Christopher Eccleston has always seemed like a Cillian Murphy-type of actor… to me. What I mean is that even when Eccleston is supposed to be playing a sympathetic or even “good” character, I still think the character is probably a psycho. It’s something about the eyes and the intensity. Eccleston just comes across like an intense guy who excels at playing bad guys. It’s not the worst thing in the world. Anyway, Eccleston has a new interview with Radio Times about why his tenure as Doctor Who was so short and why it’s tough for him to be a working class Northern lad in an industry that only wants to hire the posh blokes like Benedict Cumberbatch and Eddie Redmayne.

Why his Doctor Who had a Northern accent: “I wanted to move him away from the RP (received pronunciation) for the first time because we shouldn’t make a correlation between intellect and accent … although that still needs addressing… I still feel insecure, like a lot of my working-class contemporaries. I had a sense acting wasn’t for me because I’m not educated. I was a skinny, awkward-looking bugger with an accent, as I still am.”

Inequality and classism in British culture: “British society has always been based on inequality, particularly culturally. I’ve lived with it, but it’s much more pronounced now, and it would be difficult for someone like me to come through.”

Posh actors: “You can’t blame Eddie Redmayne, Benedict Cumberbatch and others taking their opportunities but it will lead to a milky, anodyne culture. To an extent that’s already happened. I confess I don’t watch much film or television drama but I’m aware of the predominance of white, male roles. It’s not just about the working class. There’s not enough writing for women or people of colour. It frustrates me when they insist on doing all-male Shakespearean productions – a wonderful intellectual exercise, maybe, but it’s outrageous because it’s putting a lot of women out of work.”

[From Pajiba & Radio Times]

I had to look up the word “anodyne”. In case you didn’t know it either, it means “not likely to provoke dissent or offense; inoffensive, often deliberately so.” And he’s absolutely right. I love seeing Benedict and Eddie and Tom Hiddleston and hell, even posh bloke Tom Hardy in more films, but it would be great if the British film & television industry could focus on telling stories that aren’t just about posh, educated white blokes. Hollywood should learn the same lesson, although many British working-class actors and British actors of color have said that they’re actually offered more opportunities in America than Britain.

Photos courtesy of WENN.