The Daily Telegraph

Eccleston: I am but mad north-north west, and it costs me roles

- By Anita Singh ARTS AND ENTERTAINM­ENT EDITOR

‘I didn’t go to the right university or schools’

WHEN Christophe­r Eccleston takes to the stage as Macbeth in the Royal Shakespear­e Company’s latest production, it will be one of the hottest tickets of the year. But the actor claims he was only given the part because he wrote a letter to the RSC asking to be considered, in the belief he had been overlooked for Shakespear­e roles for years on account of his northern accent.

“I’m never offered Shakespear­e,” he said. “I was born in 1964 on a council estate. I didn’t go to the right university or the public schools. You don’t hear many accents like mine, and it’s discrimina­tion and I loathe it. It’s held me back in terms of the classics because people like me ‘can’t be classical’.”

Now Eccleston, 54, who was born and raised in Salford, Greater Manchester, will play Macbeth next month.

He landed the role after writing to Gregory Doran, the RSC’S artistic director. “I wrote an old-fashioned letter to him and I said, ‘Since I was 17 I’ve always wanted to play Macbeth at the RSC, so can I do it?’

“Macbeth is horrendous­ly flawed and I was fascinated by his battle to be decent and his failure to be decent. I’ve always felt that’s within me. So, basically I decided to be an actor because of this play,” Eccleston told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

He has appeared in a Shakespear­e play only once before: in a 2002 production of Hamlet at the West York- shire Playhouse in Leeds, in a critically acclaimed lead role.

Eccleston tries to retain his accent on screen, including in the Hollywood film Gone In 60 Seconds and his role as The Doctor in Doctor Who in 2005. He said of playing the ninth Doctor: “I wanted to move him away from RP [received pronunciat­ion] for the first time because we shouldn’t make a correlatio­n between intellect and accent.”

He is not the only former Doctor to tread the boards in Stratford-upon-Avon. David Tennant, the 10th Doctor, played Hamlet for the RSC, but swapped his Scottish accent for RP.

This is Eccleston’s first stage role in six years, although not for want of trying – he became a television and film actor “by default” because he was not offered the right stage roles, he said.

 ??  ?? Christophe­r Eccleston played Hamlet in 2002 – now, 16 years later, he will tackle Macbeth, above
Christophe­r Eccleston played Hamlet in 2002 – now, 16 years later, he will tackle Macbeth, above

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