Michael Sheen bumped into Chris Tarrant by chance shortly after playing the presenter in the new TV series 'Quiz'.
Michael Sheen
The three-part show tells the story of the 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?' cheating scandal, and Michael has now revealed how Chris, 73, joked about his casting in a coincidental meeting at an awards show.
The actor - who has always chosen not to meet the people he will play - shared: "Just coincidentally, I bumped into him at the Pride of Britain awards. I was having a photograph taken, and I heard a voice going, 'You don't look anything like me.' And there was Chris Tarrant."
Michael has portrayed numerous high-profile public figures during his career, including former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.
But the acclaimed actor has always tried to avoid developing a close relationship with the people he's portrayed.
Speaking to the Guardian newspaper, he explained: "Once you meet someone, inevitably you want to take responsibility for them. And no matter how it goes, if you really get on with each other and you really like a person, inevitably you will shy away from certain things."
'Quiz' tells the story of Charles Ingram cheating his way to the jackpot on 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?' in 2001.
And Michael has admitted to being intrigued by the fascinating story.
He said: "Like most people, I felt like I'd seen those episodes. Then I subsequently discovered they never got transmitted, so nobody had seen those episodes.
"ITV rushed out a documentary about it, literally the next week or something like that. So people think they've seen it, but actually what they saw was the documentary, which was certainly true in my case."
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