James McAvoy has joined an important conversation that has a number of talented actors in the UK voicing their concerns and opinions about the future of the arts and high costs of drama school. The topic has emerged with great timing as this year’s Academy Awards is dominated by actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Eddie Redmayne, both whom graduated from the prestigious drama schools, Harrow and Eton, Herald Scotland has pointed out.
McAvoy, who paid his way through drama school by working in a bakery, was caution when choosing his words. “Whenever we talk about this we have to be very very clear. There’s a lot of posh actors, that have been to boarding school and all that, who are feeling very embattled, sort of cornered. Nobody has got anything against an actor who is posh and is doing really well.”
He went on to say that this problem “doesn’t affect us right now, but it will affect us 5 years from now, ten years from now, certainly further down the line. 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.”
