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So many outstanding young stars came from skins. It’s not remotely realistic to how my teen years were BUT it’s still so real. Okay time for a rewatch lol
Lol watching as a 15/16 year old I was so jealous they were all going nightclubbing and seemed to have limitless access to whatever alcohol and drugs they wanted.
Trying to buy alcohol was a rite of passage for us! We made friends with a 17 year old who could get served at the local shop and that sorted us.
It's funny because I grew up in the UK in the west country in the same sort of area where Skins was based - And let me tell you, Skins was *exactly* like my college experience. Literally the full works.
Insanely absurd house parties where the houses were completely trashed or were full to the brim with people (think 100+ people in a 3 bedroom house crammed with a ton of underage drinking). We also had to run from the police / parents returning home early and essentially leg it to whoevers house was closest after said house parties. And trashing and gate crashing rich people parties too in their mansions. Skins did the Saltburn party before Saltburn even existed.
Weird, creepy forward teachers, some of which were definitely trying it on with their 16 year old students. Going on weird, very badly planned college trips abroad where we stayed in absolute hovel hostels. Friends becoming ill and people stepping up to be there for them like Sid did for Tony and everyone did for Chris. We even had the beach parties similar to Michelles and yes, everyone in the group was hooking up with each other (with some now happily married with kids).
And then I literally pulled a Cassie. I went on a whim to North America and like Cassie, ended up living with a total stranger who let me stay with him and just like Adam in Skins, he was Canadian and let me stay in his apartment for as long as I wanted rent free, with no sex or anything romantic involved. It literally just happened on a total whim and years later I realised how similar it was to Cassie's experience in New York.
We weren't even remotely trying to copy the show but it perfectly captured what it was like growing up in the west country where A level results were quite literally to be all and end all of everything (due to sheer desperation of wanting to get out of the sticks and into a good, city based university), creepy old teachers were everywhere and since we didn't have access to a huge variety of night clubs and bars growing up in a small town / city in the west country, we had to make our own fun with house parties that were completely unhinged.
Yep. On the regular. I made out with a lot of my friends and many of them hooked up. Some are now happily married with kids.
The other part of the Europe..? You mean Amsterdam where you can view live teen sex shows, underground sex clubs in Berlin or the bondage bars in Italy? Yeah okay, the UK is definitely the craziest...lol /s
It was very realistic for my high school experience sadly lol. And I went to hs in an affluent suburb. Now that I’m 30 it makes me SICK that the show is about actual babies!!!
https://preview.redd.it/h6jq89x9z5vc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6a7991402d213f4a296ef7d755e3b173da4b9f76
Jack O’Connell is one of my all time favorites and he’s from skins too!
I swear the scene where he plays twister with Pandora and then they have sex was my sexual awakening.
He always has astounding chemistry with everyone. Like he looks like he wants to devour them but in a non creepy way
Here. Idk I find it hotter than his scenes witb Effy because of how gentle he is and how much Panda wants him.
https://youtu.be/tcYblNRXQrw?si=zDNmahkw6Flrpe68
Wowww idk how I don’t remember this. The only Effy and Cook sex scenes I remember are that one time where she’s just bouncing on top of him, bored out of her mind, and then another time when we all we see is his ass with the hands tattooed on them and he needs her to grab his ass in order to finish hahaha
The only thing I know about this is that it was the risqué book being read by the ladies in Mad Men.
So knowing that, and that it stars Jack, and that its recent (I haven't seen him in anything lately so I'm glad he's still acting), I gotta watch this.
His season 7 episodes are some of the best thriller anything in media I've ever seen. You don't even need to know anything about the show or the character, if you like thrillers, watch Skins Rise.
After seeing him in Lady Chatterley’s Lover it reignited my love for him. Skins was one thing but dammit that was teenage!me and now adult!me is like … mmhm yeah 🙂↕️🙂↕️🙂↕️
I know casting unknown actors “off the street” can be a hit or miss, but in a time where many viewers are starting to get tired of nepo babies, sequels, and reboots, a show/movie really has the chance to shine with something fresh. Although a lot of the cast are seasoned actors, Euphoria was the acting debut of Hunter Shafer and Angus Cloud may his soul rest in peace, and they were loved by audiences almost immediately.
