“Bollocks To Wokeism In Acting” Says Succession Star Brian Cox

Brian Cox has rubbished claims that actors should not be cast in roles that they have no real-life experience of.

The Succession star was speaking to the BBC’s Amol Rajan.

According to The Mail Online:

Speaking after the much-publicised death of his media tycoon character Logan Roy in the final season of Succession, the star was asked about the notion that ‘only actors who have had certain experiences should play certain roles’.

Interrupting presenter Amol Rajan on his BBC Two show, which was trailed on Radio 4’s Today Programme this morning, he said the claims are ‘b******s, absolute b******s’.

His furious response, which was not bleeped out for radio listeners, comes after actress Helen Mirren, who is not Jewish, was criticised for portraying former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir.

Mr Cox said on Amol Rajan Interviews: ”B******s! Absolute bollocks. Because it’s the imagination.

‘It’s again, what I talked about earlier on, about interfering with the imagination.’

Responding, Rajan said: ‘It kicked off a bit maybe a couple of years ago now when Helen Mirren played Golda Meir, the great Israeli leader, and people said, “well Helen Mirren is not Jewish and therefore she can’t play a Jewish leader”.

‘And your argument is that actually the point of acting is that sometimes you’ve got to be something that you’re not, right?’

Cox added: ‘Exactly, we can inhabit roles.’

Dame Helen was drawn into a row in 2021 after her casting as the iconic Israeli politician in biopic Golda.

Her fellow star Dame Maureen Lipman was among the critical voices, saying she disagreed with the casting because ‘the Jewishness of [Meir’s] character is so integral to the role’.

There has also been a fierce debate about whether or not straight actors should portray gay characters.

Earlier this year, Poldark star Jack Farthing waded in to the furore, saying he does not believe a performer’s sexuality should have to ‘match’ their character’s.

His comments came after Kingsman star Taron Egerton said that restricting actors to playing characters who align with their own sexuality is ‘a precedent not worth setting’.

Cox also spoke out against the push to introduce diversity quotas in films, saying: ‘I think we have to be free of all that.

‘I think we have to be diverse but that’s a different problem.

‘But I don’t think we have to say, “oh we have to gear it in that way”, because we are not telling the truth. We have to tell the truth.’

 

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