Joe Dempsie would rather see Jack O’Connell play James Bond than Tom Hiddleston.
The 30-year-old actor – who shot to fame as Chris in E4’s hit show ‘Skins’, which starred O’Connell in a later series – thinks working class actors still have to fight for the chance to star in Hollywood movies and called for casting agents to be more "open-minded" when it comes to looking at British stars.
Speaking to the i newspaper, the actor said: "As a working class actor you still do have to fight to be given a range of roles.
"I think Jack O’Connell is one of the most exciting actors out there. They were looking for a Bond: would Jack get a look in?
"I’d much rather watch him than Tom Hiddleston. There needs to be more open-mindedness."
Several stars, including Hiddleston, Aidan Turner, Tom Hardy, Damian Lewis and Idris Elba, were rumoured to replace Daniel Craig in the next Bond movie, but Craig recently confirmed he is back for one more.
Although Dempsie is starring as Gendry in HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’, he feels there is "more to be done" for working class actors and storylines.
He said: "There’s more that can be done. Benedict Cumberbatch, Eddie Redmayne or Tom Hiddleston – they’re all great actors in their own right.
"It’s not their fault. But we seem to have, in the past 10 years, been making a lot of films and TV that seems to be geared towards stories about privilege.
"Some of them are done incredibly well but some of them really aren’t. I still think we can tell far more working class stories.
"I miss the mid-1990s to the early 2000s where a lot of films were about working class people. They didn’t have tiny budgets.
"’The Full Monty’, one of our biggest success stories, ‘East is East’, ‘Brassed Off’ – I feel like those films have disappeared from the landscape. You can’t just leave it to [directors] Shane Meadows, Mike Leigh and Ken Loach."
Joe Dempsie prefers Jack O’Connell as James Bond rather than Tom Hiddleston