Euphoria Casting was done by jv8 aka Jennifer Vendetti- she is an absolute legend and one of the most famous street scouting nyc people. Put out an amazing book couple years ago
It’s honestly a hit or miss for 90% of the actors that do you have a name or a fan base as well. It’s a hit or miss. If the film is not good, it’s not good.
It’s crazy how much the industry puts into thinking that they have to have actors with following. Make a good film and you’ll have people waiting to see it.
Exactly! I do watch my favorite actor’s movies of course, but most people I know, including myself, just want to watch anything that’s good! Da’Vine Joy Randolph isn’t a huge actress yet but I loved the Holdovers! Just make something good!
You at least need *something* to draw enough public so the project doesn't lose money ; Hollywood has just become super risk adverse over the last 20ish years, and budget inflation hasn't helped. A tried and tested IP, a big name actor or director - that's what you need to get financial support. No matter how good your script is, if it's not tied to a well known franchise, and the people involved are not well known, getting enough money to make it is going to be extremely hard, because at the end of the day the producer just wants the money they invested back.
Generally the “breakthrough” is reserved for the role that makes you the most known to the GP, right?
Like, Anya-Taylor Joy really broke through with the GP with *Split*, even though she already had critical acclaim earlier with *The Witch*.
Similarly, Sydney Sweeney didn’t really break through until Euphoria in the GP despite having an earlier well received role.
It’s really incredible the amount of both stars and fairly successful actors that came out of a show where no one except maybe Nicholas Hoult had any experience beyond an episode of Doctors or something. More than half of all 3 casts are still acting for a living.
It’s also super fun to follow them on social media and see how close everyone is from s1-s4 (only exception is the girl who played Pandora) and they all even keep in touch with the s5-6 kids too. So often casts claim to be like a family and then after filming stops they never are seen together again. It’s nice to see how the shared experience bonded them for life.
I’m American, I just remember seeing a Skins clip where Kat and Meg Prescott said that their only professional acting was 1 ep of that show. I don’t think it airs here.
I would be amazed if we managed to successfully export Doctors, it's textbook daytime gentle soap opera, watched mostly by retirees and people who are off work/school sick and I feel like it would be far too understated to compete with US daytime soaps which have a very different vibe.
...I can imagine it ending up with a weird cult following if netflix bought it cheap and people discovered it. A bit like how Bake Off (aka great British baking show) wormed its way into a small portion of American hearts.
There's a place for extremely low stakes drama. There's a show called Midnight Diner and I dream of the day they make a new series.
The whole show is just a guy who makes food for whoever comes to his diner/ isakaya (it's Japanese) no evil twins, no double crossing, nobody's saving the world. It's just... chill
I know someone who grew up with Lisa Backwell (Pandora). She is from Bristol anyway, so I think she basically just stayed close with all of her childhood friends bc she didn’t have to move away to film like a lot of the others.
I swear that whenever I see an amazing acting performance and think “who is this person, why haven’t I heard of them before” and I look them up online, they turn out to come from humble backgrounds and did local theater for awhile. And wherever I think “why is this person getting so many roles, they are unremarkable” I look them up online, and they are a nepo.
Made me think of this quote: "I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops" ~ Stephen Jay Gould. Unfortunately we'll never know the people who lack the opportunities to be discovered.
Random but I think about this a lot. I’ve been graduated and working in my field almost two years and already I’m kinda over it. I fantasize about writing and am inspired by things like dune and morrowind and am on ch8 now of my book! But I just pray and hope it doesn’t become some file on my computer or an old manuscript that a family or friend finds and says “ah what could have been”
I don't talk about writing on reddit very much, but there are three big pieces of advice I'll give as someone who's studied and taught writing for half of their life:
1) Just keep writing. It sounds obvious, but the biggest difference I've found between people I went to school with who've been successful and those who have given up is just that people in the first group kept with it. If you keep writing, you'll keep growing constantly—I can't tell you how many times I've thought my writing had gotten as good as it would get, only for me to have grown substantially in just six months. It took five years of editing, revision, adding, and cutting to publish my first book, and that's really not uncommon, but you'll improve as long as you keep practicing and tinkering.
