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| Tom Hollander: it's fashionable for TV and film actors to sound posh Tom Hollander: it's fashionable for TV and film actors to sound posh | |
| (1 day later) | |
| Actor Tom Hollander has said the preponderance of high profile TV and film roles going to privately educated stars such as Benedict Cumberbatch is down to fashion not privilege. | Actor Tom Hollander has said the preponderance of high profile TV and film roles going to privately educated stars such as Benedict Cumberbatch is down to fashion not privilege. |
| The Rev and Gosford Park star said there used to be lots of leading actors who were Scottish, Welsh or “working class heroes” but now it was “fashionable to sound posh”. | The Rev and Gosford Park star said there used to be lots of leading actors who were Scottish, Welsh or “working class heroes” but now it was “fashionable to sound posh”. |
| Hollander’s comments come amid concern voiced by stars such as Judi Dench, Christopher Eccleston, Julie Walters and David Morrissey about the lack of opportunities for actors from poorer backgrounds. | Hollander’s comments come amid concern voiced by stars such as Judi Dench, Christopher Eccleston, Julie Walters and David Morrissey about the lack of opportunities for actors from poorer backgrounds. |
| Hollander said: “When I started in the profession there were very visible actors who were Scottish, Welsh or regional. | Hollander said: “When I started in the profession there were very visible actors who were Scottish, Welsh or regional. |
| “Lots of working-class-hero leading actors – it was not fashionable to sound posh. Now I’m middle-aged it’s fashionable to sound posh if you are the generation behind me,” he told the new issue of Radio Times. | “Lots of working-class-hero leading actors – it was not fashionable to sound posh. Now I’m middle-aged it’s fashionable to sound posh if you are the generation behind me,” he told the new issue of Radio Times. |
| Asked about the perceived dominance of the acting profession by public schoolboys such as Sherlock star Cumberbatch, Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne and Damian Lewis, Hollander, who was educated at Abingdon public school, said: “Isn’t it just that three actors who seem to have gone to public school are getting highly visible work? | Asked about the perceived dominance of the acting profession by public schoolboys such as Sherlock star Cumberbatch, Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne and Damian Lewis, Hollander, who was educated at Abingdon public school, said: “Isn’t it just that three actors who seem to have gone to public school are getting highly visible work? |
| “Drama schools say if arts funding is cut people can’t afford to go, but I didn’t go to drama school.” | “Drama schools say if arts funding is cut people can’t afford to go, but I didn’t go to drama school.” |
| But The Thick of It star Rebecca Front, who will co-star with Hollander in Julian Fellowes’s new Anthony Trollope adaptation Doctor Thorne on ITV, said there was a “problem of affordability” for younger people who wanted to work in the arts. | But The Thick of It star Rebecca Front, who will co-star with Hollander in Julian Fellowes’s new Anthony Trollope adaptation Doctor Thorne on ITV, said there was a “problem of affordability” for younger people who wanted to work in the arts. |
| “It’s not impossible to be an actor if you went to state school,” Front told the Radio Times. | “It’s not impossible to be an actor if you went to state school,” Front told the Radio Times. |
| “I went to state school. But there is a problem of affordability, I know one major drama school is worried that only rich kids can access an arts education.” | “I went to state school. But there is a problem of affordability, I know one major drama school is worried that only rich kids can access an arts education.” |
| Hollander said contemporary Britain did not face the same class issues as those portrayed in Doctor Thorne or other Fellowes dramas such as Downton Abbey or Gosford Park (in which Hollander also appeared). | Hollander said contemporary Britain did not face the same class issues as those portrayed in Doctor Thorne or other Fellowes dramas such as Downton Abbey or Gosford Park (in which Hollander also appeared). |
| “The barriers most people were facing in that period just don’t exist now,” said Hollander. “There are vestiges, but it’s nothing. Things are not as stratified and regimented as they were then.” | “The barriers most people were facing in that period just don’t exist now,” said Hollander. “There are vestiges, but it’s nothing. Things are not as stratified and regimented as they were then.” |
| Front added: “When I went to drama school, RP [Received Pronunciation] was still referred to as Standard English. But that’s crumbled away, everybody doesn’t have to speak the same way now, pretend to come from the same background or gone to the same kind of school.” | Front added: “When I went to drama school, RP [Received Pronunciation] was still referred to as Standard English. But that’s crumbled away, everybody doesn’t have to speak the same way now, pretend to come from the same background or gone to the same kind of school.” |
| She added: “It’s a terrible mistake to go through your career, or indeed your life, worrying, ‘Do I fit into a groove, am I acceptable?’ You’ve only got what you are and the background you come from and as an actor you try and reinvent yourself according to what parts come in.” | She added: “It’s a terrible mistake to go through your career, or indeed your life, worrying, ‘Do I fit into a groove, am I acceptable?’ You’ve only got what you are and the background you come from and as an actor you try and reinvent yourself according to what parts come in.” |
| Game of Thrones star Charles Dance said in a recent interview that there were “fewer opportunities” for people from the state education system, saying a decline in repertory theatre was partly to blame. | Game of Thrones star Charles Dance said in a recent interview that there were “fewer opportunities” for people from the state education system, saying a decline in repertory theatre was partly to blame. |
| It echoed comments from other actors and writers who have lamented the lack of opportunities for actors from poorer backgrounds including Walters who said last year: “People like me wouldn’t have been able to go to college today. I could because I got a full grant. I don’t know how you get into it now. Kids write to me all the time and I think: I don’t know what to tell you.” | It echoed comments from other actors and writers who have lamented the lack of opportunities for actors from poorer backgrounds including Walters who said last year: “People like me wouldn’t have been able to go to college today. I could because I got a full grant. I don’t know how you get into it now. Kids write to me all the time and I think: I don’t know what to tell you.” |
| Two recent studies said that 73% of actors who responded to a survey were from “middle class” backgrounds - despite the sector accounting for only 29% of the whole population - and that 42% of British Bafta winners went to a fee-paying school. | Two recent studies said that 73% of actors who responded to a survey were from “middle class” backgrounds - despite the sector accounting for only 29% of the whole population - and that 42% of British Bafta winners went to a fee-paying school. |
| Acclaimed screenwriter Jimmy McGovern said last year he struggled to find actors who can play working-class roles. “They’re getting fewer and fewer because it’s only the posh ones who can afford to go into acting,” he said. | Acclaimed screenwriter Jimmy McGovern said last year he struggled to find actors who can play working-class roles. “They’re getting fewer and fewer because it’s only the posh ones who can afford to go into acting,” he said. |
| The then shadow culture secretary Chris Bryant last year got into a row with singer James Blunt over what he said was the over-representation of privately educated people in the arts in the UK. Bryant said the arts world had to address its lack of diversity and a “culture dominated by Eddie Redmayne and James Blunt and their ilk”. | The then shadow culture secretary Chris Bryant last year got into a row with singer James Blunt over what he said was the over-representation of privately educated people in the arts in the UK. Bryant said the arts world had to address its lack of diversity and a “culture dominated by Eddie Redmayne and James Blunt and their ilk”. |