Ben Chaplin Quotes

I reckoned my accent and class would count against me; I didn't see actresses as being working-class.

Some accents people - internationally - can't understand, also they come with baggage. London means a certain thing, Liverpool means a certain thing. Whereas with Welsh, he can be a middle-class man with working-class roots and still have an accent and it not be an issue.

I was always told at school I was posh, then I came to London, and here I'm told I have a country accent.

Cricket was deemed too posh where I came from, and I'd never have risked walking home through the estates in my whites. My club played some of the posh schools. I'd have the cheapest kit, but I loved those games. As soon as the posh lads opened their mouths and you heard their accents, the stakes were raised.

The more cynical commentators on our careers would say that the northern accent has been the basis of our success. There's a certain authenticity to the voice - which isn't to my credit; I was just born there.

I remember early in my career people telling me I needed to change my accent, that I needed to sound more professional, more BBC perhaps, but I think if I wasn't from Middlesbrough I wouldn't have done as well as I have.

I think people tend to underestimate you when you have a Northern accent, for instance if you have to talk to the CEO of an international company. But then when I'm talking to someone in a factory, it's just like being with my mum's mates.

I learned to change my accent; in England, your accent identifies you very strongly with a class, and I did not want to be held back.

Trouble is, some accents lend themselves to comedy.

I think every English actor is nervous of a Newcastle accent.

I've only auditioned for one non-culturally specific role. I went through drama school and studied classic texts and played lead roles in 'Measure for Measure' and 'The Importance of Being Earnest' alongside a very culturally diverse group of acting students. But as soon as we graduate and enter the industry, all of those roles fall away.

I just wanted to be an ordinary, middle-class person. When I was at Cambridge, I made great efforts to lose the last remnants of my Cockney accent.

When I first started out, being from the South and going to New York or Chicago, people kept telling me to get voice lessons and 'lose that stupid accent you got.' And I'm like, 'Well, where I come from, you have the stupid accent.'

I know there are lots of regional accents in England, but I can't tell them apart and I'm not really aware of class. I don't pay any attention to those boundaries. I'm a California girl.

At various points, I've had a massive chip on me shoulder. I had fights about me accent with loads of those fellers you get from third-class public schools. They used to think I was speaking German.

My parents' parents were regular working-class people. I ended up speaking in a certain way, and one gets sidelined into doing certain parts. I think that is really quite narrow-minded.

I grew up three and a half hours outside of Chicago, but people would call me a 'hick' or 'country boy.' Maybe it's because I talked with more of a country accent.

When I started in the profession, there were very visible actors who were Scottish, Welsh, or regional. Lots of working-class-hero leading actors; it was not fashionable to sound posh. Now, I'm middle-aged; it's fashionable to sound posh if you are the generation behind me.

I was lucky to get into drama school and become a professional actor. No-one ever mentioned the colour of my skin. It's only when I came out of RADA - the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art - that I suddenly realised people started to refer to me as a black actor.

I've always been 'other' in all the spaces that I've been in. Even when I first moved to America, just the idea that I was a dark-skinned black girl from England with an accent. It's one thing to be a black girl, but it's another to be a dark black girl. I was chastised for that. I was chastised for the way I spoke.

If you want to underestimate me because I speak like a Mancunian, like the people I grew up with, then so be it at your peril.

Just because I don't speak English with an accent anymore doesn't mean that I'm better than the people who do.

I think Britain is a bit class-ridden. People tend to be judged by how rounded their vowels are.

I had people who said I was a brilliant producer but I wouldn't get on the news because I was too northern. But there was no way I was changing my accent - it is the key to my identity.

Class is really interesting to me, maybe because I'm from England where there is a pretty hideous, deep-rooted obsession with class. I don't like the obsession with class, but it certainly interests me.