ROBERT CARLYLE THREATENED TO QUIT ACTING SCHOOL BECAUSE OF ACCENT

ROBERT CARLYLE THREATENED TO QUIT ACTING SCHOOL BECAUSE OF ACCENT

Trainspotting star Robert Carlyle has revealed he threatened to quit acting school — because he didn’t want to do give up his accent.

Carlyle, who attended the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD), said he hated having to use the RP accent.

He was so incensed he walked out of the academy before eventually being persuaded to come back by the principal at the time, Ted Argent.

He said: “Acting didn’t seem right. It wasn’t a real job. My da’ had a real job.

“There were about 20 of us in the year but most of the students were middle class and from down south and I didn’t know how to deal with all of this.

“One of the reasons I hated drama school was because we were all required to speak in RP, and I thought ‘I can’t be f****d with all of this.

“My deal for coming back was I didn’t have to speak middle class English and Ted Argent agreed.”

The Scots actor also admitted he spent more time talking to girls than doing any acting while attending classes at the Glasgow Arts Centre in his 20s.

But he was eventually persuaded to try some improv by organiser Maggie Kinloch, who now works at the Royal Conservatoire.

He said: “People began laughing at me, because they thought I was funny, and this gave me a wee buzz. I remember going home that night feeling ‘Maybe I could do something with this’.”

And he he became inspired to get into the profession after going to the cinema with his father, Joseph.

Joseph was a painter and decorator and a single dad, whose wife, Robert’s mother, left when the actor was four.

Carlyle said: “Because of what had happened with my dad and mother, in the late Sixties my dad would take me to the cinema, to forget about what had happened, to forget about the sh*** in our lives, to forget where we were living.

“In those days, you could sit through the same film all day long, and we’d do that watching cowboy films over and over again. We’d be there four or five times a week.

“The kernel of an idea must have stayed with me, even though I was in my early 20s before I started to act.”

Carlyle, who also worked as a painter and decorator admitted he didn’t tell his dad about his newly discovered love of acting for “years”.

He added: “It was only when I was accepted for drama school, I was still working as a painter and decorator at the time.”

Carlyle, who will be reprising his role as Begbie in Trainspotting 2 when filming starts next month, said he loves living in Glasgow.

He said: “I could live anywhere. I live here because I want to. Because I feel part of this city.”

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