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Danny Dyer has said it is a ‘f***ing disgrace’ that working class folk don’t get the same chances to star on stage and screen as ‘posh’ actors.
The TV star, 47, who is best known for playing pub landlord Mick Carter in EastEnders, said ‘kids from council estates’ should be prioritised now the Labour Party is in power.
The married dad-of-three, who also has three grandkids, is also known for starring in movies Human Traffic and Mean Machine, but also in two of Harold Pinter’s plays in the West End and Broadway.
Danny starred in Celebration in 2000/01 and No Man’s Land in 2001/2 after Pinter – who died in 2008 at the age of 78 – took him under his wing when they first met in 2000.
Speaking on Wednesday, Danny, who called David Cameron a ‘twat’ over Brexit, saying he was off in France with his ‘trotters up’ after quitting at PM – said there was a ‘massive disconnect’ between the elite and the rest of the country.
Danny Dyer has said it is a ‘f***ing disgrace’ that working class folk don’t get the same chances to star on stage and screen as ‘posh’ actors
Speaking on Wednesday, Danny said there was a ‘massive disconnect’ between the elite and the rest of the country (Benedict Cumberbatch pictured)
He said: ‘The new government must start addressing the lack of working-class people in the arts.
‘It’s vital we give young kids from council estates opportunities to make something of their lives.
‘Never has there been more of a disconnect between the elite and everyone else.
‘It’s a f***ing disgrace.’
He was backed by Alan Partridge creator Steve Coogan, 58, who said that working class actors – like Michael Caine, Terence Stamp, Tom Courtenay, Sean Connery and Albert Finney – had all but died out.
Speaking in the G2 supplement of The Guardian, Coogan said: ‘In the 1960s, Britain produced a wave of working-class movie actors celebrated throughout the world: Caine, Stamp, Courtenay, Connery, Finney.
‘They were stars because they were real and visceral and resonated with ordinary people.
‘And the reason they were able to break through was because we had subsidies that enabled working-class people to be creative and study the arts.
‘Now, the arts have been downgraded to a luxury, not an intrinsic part of what defines us.’
Danny criticised roles going to ‘posh’ private-school educated actors – like Eton-educated Damien Lewis (left), Eddie Redmayne (right), and Benedict Cumberbatch, who attended Harrow
The TV star said ‘kids from council estates’ should be prioritised now the Labour Party is in power
Danny is best known for playing pub landlord Mick Carter in EastEnders
He added: ‘Because they can’t be measured using the same profit and loss criteria as business, they’re put to one side.
‘Yet that same unquantifiable stuff is of national significance and what made us punch above our weight in terms of creativit
y throughout the world.
‘In recent years, the upper middle classes realised they could monopolise the arts, and the lack of subsidies enabled this.
‘Now we have a depressing circle of posh people writing posh plays about posh people for posh actors.
‘There is an export market for posh country mansion content but it turns the arts into an extension of the tourist industry – and it means so many stories from neglected perspectives aren’t being told.
‘The arts are what stop us killing each other. Art is what defines us as human beings and what will save us. We denigrate it at our peril.’
Among the other stars who have criticised roles going to ‘posh’ private-school educated actors – like Eton-educated Damien Lewis and Eddie Redmayne, and Benedict Cumberbatch, who attended Harrow – include actors Brian Cox, Christopher Ecclestone, and Steven Berkoff.
Succession star Brian Cox said previously: ‘Damian, Benedict, they’re perfectly nice lads, but my take is we haven’t got over feudalism in this country.’
Former Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston also previously said working class and ethnic actors have to work ‘much harder’ than ‘posh’ white actors to land jobs.
Succession star Brian Cox said previously: ‘Damian, Benedict, they’re perfectly nice lads, but my take is we haven’t got over feudalism in this country’
He said that Britain’s ‘three biggest film stars’ were ‘white public schoolboys’, referring to Redmayne, Cumberbatch and Lewis.
Other public schoolboy stars making it big include Tom Hiddleston and Dominic West, who both attended Eton.
Actor Steven Berkoff previously said posh actors had ‘taken over’ – because rich parents could afford to send them to drama school.
The 86-year-old star – known for playing villainous characters like General Orlov in Octopussy, and Lt Col Podovsky in Rambo: First Blood Part II – said poorer wannabe actors should be given a helping hand.
He said: ‘I would fund scholarships for all the drama schools, to allow more men and women from working-class backgrounds to study drama.
‘Most actors who go to drama schools nowadays are financed by their parents and have been to public schools.’
