War and Peace’s James Norton criticises ‘ridiculous’ preconceptions about ‘posh’ actors

Hitting back: James Norton criticises preconceptions about ‘posh’ actors
Jason Merritt/Getty Images for InStyle
Jennifer Ruby2 February 2016
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

James Norton has spoken out about the ‘ridiculous’ preconceptions about ‘posh’ actors.

The actor, who is currently starring in the BBC’s adaptation of War and Peace, has said that it’s a ‘shame’ that some people can’t over-look an actor’s background.

Speaking to the Radio Times, he said: “It’s a real shame, though, when you get somebody like Eddie Redmayne, who is such a great ambassador for British drama – two Oscar nominations in two years, it’s extraordinary – and at least half the press coverage on him is about the fact he went to Eton.

“What’s their point? Are they asking him to take that into account and maybe take his foot off the accelerator for a while? It’s ridiculous.”

Norton, 30, who is about to reprise his role in Happy Valley, urged producers to take more of a risk with casting.

“There’s two discussions to be had. One is that producers are afraid of taking risks on actors; they somehow forget that actors are there to transform – it’s kind of the point of what we do,” he said.

Lily James in War & Peace

1/9

“When Happy Valley first came up, I was in South Africa. So I auditioned on tape and sent it off.

“Which turned out to be lucky, as they didn’t know that I didn’t usually speak in a Yorkshire accent. They probably realised once they did a bit of research, but they took the risk, and I will be forever grateful.

“So many actors aren’t allowed the opportunity to transform because people have so many preconceptions about them and make so many judgements about them, just on the way they speak,” Norton added.

Julie Walter recently spoke out about the lack of ‘working class kids’ who make it in the acting industry these days.

She told The Guardian: “Working-class kids aren’t represented. Working-class life is not referred to. It’s really sad. I think it means we’re going to get loads more middle-class drama.

“It will be middle-class people playing working-class people, like it used to be.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in