An interview with Martin Sheen.

• Author: Rampell, Ed
• Position: Interview

A biopic about Martin Sheen--who won a Golden Globe for portraying the liberal President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet on The West Wing--could be called The Left Wing. Affectionately dubbed "the acting President" by Hollywood's social justice advocates, Sheen has Iona been a voice of conscience. Canadian children's rights campaigner Craig Kielburger quipped that Sheen has "a rap sheet almost as long as his list of film credits." With a record sixty-six times in police custody, in 2010 The Daily Beast listed Sheen as the "#1 Most Arrested Celebrity."

Ohio-born Sheen--the son of immigrants--has been nabbed at border checkpoints for helping undocumented Latinos cross into El Norte, aided Zapatista children, and supported Cesar Chavez. Sheen played an essential role in the anti-Iraq War movement (this reporter marched beside him at a Hollywood demo). In 2007, Sheen was apprehended with thirty-eight other anti-nuclear protesters at the Nevada test site. Sheen has also supported PETA, Earth First, and Help Darfur Now. In 2008, Sheen was awarded the University of Notre Dame's Laetare Medal and Stella Adler Studio of Acting's Marlon Brando Award for excellence in the arts and a life devoted to social engagement.

Although Sheen has appeared in his share of escapist entertainments, such as The Amazing Spider-Man, the activist actor has often put his money where his mouth is (which he once taped shut to protest NBC's efforts to censor its pacifist West Winger). Many of Sheen's movie and TV productions reflect the causes he promotes. Sheen played the only World War II deserter court-martialed and executed in the TV movie The Execution of Private Slovik and was in Gandhi. He depicted the eponymous homeless advocate in the made-for-TV movie Samaritan: The Mitch Snyder Story, and acted in the TV movie Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8 and the Vietnam vet-themed The War at Home. Sheen has also narrated numerous hard-hitting documentaries.

I caught up with the "acting President" to talk about President Obama, Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day, the Berrigans, Oliver Stone, today's Hollywood Left, and his biggest regret. He was supporting his latest project, Selma. Sheen turns seventy-five on August 3.

Q: Tell us about Selma.

Martin Sheen: The march on Selma was probably the greatest force at the time that forged the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And it may be one of President Johnson's greatest achievements, as well as Reverend King's. Bringing national attention to Selma through nonviolent civil disobedience and the inevitable march from Selma to Montgomery is what focused the country on just how entrenched racism and segregation were in a great many parts of the nation, specifically in Alabama.

The challenge that the Southern Christian Leadership Conference embraced was that they would risk their lives to ensure that future generations had the right to vote. There was so much at stake.

I played one of the heroes: federal judge Frank Minis Johnson. I became aware of his contribution through Robert Kennedy Jr.'s biography of Judge Johnson, which he wrote as part of his thesis from Harvard. He spent quite a bit of time personally with the judge ten years after the fact.

Q: Where was Judge Johnson from?

Sheen: He was from northern Alabama, from the hill country. These people in the mountainous regions of Alabama had been isolated all the way back to the beginnings of the republic. They were Republican, but the expression of their politics would have been anything but conservative Republican. On the contrary, they were extremely liberal and were not swayed by the likes of George Wallace.

In...