Hollyoaks actress Isabelle Smith has called out elitism in the acting industry and called for more support of actors from a working-class background.
The 23-year-old star, who has played Frankie Osborne since last year, was speaking as Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy visited the set of the Channel 4 soap in Childwall, Liverpool.
‘It’s not very easy to get a job… especially in an arts industry,’ she said.
‘I was fortunate enough to land this job, but now I’m in a position where most of my money goes to pay off my maintenance loan and my student loan, and that comes with a very high level of interest that is placed on top of the extortionate amount of money that I already owe.’
She continued (via Press Association): ‘There’s no grants really in place any more, the scholarship scheme is very underfunded, and I just think it’s already hard enough for a working-class female to get into this industry, as the first person in my family to go into an arts industry, and then you have this added cost weighing over your head.’
Isabelle noted the ‘misconception’ that actors earn a lot, calling the profession ‘an elitist industry’.
She said the government should also support ‘working-class [actors] just a little bit more.’
Isabelle added: ‘People have paid to go to private school, or to RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts) whatever. You’re constantly having to prove yourself into every room that you’re going into because you’ve maybe not had the same education as other people that you are sat next to.
‘If we just made it a little bit more accessible, I think people would be astounded at the difference that it actually makes.’
Nandy replied: ‘I really love that I was thinking when you were talking that you’re so recognisable [to] your generation.
‘And it would be great if we could do, not just a programme of government support for working-class young people to be able to break into the arts.
‘But we could also run a campaign on it, with people like you fronting it up to say, “Look, you can do this, and actually, you don’t have to struggle as much as you did, because there’s support available for it”.’
