James McAvoy: Dominance of Rich-Kid Actors in the U.K. Is "Damaging for Society"

[RockaFowler]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/james-mcavoy-dominance-rich-kid-772139?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=hollywoodreporter_breakingnews&utm_campaign=THR%20Breaking%20News_now_2015-02-10%2009%3A29%3A29_ehayden

SNIP

But McAvoy was concerned that people from all walks of life are not getting the same opportunities to work in the arts, and his chief worry was about how this will become a bigger problem five or ten years from now.

If the trends are allowed to continue, McAvoy said, "That's a frightening world to live in, because as soon as you get one tiny pocket of society creating all the arts, or culture starts to become representative not of everybody but of one tiny part, and that's not fair to begin with, but it's also damaging for society."

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The Eton-educated Eddie Redmayne (a classmate of Prince William) and Harrow-educated Benedict Cumberbatch, who are both in the running for the best actor Oscar, are perhaps the most telling examples of the dominance of "posh" actors. But there's also Dominic West (Eton, classmate of Prime Minister David Cameron), Damian Lewis (Eton), Tom Hiddleston (Eton), Henry Cavil (Stowe), Jamie Campbell Bower (Bedales), Tom Hardy (Reed), Matthew Goode (Exeter) and Dan Stevens (Tonbridge), among others.

And it's not just the guys. A whole generation of British actresses are seemingly disproportionately from so-called posh schools, including Rosamund Pike (Badminton), Alice Eve (Bedales), Juno Temple (Bedales), Carey Mulligan (Woldingham), Kate Beckinsale (Godolphin and Latymer), Imogen Poots (Latymer), Emilia Clarke (St Edward's), Emily Blunt (Hurtwood House) and Rebecca Hall (Roedean).



By the way, James McAvoy is a Scottish actor who worked his way through school by working in a bakery. It does go back to the fact that it's hard to be a working actor. I had to go back to school because I couldn't afford to wait day after day for a callback on a job that maybe would pay a few hundred dollars. He's right. Do we want the aristocrats to be the only ones allowed to be actors?? Their message would be the only one that would be allowed out then.

[Blue_Tires]

1. He might have a point

I'm reminded of the rough hardknuckle upbringings of some of my favorites like Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins...