McQueen: Whiteness of UK sets shameful

SOAP STAR Rachel Adedeji

ONLY days ago more than 3,000 film and TV creatives called for change to address racism in the UK industry.

It’s now time to do better, they said.

Separately, Ex-Hollyoaks star Rachel Adedeji said there were numerous incidents of on-set racism at the soap, including being told “you’re all the same” by a make-up artist.

She said black female actors were told to drastically change their hair as viewers “would not be able to tell them apart”.

Representation behindthe-camera is just as bad, as Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen found out in London after an extended stay in the US.

He said: “I could not believe the whiteness of the set. I made three films in the States and it seems nothing has changed in the interim in Britain. It is so far behind in terms of representation, it’s shameful.”

As a result many British creatives have moved to the US. Da 5 Bloods star Delroy Lindo, tipped for an Oscar next year, said: “I could never in a trillion years have had this career in England”.

Actor David Oyelowo, whose career has thrived since leaving the UK, found ”there’s a reluctance in our cinema to accept the real Britain we live in”.

So, how do we move forward? Given the UK’s propensity for period dramas, one way may be colour-blind casting.

This was used to great effect in Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield, with Dev Patel, a Londoner of Indian heritage, in the titular role.

McQueen said we need fast-track training for talented youngsters and “not just for talented white kids”. He added: “It’s not just about black people working on black films.

“It’s about black people working in film and television, period.”