The Crown’s Charles Dance, 73, claims he only gets ‘posh’ roles because of his ‘aristocratic face’ but the ex labourer insists ‘there’s nothing fancy about me’
- Dance is famed for playing Lord Louis Mountbatten in The Crown and Lord Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones
- Charles, the son of a cook and an engineer, didn’t go to drama school but instead worked as a labourer while two retired actors taught him in the evenings
- Leonard Bennett and Martin Burchardt gave him lessons
- But after he found acting success, Dance upset his teachers by revealing their sexuality during an interview, which up until they then had keep secret
He is famed for playing Lord Louis Mountbatten in The Crown and Lord Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones.
And Charles Dance claims he thinks he only gets ‘posh’ roles because of the way his ‘face is put together’ and not because of his family background.
The 73-year-old star of Game of Thrones and The Crown believes he is cast in aristocratic roles simply for his looks.
Genes: Charles Dance has claimed he only gets ‘posh’ roles because of the way his ‘face is put together’ and not because of his family background (pictured as Lord Mountbatten in The Crown)
Charles, the son of a cook and an engineer, told how he didn’t go to drama school but instead worked as a labourer while two retired actors taught him in the evenings.
Talking to the Loose Ends podcast, he said: ‘It’s just the way my face is put together,’ he said. ‘But there’s nothing posh about me.’
Dance described how he didn’t go to drama school in the 1960s but was instead instructed by retired actors Leonard Bennett and Martin Burchardt.
High-profile looks: The 73-year-old star of Game of Thrones and The Crown believes he is cast in aristocratic roles simply for his looks but said he isn’t actually posh at all
‘I went to art school but half way through I though, no, I don’t want to be a graphic designer, I want to be an actor,’ he said.
‘I knew of these two rather wonderful old men who lived down in deepest Devon and rang them up and asked if they would teach me.
‘And I spent a couple of years with them and I worked as a builder’s labourer and a plumber’s mate and I would go and see them one or two evenings and they tried to teach me what I would have learnt if I’d gone to drama school.’
Working his way up: Charles, (pictured in The Crown) was the son of a cook and an engineer, and said worked as a labourer while two retired actors taught him in drama in the evenings
But after he found acting success, Dance says he upset them by revealing their sexuality during an interview, which up until they then had keep secret.
‘I made the mistake of talking about them in a newspaper interview and was asked if they were gay and I said yes, indeed they were,’ he said.
‘Martin got in touch with me and was a bit upset about that because these two men were of that generation who lived in constant fear of a dawn raid.’
Learning: Dance described how he didn’t go to drama school in the 1960s but was instead instructed by retired actors Leonard Bennett and Martin Burchardt (pictured in Game of Thrones alongside Peter Dinklage)