Currently, US television is blessed with a crop of fine British actors, a large number of whom went to public school. But it’s not just American television that loves a British actor, our own programming is awash with public school graduates. They include Eton alumni Tom Hiddleston (The Night Manager, Thor & Wallander) Dominic West (Appropriate Adult, The Wire & 300), Damian Lewis (Homeland, Billions & Wolf Hall) and Eddie Redmayne (The Dainish Girl, Theory of Everything & Fantastic Beasts), and Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, The Imitation Game & The Hobbit), who won an art scholarship to Harrow.
These actors have certainly flown the flag for British performing arts. Dominic West won a BAFTA for his portrayal of the serial killer Fred West in Appropriate Adult (2011), while Damion Lewis has won a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award for Homeland (2011). Then it was the turn of Benedict Cumberbatch to win a Prime Time Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor for Sherlock (2010). Eddie Redmayne went on to win the Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor for The Theory of Everything (2014). Finally, Tom Hiddleston rounded off the Etonian connection when he won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor for The Night Manager (2016).
However, as Dame Helen Mirren DBE remarked “What has happened to our great working class actors?”
Some point to the state education system in the UK, which it is claimed are not producing the level of acting skill required for a world wide stage. However, I would argue that all of the actors listed above were able to access well regarded fee paying stage and drama schools, such as The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA), due to privilege. Clearly, if they went to Eton then their parents could afford to pay for the very best drama schools. In fact, as well as Eton, these actors all went to elite universities, such as Cambridge, and then studied acting as a postgraduate course. Postgraduate education is hardly a pursuit of the economically challenged.
Let’s put it this way, acting is a profession that is well known for the audition process and how frustrating this can be. The profession is littered with sorties of famous actors who were penniless and on the last audition before they got that big role. Well, clearly the days of the penniless actor are long behind us. How many people from a working class background can afford to live in London whilst they audition for roles? In an industry were repeated failure in auditions (in an actor’s early career) are to be expected then only those with a family income, and so privilege, will be able to survive.
Unfortunately, the likes of Michael Canie are few and far between these days. Caine left school at 15 and took a series of working class jobs before joining the army and seeing action in the Korean War. He then took on a job as an assistant stage hand in a theatre.
Unfortunately, the acting profession has becoming one for those who come from privilege, yet another elitist organisation that our children can forget about joining. Why teach drama in state schools, further education colleges (and even the lower ranked universities) if you have to go to private school or an elite university to get into RADA? London is littered with drama and performance schools that cost anywhere between £12, 000 and £24, 000 per year to attend, only those from privilege can hope to make the grade. That said, privilege does not guarantee a place in anyway, entry is strictly by audition… and the fees being paid promptly of course.
Am I over reacting? I don’t think so, these actors all come from the 7% of our population that is privately educated. What about the 93% who are state educated. There is clearly a disproportionate number of successful actors coming from the privately educated sector.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not knocking these actors for their success or that British dramatic arts are so well respected internationally. However, I am knocking a system that is based in inequality. How many state educated students can realistically have dreams of acting if the shop is closed to those who do not come from privilege?
What is worse, we are not telling students who take up a school and college drama course that they are in for an unfair fight to get that acting job they dream about. Not unless extra and background work is their dream, which we know it won’t be.
Acting is about individual performance, a personal expression that should not be about being born into privilege. Unfortunately, show business and inequality seem to go hand in hand these days.
JD
The Equality Blog 