In June 2016, John Oliver announced during an episode of Last Week Tonight that he had formed a debt-acquisition company. He purchased and forgave almost $15 million of medical debt for 9,000 people. The crazy part is that it only cost $60,000 to acquire that much money of other people’s debt. It really highlighted how corrupt the whole damn system really is.
John’s generous stunt actually ended up inspiring none other than Michael Sheen to do something similar. For the last two years, Michael spent around £100,000 of his own money to buy around £1 million worth of debt owed by approximately 900 of his south Wales neighbors. Once purchased, he immediately canceled all of it. He also filmed it as a documentary titled, Michael Sheen’s Secret Million Pound Giveaway, which aired on Channel 4 in the UK on Tuesday, March 11.
Not everyone knows that he canceled their debt: He doesn’t know who they are (data protection stopped that), but he hopes that the programme will alert those who hadn’t realised their debts had been cancelled (the people who might have been ignoring the scary letters that come through the door), as well as shine a light into the dark corners of high-cost credit, and what happens when debts are sold on to collectors.
The UK’s cost of living crisis: It feels more timely than ever, in a cost of living crisis where 20 million people are financially vulnerable – but this is an area Sheen, 56, has been working on since 2018, when he set up the End High Cost Credit Alliance. He became interested when he was still living in Los Angeles in 2016, and watched John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight show spend about $60,000 to buy up $15m worth of medical debt and wipe it. Wondering if he could do something similar, he found it was harder in the UK, but by then he was hooked – appalled at the way the poorest people were forced to use high-interest credit that had become impossible to pay off. Or, worse, were turning to loan sharks.
What opened his eyes to others’ struggles: Sheen traces his change in focus to a decade earlier, when he staged his version of The Passion, the three-day epic, in Port Talbot. Working with 1,000 local people brought him into contact with many community organisations. “I was learning about what was going on that I was totally unaware of, growing up,” he says. (He was born in Newport but moved to Port Talbot with his family when he was eight.) He realised that it was “partly because you sort of didn’t want to know”.
He saw the caregivers: It was painful to learn, for instance, about the town’s young carers – children who were looking after ill or disabled parents – and to see that among the few bits of support available was a small organisation that took them bowling or to the cinema once a week. Another woman who had lost her son, a schoolfriend of Sheen’s, had set up a small grief counselling organisation to fill a gap. “And then, a couple of months later, I come back and the money’s gone, that’s cut. It started making me not only become aware of what people were doing, but also aware of how underfunded it was. And then it made me ask the question, ‘Well, why is that?’”
Unicef also opened his eyes: There were other flashpoints. Visiting a refugee camp with Unicef, he watched a hungry child pick grains of rice out of caked mud; feeling wretched, Sheen asked how soon he could get money from his bank account to that specific child, and was told it didn’t really work like that. It had a profound effect. “I remember making a kind of a deal with myself and saying …” His voice breaks and his eyes well up. “I’m not going to get money to that kid, but I could only not do that if I’m then going to do something else. Going, ‘Right, I can see that there’s a way of walking away from here, going home, back to your life, and no one’s going to blame you. But you’re not going to do that.’”
It’s easier to be a decent human being: Being wilfully blinkered wouldn’t necessarily have been the easy option. “I suppose that’s how you end up eating yourself from the inside. So no, I would say this is the easier thing.”
On feeling powerless to help: “I think one of the most destructive things about the way we live now is that we’re constantly surrounded by injustice or a sense of things that are not right, and yet feeling like we can’t do anything about it. I’ve learned that by engaging in whatever way it is, it at least allows you to feel like you’re doing something.”
The system is broken: “The system doesn’t work any more,” he says. “But people find it easier to imagine the end of the world than something that’s a credible alternative to capitalism. I think people really feel there’s something intrinsically wrong and flawed with the system, and recognise that it needs radical change, but the only people who are offering radical change are people who are dangerous. And there’s no good end to that.”
What comes next? He knows his “heist” is attention-grabbing, “and also hopefully helps the 900 or however many people that we’ve actually been able to get rid of some of the debt. But it’s also about: how do you create change and do something that can help thousands or millions of people?” The Fair Banking Act is one solution, which would essentially encourage banks to offer affordable credit to people previously excluded based on their income, background or where they live.
Why he put up his own money: “It shows that you’re serious about what you’re doing, but it also encourages other people to take that step.” It’s the same, he says, when it comes to being so public about it. “I’ve heard people say, ‘He can’t be that selfless, because he’s letting everyone know he’s doing it.’ That’s something I had to think about, and I made a conscious choice.” He knows he can offer his profile and cash, bringing attention to issues. “I never feel like it’s about me – mainly it’s about working with other people or highlighting what they do. I’m not doing it because I want people to think I’m great; I want us to be able to imagine an alternative to this, because this doesn’t work. And in my own little way, I’m trying to create my own alternative. It doesn’t have to be the way it is.”
This is awesome. He changed 900 lives! I just wish that we didn’t live in a world where this was even necessary. I also find it really outstanding that all of the debt owners have remained anonymous. No one has been identified against their will or hounded by the press to give statements or profess their gratitude.
So yeah, I love that Michael did this and that he even used his own money to prove that he’s serious about it. In a world that is increasingly easy for rich people to bury their heads in the sand, I’m impressed that he’s not only used his money for good but that he’s taken the time to learn about how people who aren’t as privileged as he is live. He took that and chose to grow and do good. Again, I hate that it’s come down to this, but I hope that other celebrities pick up on this trend.
Photos credit: CelebrityPhotosUK/Cover Images, PA Images/INSTARimages and Getty