Christopher Eccleston has opened up about turning down a role in Billy Elliot, revealing he found its depiction of the working class “offensive”.
The actor, who is well-known for appearing in Doctor Who and is currently starring in True Detective: Night Country, said he was offered the role of the father in the 2000 film, which tells the story of a working-class boy who discovers a passion for ballet.
Speaking to The Independent, Eccleston said he didn’t like the portrayal of Billy’s parents as being against his artistic ambitions, revealing his own parents – a forklift driver and a cleaner – were very supportive of his own aspirations.
“[I’m] tired of seeing working-class parents portrayed as being vehemently against their kids going into the arts,” he said. “What was that fucking ballet film everyone went mad for?”
“I was offered a meeting to play the father,” Eccleston went on to recall. “But I said I’m not going to do that, it’s offensive. It was a middle-class view of the working-class experience, made for the American market. Fuck it!”
Eccleston has previously expressed disappointment at the lack of working class representation in the arts, saying his working class background put him at a disadvantage of the “boy’s club” of public school-educated actors.
“If ever I go up against anybody who is from a middle class background, or has been public school educated – and particularly if they’ve been to Oxbridge – I’m at a disadvantage,” he told Sky News in 2017. “They have a superior education to me, and also it’s a ‘boy’s club’.
“I do have an advantage, because I’m white and I’m male,” he admits, “but it was a lot easier for me than it is for the equivalent [today]. I could not have gone to drama school today – my parents could not have afforded to pay for me to go to drama school now. People like me are not gonna come through anymore.
Christopher Eccleston attends the press night after party for “A Christmas Carol” at The Old Vic Theatre on November 22, 2023 in London, England. CREDIT: Getty / Dave Benett
“There is no way that film and television in this country reflects the multicultural society we live in. If you are working class, [or] if you are non-white, you are at a severe disadvantage.”
Meanwhile, last year Eccleston defended playing the Jewish character Fagin in Oliver Twist spin-off series Dodger.
Speaking to The Guardian, he said at least one Jewish actor “noted they didn’t object to non-Jewish people playing Jewish roles, [they would] just like it to be spoken about.
“Which I completely agree with. But if I couldn’t play people like me, what’s the point?”
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