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Christopher Eccleston has revealed he turned down a role in Billy Elliot as he discovered its depiction of a working-class household “offensive”.
The Manchester-born actor, who grew up in Salford, criticised the movie, which tells the story of an aspiring ballet, whereas discussing his resolution to reject appearing alternatives he feels patronise working-class folks.
For Eccleston, it was the portrayal of the lead character’s mother and father that left him with a bitter style in his mouth. The actor, whose father was a forklift truck driver and mom was a cleaner, advised The Independent in a brand new interview: “I’m tired of seeing working-class parents portrayed as being vehemently against their kids going into the arts.”
The 59-year-old actor, who has lengthy been vocal about his concern concerning the dearth of arts funding in the north, assed that he he was approached to play the role of Billy’s father again in 1999.
“What was that f***ing ballet film everyone went mad for? I was offered a meeting to play the father. But I said, ‘I’m not going to do that, it’s offensive,’” the actor claimed.
The coming-of-age movie, directed by Stephen Daldry and written by Lee Hall, was launched in 2000. Jamie Bell performed the working-class dancer from Country Durham. Meanwhile, the character’s father – a putting coal miner who tries to push his son in the direction of boxing as a substitute of ballet – was in the end performed by Gary Lewis.
Former Doctor Who actor Eccleston lambasted the movie as “a middle-class view of the working-class experience, made for the American market,” including: “F*** it!”
Lewis prevously mentioned met with the miners in preparation for the role. Speaking about his time in the movie, Lewis mentioned: “My family and I were very active in supporting the miners: I stood in picket lines, I raised money for the miners and I was involved in the whole campaign to stop closing the pits.
“Basically, it was the state that launched a complete attack on a section of the work force, a section of the working class. Lots of people responded with solidarity and that was a key element in the script: solidarity working at different levels, the collective solidarity, the economic solidarity.”
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Eccleston has lengthy been vocal towards the dearth of funding that goes in the direction of drama colleges and humanities venues, expressing concern that this can have an effect on the rising crop of actors popping out of the north.
Christopher Eccleston, 59, says he turned down ‘offensive’ role in ‘Billy Elliot
(Getty Images)
In April 2023, Eccleson was praised for his impassioned words after Oldham’s historic Coliseum theatre was closed down after a failed marketing campaign to avoid wasting the venue.
The Coliseum, which the actor branded a “beacon” for actors in the Greater Manchester space, turned the most important theatre exterior of London to lose its Arts Council England subsidy of £600,000 per 12 months following a funding shake-up in November 2022.
“I went to see productions there as a child, and I just think it’s tragic that Oldham and its borough is losing a theatre in a time where we’re supposed to be levelling up,” he mentioned on BBC Radio 4’s right now programme.
“What last night was about was beginning a campaign to establish a new theatre in Oldham, and also to say this can’t happen anywhere else. Because the question in my mind is, if they can get rid of Oldham Coliseum, which has been there for over 100 years, where’s next for the North West?”
Gary Lewis ended up enjoying the father role in ‘Billy Elliot’
(United International Pictures)
Eccleston, whose credit embrace Cracker, 28 Days Later… and The Leftovers, continued: “If you grow up in the North West, you don’t feel the culture and the arts belong to you. You don’t believe, if you come from a council estate, [that] you can be an actor, a poet or a painter.
“So places like Oldham Coliseum, Bolton Octagon – they’re a beacon for people like me.”
He mentioned he “wouldn’t be an actor if it wasn’t for” such venues, stating: “And they’re disappearing. So what happens to this generation’s Chris Ecclestons or Maxine Peakes, or whoever you want to name?
“There’s no more actors like me coming through – it’s impossible. Now, you’ve just got to go to public school, haven’t you? You’ve got to go to Oxbridge, otherwise you can’t act.”
He mentioned he would advise aspiring actors from the North West “not to just think about becoming an actor”, however to “produce, direct, use iPhones, use everything available to you”.
Christopher Eccleston stars reverse Jodie Foster in ‘True Detective: Night Country’
(HBO)
The actor additionally warned: “You’re going to have to put up with the unemployment – you’re gonna have to put up with the rejection – and that’s going to be doubled if you’re from a working-class background or if you’re a minority, etc etc.”
Eccleston mentioned he will “keep banging on” about ACE’s promise to arrange a brand new theatre in Oldham in 2026, and that the cash that might have gone to the Coliseum might be given to the council “to fund other arts projects in the area”.
The actor lately completed enjoying Ebenezer Scrooge in the Old Vic’s manufacturing of A Christmas Carol. True Detective: Night Country airs in the UK on Sky Atlantic and NOW
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