To find it sad that privately educated actors dominate telly/film?

Because being a doctor isn’t a typical wc job is it? Exam invigilator wouldnt have a clue about student’s personal details such as their background, their job is to literally make sure no one cheats. You have to be pretty dense to think they would access to such information. So their judgement is based purely on observation.

Many private schools offer arts scholarships, but that doesn’t mean you don’t already need a bit of comfortable money behind the kid. My daughter has a friend who wants to work in musical theatre. He is incredibly lucky that his family could afford for his mum to give up work to support his career (and still be able to afford to pay for overnight trips to London for auditions etc). He is currently at a prestigious theatre college and I have no doubt he will succeed as he is talented and has developed that talent from being in primary school. He went to a public primary school, his parents had no plans for him to be privately educated but when the time came to go to secondary he auditioned for and got a scholarship to our local private school.

It's such an expensive area to succeed in. My daughter is very interested in performing arts. She does a lot of local acting/dancing classes and some in London. Even this is incredibly expensive. We are middle-income earners and quite a big chunk of my salary goes on her hobby. At the London group there are kids who audition and/or perform in the West End. You need be to be able to afford either a SAHP or a full-time nanny for a child to participate in all the auditions (often held at short notice) let alone perform. I'm sure the same is true of TV roles.

Actors will often be reliant on the bank of Mum and Dad for a long time. Even just auditioning for drama school is expensive. When you are looking for acting work you have to be available for auditions which means either not holding down another job or doing something flexible which will likely be low paid. Most jobs are London-centric. Gone are the days when a newly-trained actor could afford to live on a hospitality wage in London while looking for acting work.

I grew up in a deprived area. At middle school the deputy head was part of a theatre group so she did put on a few plays every year. But there was no drama class, music we learnt the recorder. At senior school there was no drama gcse, there might have been a lunch time group but I can’t remember. Music was violin or guitar most kids didn’t do it as you had to pay. Career advice was looking at working in a shop or a nursery or getting a trade. Few children applied for uni. There wasnt consideration to leave the town. When you grow up and no one tells you there’s anything more. You don’t know.

So Keira knightly / Lily Allen their mothers were senior casting directors.

To be fair I don’t actually think it’s the schools it’s the money and connections of the parents so them being at private school is incidental to that.

Anecdotally I don’t see average kids at normal private schools with parents doing normal albeit quite well paid jobs getting particularly amazing opportunities. It’s the super rich international clique and those whose parents know and have leverage with successful people already in the arts. It’s the social sets of the parents.

I’d say doctors is distinct from the arts thing because the thing with doctors is that they can’t just waltz in because their dad is one or because they have money.

You need to get certain very high grades and do the work and while I’m sure that’s made a bit easier if you have rich parents to support your education before and during uni - you still can’t get away with getting in based on connections.

Whereas someone could very well get an acting role, a book deal or some other job in the arts with very little talent/ability etc because they have connections .

Some nepo babies start out as horrible actors but they eventually get better because they’re given chance after chance while getting paid well to continue . A working class /less connected actor too wouldn’t be given that opportunity to get better on the job. They need to be good BEFORE they get a decent role (which make sense)

I feel sad when the daughters of Phil Collins and flipping Bono bag the plum roles. They are already so utterly fortunate and never actually need to work at all money wise. There would have been hundreds of young actresses desperate for those opportunities. Depressing. Bonos daughter can’t even act.

What annoys me are the number of privileged actors that carefully craft a 'hard' upbringing narrative to increase their authenticity when being interviewed. The background of privileged actors is glossed over in the press and as OP states you need to do a little digging just to see how many actors are from privileged backgrounds and of course nepotism abounds.

It's not just the arts.

It's in many industries if you look close enough. And probably a large factor in the decline of western civilisation.

Doctors aren’t particularly posh or privileged though? Also why would you scoff that someone knows an exam invigilator?!

Victoria wood said this. Her and Julie name I have forgotten are genuinely from average non show business families her view was they wouldn’t make it now.