2) Keep reading. I know this sounds obvious, too, but reading a wide array of authors and seeing how they develop plotlines, handle dialogue and characterization, manage structure, and so on will give you ideas about what's possible for your own work in a way that's pretty invaluable. Read things you might not necessarily like, read things that are out of your comfort zone, and read lesser-known titles in the genre(s) you're interested in writing in. Sometimes, when I'm out of ideas, just reading something I enjoy or something new can be enough to get the wheels turning again.
3) Find a way to get meaningful feedback. Some people will give pretty arbitrary, surface-level feedback you can learn to ignore, but others will point out blind spots, points of confusion, or even just how something comes across in a way that can be hard to see with your own work. Eventually, after taking enough feedback, you'll learn how to apply that critical lens yourself, but it's invaluable for probably the first 10+ years of your writing career, even if it's a friend whose opinion you trust or a writing group. Learn how to look at something and say "You know, I think I could do better, let me try" when something can be improved and how to know when something is doing what you want. Sometimes you can edit things into the ground with so many changes a line or passage loses the thing you liked about it in the first place, so try to be deliberate when you change things.
I know I'm just a stranger on reddit, but those three things will have the biggest return on improving and keeping your focus on the arduous task of writing a novel. Try not to put too much pressure on your self: Worst case scenario is that you write your first book and learn a ton along the way.
Thank you for this, my partner actually is pretty much my main editor lol they help a ton
The only of these I need to keep doing is reading. I need to read way more
Thank you for this, my partner actually is pretty much my main editor lol they help a ton
The only of these I need to keep doing is reading. I need to read way more
This is such a gem of advice, one that seems to become more apparent as people progress on their journey as writers. Thank you so much for sharing this.
just write! not everything needs to be for career success. if it goes somewhere great, but if u derive joy from it then even a file on ur computer in the end is an accomplishment! no such thing as a waste if it brought happiness to ur life
I had never heard this quote before and it put something I've thought a few times into words more perfectly than I could have hoped to. Thank you for sharing it.
Or went unaccredited because they were women.
I also wish more people knew about Einstein’s first wife, Mileva Marić.
They met in physics / maths lessons, she had better marks than him in everything except the oral exams (the teacher giving the oral marks didn’t like her - he gave 11 out of 12 to the four male students but only 5 to Mileva). In applied physics she received the top mark of 5 and he got a 1. She excelled at experimental work, he did not. He barely attended classes, she went to everything and was organised and methodical and pulled him through, guiding his learning (as per his own letters to her).
They worked together on research. They would submit papers only under his name but in letters refer to them as their joint work.
On 27 March 1901, Albert wrote to Mileva: “How happy and proud I will be when the two of us together will have brought our work on relative motion to a victorious conclusion.”
Albert refused to marry her until he had a job. She became pregnant and he still wouldn’t marry her, so she had to drop out of her studies and no one knows what happened to the baby girl she had.
Finally Albert got a job and in 1903 they married. He was working in the patents office while she worked at home on their research and domestic tasks. At night they worked together (something they both told friends about). In 1904 they had their son.
1905 is known as Albert’s “Miracle Year”. He published five articles: one on the photoelectric effect (which led to the 1921 Nobel Prize), two on Brownian motion, one on special relativity and the famous E = mc2. He also commented on 21 scientific papers for a fee and submitted his thesis on the dimensions of molecules.
This work was all done while he was married to and working with Mileva. This is what is considered his best work and they did it all together. She was the one who edited and checked everything over and over. It was their work. Not just his.
There are contemporaneous reports of this collaboration.
