The Heckler: down with the actor-commentariat!

I’ve never been terribly keen on actors. I prefer hairdressers and accountants. And teachers and builders and lawyers. I may even prefer politicians and footballers to actors. It’s a modesty thing. No profession demands more attention. And no attention is less warranted. Everywhere you look, there they are pouting and grimacing on billboards and TV screens, like oversized teenagers. How have we come to this? These people dress up and pretend to be other people — for a living!

It wouldn’t be quite so bad if that were all they did. But these days actors are taking over our public space in a way that is unsettling and impossible to ignore. Actors now take centre-stage in all the serious debates of the day — from sexual equality and national security to education and wealth distribution. A squeak from James McAvoy on social mobility or a belch from Russell Brand on pretty much anything at all seems enough to send us into an ideological swoon.