Martin Sheen's life revolves around politics -- both on- and off-screen.
Sheen -- who plays President Josiah Bartlet on NBCs The West Wing -- spoke to a sellout crowd at Irvine Auditorium last night about his liberal activism.
"Acting is what I do for a living, but activism is what I do to stay alive," Sheen said. "It must be a deeply personal choice."
Sheen is best known for his roles in over 100 movies, among them Apocalypse Now. But the 64-year-old actor said he sees himself, more importantly, as a "social justice activist."
Sheen said he experienced a reawakening of Catholicism while filming the 1982 movie Gandhi in India. Seeing the poverty there, he said, drew him back to his childhood faith.
Sheen has since been a vocal advocate for a variety of progressive causes, from combating homelessness to promoting pacifism.
"It's about mercy and compassion," Sheen said. "How to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."
His most recent political role has been as a stump speaker for Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean. Sheen endorsed Dean early in the primary season of the last election.
"You lose some, you lose some," Sheen said. "How proud I was to be involved in such a cause."
Sheen said he has come under fire, however, for his outspoken liberalism. A billboard visible at the Academy Awards, for example, thanked Sheen for the re-election of President George W. Bush.
"Recently I've been called unpatriotic," Sheen said. "Nothing could be further from the truth."
But despite Sheen's commitment to social activism, he said running for political office is not in his future.
"Thank God I'm not in politics. Could you imagine?" Sheen said. "My conscience is my constituency. ... [Politics is] about power now. It's not about service."
Last night was Sheen's first formal speech at a university.
"I said I would come if [Penn] would donate" to Catholic charities, Sheen said. "And they did, and it just overwhelmed me. I said, 'If they do that, I'll come there for days.'"
Penn donated an undis-closed sum of money to local Catholic worker charities in Sheen's honor.
"I think he's just an admirable example of an actor-activist," University President Amy Gutmann said. "And he's cool, too."
The Social Planning and Events Committee hosted the event, which was open to students who won a lottery that allowed them to purchase tickets. Approximately 1,200 people attended, 1,100 of whom purchased tickets through SPEC.
Three of the attendees even wore hand-decorated T-shirts that read "Martin Sheen for president."
"There was no way we could not make shirts," College sophomore Alyson Krueger said, adding that she brought a permanent marker in the hopes of having Sheen add his signature to the garment.
When Gutmann cut off questions from the audience at the end of the speech, Sheen chose to end with a joke about Bush.
"The longer I talk, the fewer questions I get," Sheen said. "Bush does that brilliantly."
