Nicola Methven says what you’re thinking
IS THERE STILL A CLASS DIVIDE?
A can of worms has been opened by actor Jessica Barden having a pop at ‘posh’ actors wanting to take on working-class roles. The End of the F***ing World star – soon to be seen in ITV drama You & Me – has criticised her privileged peers for wanting to play tough characters from council estates.
She named Emma Corrin, best known for playing the young Diana in The Crown, who recently said they were hankering after this type of ‘gritty’ and ‘feisty’ role, especially if it came with ‘outrageous accents’.
‘I hate words like gritty or feisty,’ Barden responded in an interview. ‘Gritty means working class and feisty means you have an opinion. I die inside when I read them. Why are you allowed to talk like this? How is working class tourism still OK for posh actors?’
Her remarks have led many to share the view of Sir Laurence Olivier when he heard Dustin Hoffman had gone ‘method’ to play someone who hadn’t slept for two days and famously told him: ‘It’s called acting, dear boy.’ But, actually, I think Jessica has a point.
In recent years there have been far fewer of your Christopher Eccleston, Julie Walters and Maxine Peake types, and seemingly a surge in public school-educated actors such as Eddie Redmayne, Damian Lewis and Emily Blunt (who have all played impressive roles upstairs and downstairs). Children from lower-income families find it far harder to break into acting because the tuition itself, let alone the travel and audition fees, can be prohibitive.
So Jess’ point is less about the ability of people to play different types of roles and more about the lack of opportunity afforded to working-class actors.
If the likes of Sean Bean and Anna Friel aren’t going to be cast in films about high society then it stands to reason they don’t want to lose out on roles they excel at, especially if the part is about poverty and hardship. Because I don’t suppose some of the more privileged actors on the circuit have much lived experience of that.
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