HOME? IT’S THE PITS
Hollywood darling’s US chat show criticism of Tyneside
HOLLYWOOD star Andrea Riseborough had some less than kind words for her home town on a top-rated American chat show.
The Battle of the Sexes star was appearing on ABC chat show Jimmy Kimmel Live when she was asked where she was from.
She told the host – and his millions of viewers – described Newcastle as being “like the armpit” before adding that it is “the cold North East part”.
Host Kimmel responded by saying “it’s funny because y o u hear Newcastle and you think it’s some shining city on a hill”.
He then asked if it’s where Newcastle Brown Ale is from - and Riseborough didn’t seem all too keen on that either.
She said: “That stuff rots your bladder.
“I took an exboyfriend to Newcastle and he was like ‘the whole time I’m here I’m just going to drink Brown Ale, you know.’ “We were in a theatre watching a play and half way through he was like [pretends to jump up] and he had to jump over three rows. “It just kind of sits in there and then the yeast sort of ferments and then you’ve got to pee, you’ve no choice.” The chat show host quipped “you should put that in the ads,” to which Riseborough responded “on behalf of my people, you are welcome.” Asked if she would return to Newcastle for Christmas, she said she would be spending it in Venice instead, before waxing lyrical about Los Angeles, her new home. Raised in Whitley Bay, she studied at Church High School, Jesmond, before winning a place at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. In an interview with The Times around the time she played Margaret Thatcher in BBC film The Long Road to Finchley in 2008, she described her mother, a secretary, and father, a car salesman, as ‘working class Thatcherites.’
Riseborough, who rose to fame on British TV before landing roles in big budget movies like W.E., Oblivion and Oscar-winning Birdman, learned her trade in North East theatres.
In a 2013 interview with The Chronicle, she said Heaton’s People’s Theatre was a ‘huge part of my growing up, from the age of nine’ and has also praised Northern Stage.
Riseborough recently appeared in The Death of Stalin, a black comedy about the Russian dictator directed by Armando Iannucci. She starred alongside Emma Stone and Steve Carell in the tennis drama Battle of the Sexes.