I agree, OP. It seems to have got worse in the last 20 years.

”Know someone” of course you do sweetie thanks for your insightful input on this thread, I’m sure if of course what you said is true 🤣 because you “know someone”. How would they know the students taking the exams are posh or working class? You’re not allowed to speak in the exam hall for a start. So they just guessing on how people are dressed I take it? Very accurate. Exam invigilators won’t have access to students personal details due to privacy laws so again I’m wondering how they know this?

Well we’re not talking about the 1930s or whenever he was alive. There’s such a thing as media law and if you don’t know even the basics of that when you’re covering stories you’re making yourself very vulnerable to be sued or even prosecuted. Any good journalist nowadays has at least a NCTJ in journalism, I know many companies won’t touch anyone that doesn’t have one, too much of a liability. Considering this was your grandad’s trade and not yours really shows you have no idea what it’s currently like in journalism. My grandad was a doctor in the navy… doesn’t mean I know what it’s like today to be a doctor in the forces 🤣

Such a weird thing to say. Very odd if you don't realise people generally Google actors in things they've seen. Nothing to do with "obsession" at all, what a strange comment to make.

How is valorising trades by pointing out they are in demand, steady and lucrative ‘demonising the working class’?

Doctors 😂 Medicine hasn’t been a popular choice for upper middle class children for decades. I know someone who invigilates exams at a top university - Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy etc. are the most diverse courses. The ‘poshest’ degrees? History, Classics, English.

Journalism is an interesting topic though.

In the past it wasn't something that you "studied". My grandfather was very typical in the trade, no university degree, very working class, a military career with a lot of travel, great technical background, extremely literate and a poet.

Journalism was not dominated by university educated people at all, and a large proportion of journalists were wc, it was considered a trade. People learned on the job for the most part, in local papers, the best were picked up by bigger regional and national papers and magazines.

It made for a a lot more diversity of opinion in the media.

Yes, it's unfortunate, and the thing is, it hasn't always been like that.It's always been an insecure profession, but it used to be there were a lot more wc people in the arts generally.

Quite a few reasons for that I think. Increased cost of living being one. Fewer places for kids without money to get training, or cheap places to hang out and jam.

Having to pay for higher education, not only the direct cost but the time not earning. For people from a wc background apprenticeships are often much preferable.

Programs for the disadvantaged seem to revolve around identity politics groups instead of income. Often though, these programs end up being full of people with the relevant characteristics who are actually pretty well off.

I will also say though, that it seems to me now that kids are much more inclined to spend their free time online rather than taking up hobbies and interests that take dedication to perfect. I am sure that's a factor in the fairly shit music industry there days, and I would not be surprise if it is also true with actors. I suspect many don't have the focus to watch plays.

I think even more than the loss of wc actors, wc writers are a problem. A lot of the crap television writing now, I suspect, is coming from people with a very samey background.

I meant to say attending particular elite private school can help of course in terms of the opportunities they offer and the connections they may yield. but I just mean it’s not solely about being private or state educated.

It’s the same root issue over in the U.S. though - as myself and many have pointed out it’s not about what school you went to. It’s more about your wealth.

I Mentioned upthread I lived with a very privileged state school educated girl whose parents were able to support her while she attended several auditions all through her 20s in an attempt to break into the industry.

Hollywood is awash with trust fund kids and nepo babies. It matters not if they went to private or state school. The basic principle is the same. Wealth and /or connections gets them ahead.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/nepo-babies-hollywood-famous-parents-b2230537.html

@chulast An interesting take on this is that working class actors come into their own when they have something to say. Something that must be said. Like Boys From the Black Stuff. Commentary on society finds a way out. Whilst we are besotted with period drama and don’t have major working class programmes, we get actors who can act as opposed to those who have something to say.

Pure nepotism. The one’s that disagree are nepo babies or rich. We all see it.

But it all started because he was on a show about rich people because he was rich. That’s the origin. If rich people want to lie to themselves that they didn’t get jobs because of connections or who daddy knows that’s on them. Why do you think the majority of people in media are white and rich?