a star-studded ensemble that includes Aneurin Barnard (Dunkirk), Iwan Rheon (Game of Thrones) and newcomer Nerys Amber Stocks.
Stocks plays a young teen named Maz, an amateur astronomer still grieving the disappearance of her scientist father (Rheon). She is convinced she has spotted something suspicious floating above her sleepy Welsh hometown and recruits the support of her best mate Elis (Tom Moya), UFO-obsessed conspiracy theorist Bryn (Barnard), and local psychic Shifty Gruff (Sheen) to uncover the truth — one far more complex than they might have anticipated.
From left: Nerys Amber Stocks, Tom Moya and Michael Sheen in ‘Out There’
Courtesy of EIFF
For Ryninks, this is as personal a story as you can get. “The idea came about from my mum’s passing and knowing that I wanted to write something about grief,” the British filmmaker, who grew up in both Aberystwyth and London, tells THR. “I was returning to west Wales a lot and I feel very connected to her being here. I knew I wanted to do it in a funny, gentle way. Then at a certain point, I discovered the Welsh history with UFO sightings.”
It turns out that Wales has a particularly rich history in the Unidentified Flying Objects department. In the 1970s, there was a spate of sightings and cover-up rumors from across the north of the country all the way to Broad Haven on the west coast. Happening upon this information, for first-time feature filmmaker Ryninks (who is also doing a master’s in folklore), felt like fate. “To use UFOs as this metaphor for searching for something — for closures or answers that are out of reach or elusive in some way,” he says, “I could really relate to that hunt for meaning.”
Sheen, meanwhile, is admittedly always very interested to hear about emerging Welsh voices. He has long been a champion of the arts in his native Wales, personally funding (and becoming artistic director of) the newly named Welsh National Theatre. As a super-fan of Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Ryninks and Out There were a no-brainer. “Reading this script and seeing [this] journey for Maz, a 16-year-old who starts to [use] the stars and spaceships to reconnect with her father… That journey through grief, but in a very feel-good, heart-warming, coming-of-age story, I thought the combination of those elements and the weird characters she comes across — including the one I play myself — I just love the quirkiness of that,” Sheen says. “[Using] the sci-fi elements as a way to explore things that are much closer to home.”
For Sheen, it was also an opportunity to honor his late father, a stalwart of the Port Talbot community, who died last year aged 85. “The town has a history with the steelworks and real challenges of deprivation,” he adds, “but to look to the skies and to believe there’s something up there is a very powerful metaphor for a lot of things.” Meyrick Sheen was photographed by Roo Lewis in 2023, who set out to capture the town as part of a project for the Port Talbot UFO Investigation Club. “I was very moved by seeing the portrait of my father in that,” says the younger Sheen, “so this script really pushed buttons for me.”
Ryninks was delighted to have enticed such a high calibre of Welsh talent aboard this small indie. He enlisted the help of a friend, English actor Johnny Flynn, who knew Rheon. Rheon was pulled toward the role of Maz’s father, Lew, “as an exciting opportunity to play something a bit different than he’d played before.” For the kooky, mischievous and not-often-sober Shifty Gruff, Sheen was always the number one choice. “He’s got this quality about him, which is both really lovable and funny,” begins the director, “but then you’ve seen him play characters where he’s a bit edgy as well, where you’re not sure if you can really trust this guy. I liked that contrast for Shifty. So I wrote it with Michael in mind, then basically just spent a year hoping and praying he would say yes, like a UFO believer. I just had faith that he was out there, waiting for contact.”
Director Simon Ryninks (center) on the set of ‘Out There’
Photographer: Hanna-Katrina Jędrosz
Sheen, an established star with the kind of career freedom you achieve only after decades of acclaim, was up for anything. “I love those shops you go into with all the crystals and the weird UFO-ology books,” he says about Shifty’s mystic store. “I could spend hours in there, knowing full well that it’s all nonsense. But he’s into all that, and also the local drug dealer — all organic, obviously — and I love the combination of him being really dodgy, but [there is] also something really hopeful in him as well. There’s an innocence and naivety to him. [But] you know you’d find him in your living room at a party and think, ‘What are you doing here?’ I’ve definitely met a few Shifty Gruffs in my time.”
These characters had already been living in Ryninks’ mind for five years — it’s been seven since he first decided to make Out There — but he’s still pinching himself that he was able to get such established Welsh talent to take them on. “And Nerys and Tom,” he adds, “who are brilliant up-and-coming, future stars.” He considers some of the other icons he would love to tempt back into Welsh indie cinema: Matthew Rhys, Alexandra Roach, Callum Scott Howells, Morfydd Clark, Taron Egerton and Luke Evans all come up.
Sheen tells THR that if there’s any way he can use his platform to promote and support Welsh directors and writers, he will: “Because they’re the ones who are leading the way for us.” Whether it’s through the Welsh National Theatre (WNT) or Sheen’s production company RedSeam, he is keen to reverse years of industry-wide neglect. “We’ve just got to keep pushing, because for a long time if you had a Welsh project, the people with power would say, ‘Does it have to be in Wales? Could it be set somewhere else?’”
The 57-year-old adds: “And if there was a Welsh leading part, then oftentimes it would go to someone not from Wales. And of course, I’ve played characters from outside of Wales, and that’s fair enough. But when it’s in the context and history of being overlooked, being marginalized, and not getting the chance, I think it’s important to be aware of that.”
Sheen is buoyed by the work done in recent years, with big Hollywood movies shooting in the region and production companies such as Bad Wolf setting up camp there. All the more reason, he thinks, to get Wales on the map. “We’ve got the infrastructure and the locations and the actors — a really rich wealth of stories and history that’s untapped… A lot of that depends on collaboration and people making those connections,” he says about putting his name to projects. “It’s Matthew Rhys going, ‘Yeah, I’ll come down and do a one-man show about Richard Burton to raise funds,’” Sheen beams about Rhys’ 2025 stint in Playing Burton at the WNT.
Out There is a testament to the work being done behind the scenes, from emerging and established voices united by a passion for Welsh storytelling. Ahead of its Edinburgh premiere, Ryninks is feeling very grateful — and reflective. “There’s something a bit bittersweet about releasing something that has been yours and yours alone,” he says. “Obviously, lots of people worked on it and did a great job, but it’s been your thing for so long, and then you’re not in control of any aspect of it anymore — how it’s received, how people experience it.” Even still, the filmmaker is excited to let Edinburgh audiences begin probing this surprisingly affecting piece on loss and extraterrestrial life. He and Sheen want viewers to know: They come in peace.
The 2026 Edinburgh International Film Festival runs Aug. 13-19.
