I wanted to start by asking a little bit about your background, and how social class impacted you when you were young and growing up?
So I was born in Birmingham and then raised in North London until the age of 17 in a council flat – very low-income household, single parent, and my older brother. My dad was not about. I left school quite young. We really struggled financially, especially after my dad had gone. My mum was a cleaner and I'm happy to show off about how hard my mum worked for us. She would clean houses in exchange for a dance class or a music lesson or something like that, because she wanted me to have the best chance possible.
I didn’t have an amazing educational background. I certainly wasn't going to the theatre or nothing like that until much later. I think my family must have seen something in me and then my Uncle Greg – amazing man – paid for us to go to the theatre. I remember being like, "what is this?" I had obviously never experienced anything like that. We had people around us help with food shopping when my mum was really struggling.
But it was all I knew, so funnily enough the most working class I've felt is in this industry. My fella is working class and we say to each other: "When you grow up council, everyone's council, because you're in a council estate." I remember being like: "Oh, I'm gonna have to pretend to be posh". I'm really gonna have to pretend I know what everybody's talking about when they're talking about the theatre and playwrights.
I didn't train either and it's funny because I feel like it's to my benefit that I knew nothing, because I really did learn as I went. I never went uni and I left secondary school with nothing. I'm really fortunate it's turned out this way, because there is literally nothing else I can do. I’m buzzing it’s gone this well.
For me, the theatre was the place I went once a year when the school did a trip to the panto and things like art galleries and stuff, absolutely not.
No, like never. But also that's not in any way a determining factor of someone's intelligence. I just want to make that very clear. It just wasn't a part of our lives because people were just trying to get by. You realise that a lot of people have grown up around journalists or directors, or whatever, and these conversations aren't the same as I would have heard around a dinner table. We didn't even sit around a dinner table.
Were there any working class actors who were particularly inspiring to you?
Meera Syal, who's also from the West Midlands. She was such a familiar face to me growing up. But my idea of class wasn't really a thing growing up. I saw acting and the performing arts as something that just happened to certain people, and I didn't really understand why. But Meera Syal, I love her, and I think she's amazing. And then I met her and I cried. I told her how much she meant to me and she was so wonderful and so kind.
Claudia Jessie as Eloise Bridgerton
(Credit: Netflix)
How did your first opportunity come about to actually get into the world of acting?
I can't really talk about my entry into the industry without mentioning two women: my mum and a woman called Hannah Phillips, who’s a Birmingham-based playwright and director. She created a lot of opportunities for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. She saw something in me and asked me to join a theatre company. That was it.
But it was really difficult because every agent in the UK, I guess quite rightly, said no to representing me, because [I had] no qualifications and no experience. Me and my mum put together one of the most embarrassing showreels in the world and sent it to every agent. My family friend [actor] Ken Collard recommended this agent and he was the only agent who offered to see me. Fortunately, I loved him and he so kindly took me on when there was nothing. I’ve been with him for 12 and a half years. He’s the only agent I’ve ever had.
And since you got into the industry, have you found barriers because of your class at all?
I'm in a very fortunate position now, where I don't need to pretend to be anyone else. However, the barrier I have is an internal one. I still feel like I don't belong here, or that I don't understand what I'm doing. I absolutely don't walk into rooms feeling unapologetically me. I feel very apologetically me. I mostly feel nervous and anxious and like I don't belong there. And there are certain things that I probably wouldn't get away with, like even the way I conduct myself. Even something as simple as swearing. I'm an effer and jeffer and I think it seems maybe not classy or some s***, and I don't understand that.
Also, I think the barriers are the stories that need to be told. A bigger issue can come from who's writing the things, and who’s producing the things? And what sort of treatment do things about posh people or about upper class experiences get? I don't feel like it's equal. 65% of British Oscar winners were privately educated, yet not even 5% of the country was privately educated. So I've never been one for maths, but it don't look good, does it? But I think a lot of it comes from internal barriers that I have through feeling like I don't belong.
That's really interesting given that your most prominent role these days is as a very posh person?
You can do a nice posh accent when you've heard it forever. I love it and Bridgerton is a great example actually of showing actual life on screen. I feel so proud to be a part of that.
Claudia Jessie with her on-screen family in Bridgerton
(Credit: Netflix)
Eloise does have a tension in the world she's in, and maybe that’s easier for you to play given that maybe you feel a bit of that tension in the world that you're in?
Yeah, and she's quite p***ed off about it a lot of time. Eloise has the privilege of money and quite a cosy domestic setting, so she can go out and do those things. She can be a voice and she can hopefully use her privilege for good. She's the most fun I've ever had playing anyone.
You've been doing this now for 12 years. Do you think the attitudes to class in acting have changed within those years at all?
I mean, by the looks of things, it's getting worse. In the creative arts industry, it's like 8% [of people are from working class backgrounds] across the board. It's a proper disgrace because socio-economics affects everyone. Socio-economics can F everybody. That's why organisations like Open Door, created by amazing actor David Mumeni, are so important because they remove those barriers and allow people who come from lower income households to get a shot at this.
I've had people question whether or not I can still call myself working class. I want to be like: "What? Because I've got money now?" The idea that I would call myself middle class now is perpetuating the idea that this industry is made for middle class people only, which is a crock of crap.
Those barriers feel so insurmountable when so much of it comes down to finances. So much of it is about access and opportunity, which people from lower income households or backgrounds do not have. So no, I don't feel like it's getting better, but the more we talk about it, the better hopefully it will become. And the more space and funding organisations like Open Door are given, the more things will change. We have to unpick this idea that there are certain people that own this space, when actually working class people have the most incredible stories to tell.
What advice, then, would you give to working class people wanting to enter your industry now?
Oh, it makes me want to cry. My fella read me a tweet recently, and it was from a young woman who was talking about class in the industry, and she was talking about how, if working class people have sort of managed to “make it”, it was usually down to very unique circumstances. A lot of the time it will come down to one or two people really believing in you, your own talent, and then a lot of hard work. Mine came down to a few people in my life that really, really believed I could do something.
I want anyone who's got like a little inkling of belief that they could do it to keep nurturing that part of them that thinks they can do it. And do utilise organisations like Open Door. I cannot emphasise enough how much they are literally removing those barriers for people to get into this industry because it's free. So please research that and believe that you have a really good story to tell.
You can see Claudia Jessie in Bridgerton, which is streaming on Netflix now.
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