Former Coronation Street star Julie Hesmondhalgh has revealed she rejected some career advice during her days of studying, saying she would have been “lynched” if she followed it.
The actor played Hayley Cropper on the ITV soap for 16 years until her departure in 2014, with her subsequent credits including Happy Valley, Broadchurch and Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
In an interview with The Express, Hesmondhalgh recalled a moment from her past in which she was given advice during her time at drama school, sharing that she was advised to maintain the accent she had been taught whenever she returned to her hometown of Accrington.
“I am from a very ordinary working class background, the product of a good state school at a time when it seemed easier to make a living in the arts,” she said. “It was certainly a culture shock though moving to London to go to drama school.
“I remember a teacher there suggesting that, when I went back home at Christmas, I speak the whole time in RP [Received Pronunciation]. Imagine going back to Accrington and speaking like that!”
“I’d have been lynched. I refused – I just couldn’t [do it]. The way I speak, my accent, is part of who I am and where I am from,” continued the actor, who appeared in nearly 1,500 episodes of Corrie.
Speaking in support of Arts Emergency, a charity which funds underprivileged young people as they aim for careers in the industry, Hesmondhalgh continued by noting that stereotyping was a common occurrence, with accents often leading to typecasting.
“I sound respectable working class so I get cast as teachers or nurses, but if you have a Scouse or Brummie accent a lot of assumptions are made,” she explained. “Actresses with Scouse accents always get cast as sex workers.”
