London - Never one to play down the rich potential of his hometown, Michael Sheen has found another way to put it on the cultural map.
For believe it or not, Port Talbot is up there with Area 51 and Roswell for its alien activity... or so the actor says.
The 50-year-old has told how the Welsh steel town must be on "some weird alien map" – and is adamant he once saw a UFO flying over his childhood home.
"It’s like some sort of stop off, it’s like a lay-by," he said.
He added: "It’s like the Little Chef of the Galaxy."
Sheen, who grew up in the town in south Wales before moving to London to train as an actor said: "The lady who lived next door – who was a very respectable lady and someone who wouldn’t make up stories – told us one morning she was in the kitchen... making a coffee and a flying saucer came down and hovered over her back garden and then went.
"You think that’s nonsense but she was a very serious lady."
And to back it up, the Frost/Nixon actor had a close encounter of his own to share. He said: "One day I was coming home from school. I got off the school bus and I was walking up my street.
"I was just about to turn up the path to my house and coming round the mountain was a formation of lights. I stood there looking at it thinking, 'this is going to be some sort of weird reflection'.
"There was a formation of things coming round and going out."
He continued: "And then years later on New Year’s Eve – not that long ago, about five years ago – my dad, who had not had a drink that night, went up to bed. He said he saw a light in the sky. My dad is a character but is not someone who would make this up.
"He said he saw a thing in the sky with lights going around it – it was there for ages then it shot off."
He told the Leicester Square Theatre podcast. "I think Port Talbot is some kind of hub."
Host Richard Herring quipped: "People in Port Talbot maybe haven’t seen a helicopter before – could it be that?"
To which Sheen replied: "That is entirely possible."
Sheen, who now lives in Los Angeles, welcomed his first child with 25-year-old Swedish girlfriend Anna Lundberg last month.
He also has a daughter, Lily Mo, 20, with actress Kate Beckinsale.
The Swansea area has a history of UFO sightings, and has a thriving Facebook group on which more than 1 000 members post about strange happenings.