Nick Ahad: Why the acting world needs more Julie Walters and Peter O'Tooles

We are in danger of losing voices like Julie Walters if acting is allowed to become the preserve of the posh.We are in danger of losing voices like Julie Walters if acting is allowed to become the preserve of the posh.
We are in danger of losing voices like Julie Walters if acting is allowed to become the preserve of the posh.
I was presenting a radio show last weekend and mentioned something on air that I'd spotted in the newspaper that morning. It was the Sunday Breakfast show for BBC Radio Leeds and one of the staples of that type of show is taking listeners through the morning's papers, pointing them towards stories they might have missed.

One of the stories I mentioned, on the morning of the Oscars, involved a new study revealing a ‘class ceiling’ in the British theatre and film industry. The research, carried out by the London School of Economics, revealed that 73 percent of British performers in theatre and film are from middle-class backgrounds and that there is a noticeably low amount of working-class actors relative to the population. The argument around class has become a bit of a theme in recent months in cultural circles.

Michael Caine got involved a couple of months ago and Christopher Eccleston recently bemoaned the bland offerings when classical roles appear to go only to white, middle-class males.

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Julie Walters has pointed out the disparity between the numbers of the middle-class who make up the population and the numbers involved in the acting profession, with Eddie Redmayne and Tom Hiddleston (Eton) and Benedict Cumberbatch (Harrow) prime examples, according to Walters, of the problem of inequity. The other side of the argument had been gracefully quiet until the last couple of weeks when Laurence Fox, displaying the kind of insight that only a privileged upbringing can give you, suggested that Walters should ‘shut up’ saying that ‘I may sound posh because I went to public school (Harrow) but I don’t feel particularly posh’.

Forget the Oscars, the award for spectacularly missing the point goes straight to Fox. When I mentioned the story on air I had a text from a listener, who pointed out that Peter O’Toole had come from a modest background and he had done fairly well in the profession. The text missed the point entirely and reinforced the fact that it is vital the acting profession is open to all – and the truth is, we’re heading for a situation where that is not going to be the case for much longer.

Peter O’Toole came from a background of grants and financial assistance, from a time of the theatre rep system when actors who didn’t have the safety net of a cheque from mummy and daddy should the work dry up, could pay the bills. There is a crisis looming – the Peter O’Tooles and Julie Walters of the acting world of the future might end up stuck in a cycle where the profession will simply be out of reach for them. That would make us all much poorer.

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