Julie Walters didn’t fit in at school.
The ‘Mamma Mia!’ actress has felt like an outsider as a child and claims she was slapped by teachers at her private convent school on numerous occasions for pronouncing words in her native Birmingham accent.
She said: "The only time I ever felt that I really didn’t fit in was at my primary school. It was a private convent school and I came from a working-class background. I had to wear a navy gymslip with a tie, a school beret and a blazer or gabardine mac. I hated it. I hated them; the nuns were vile.
"We had elocution lessons and I used to be slapped. You had to stand at the front of the class and say various words and I remember one lesson in particular, "barrrrth.
"’Bath’, I said in the Birmingham accent I refused to lose … It went on and on and on. I didn’t say it … It was heaven when I went to an ordinary grammar school at 11. Heaven."
However, the 64-year-old star chose never to tell her parents about her experiences at the school, as they worked so hard to send her there though she hasn’t always lived up to their expectations.
She added to Radio Times magazine: "My mother wanted me to marry a doctor so I dutifully went in to nursing. When I announced later in life that I was jacking in nursing for acting, she went potty!"
Julie Walters didn’t fit in at school