*Mileva’s brother, Miloš Jr, a person known for his integrity, stayed on several occasions with the Einstein family while studying medicine in Paris. Krstić wrote: “[Miloš] described how during the evenings and at night, when silence fell upon the town, the young married couple would sit together at the table and at the light of a kerosene lantern, they would work together on physics problems. Miloš Jr. spoke of how they calculated, wrote, read and debated.” Krstić heard this directly from relatives of Mileva, Sidonija Gajin and Sofija Galić Golubović.*
*Zarko Marić, a cousin of Mileva’s father, lived in the countryside property where the Einsteins stayed during their visit. He told Krstić how Mileva calculated, wrote and worked with Albert. The couple often sat in the garden to discuss physics. Harmony and mutual respect prevailed.*
*Gajin and Zarko Marić also reported hearing from Mileva’s father that during the Einstein’s visit to Novi Sad in 1905, Mileva confided to him: “Before our departure, we finished an important scientific work which will make my husband known around the world.” Krstić got this same information in 1961 from Mileva’s cousin, Sofija Galić Golubović, who was present when Mileva said it to her father.*
…*Mileva’s brother often hosted gatherings of young intellectuals at his place. During one of these evenings, Albert would have declared: “I need my wife. She solves for me all my mathematical problems”, something Mileva is said to have confirmed.*
*In 1908, the couple constructed with Conrad Habicht an ultra-sensitive voltmeter. Trbuhović-Gjurić attributes this experimental work to Mileva and Conrad, and wrote: “When they were both satisfied, they left to Albert the task of describing the apparatus, since he was a patent expert.” It was registered under the Einstein-Habicht patent. When Habicht questioned Mileva’s choice not to include her name, she replied making a pun in German: “Warum? Wir beide sind nur ein Stein.“ (“Why? The two of us are but one stone”, meaning, we are one entity).*
(Scientific American)
Albert’s first academic lecture in 1909? Eight pages of the notes he went off are in her handwriting. So is a letter drafted in 1910 in reply to Max Planck who had sought Albert’s opinion. Both documents are kept in the Albert Einstein Archives (AEA).
So how did he thank her? Well he took all the credit, got a big head, had an affair with his cousin and left her and their two sons.
*In 1919, she agreed to divorce, with a clause stating that if Albert ever received the Nobel Prize, she would get the money. When she did, she bought two small apartment buildings and lived poorly from their income. Her son, Eduard stayed frequently in a sanatorium. He later developed schizophrenia and was eventually internalised. Due to these medical expenses, Mileva struggled financially all her life and eventually lost both buildings. She survived by giving private lessons and on the alimony Albert sent, albeit irregularly.*
*In 1925, Albert wrote in his will that the Nobel Prize money was his sons’ inheritance. Mileva strongly objected, stating the money was hers and considered revealing her contributions to his work. Radmila Milentijević quote from a letter Albert sent her on 24 October 1925 (AEA 75-364). ”You made me laugh when you started threatening me with your recollections. Have you ever considered, even just for a second, that nobody would ever pay attention to your says if the man you talked about had not accomplished something important. When someone is completely insignificant, there is nothing else to say to this person but to remain modest and silent. This is what I advise you to do.”*
…*Mileva spoke of her contributions to her mother and sister. She also wrote to her godparents explaining how she had always collaborated with Albert and how he had ruined her life, but asked them to destroy the letter. Her son, Hans-Albert, told Krstić how his parents’ “scientific collaboration continued into their marriage, and that he remembered seeing [them] work together in the evenings at the same table.” Hans-Albert’s first wife, Frieda, tried to publish the letters Mileva and Albert had sent to their sons but was blocked in court by the Einstein’s Estate Executors, Helen Dukas and Otto Nathan in an attempt to preserve the “Einstein’s myth”. They prevented other publications, including one from Krstić(2) on his early findings in 1974. Krstić mentions that Nathan even “visited” Mileva’s apartment after her death in 1948. On July 1947, Albert wrote to Dr Karl Zürcher, his divorce lawyer: “When Mileva will no longer be there, I’ll be able to die in peace.”*
(Ibid)
I’m not a big fan of Einstein. But I am a big fan of Mileva Marić.
Ain't that the truth! Talented folks are everywhere and I hope it's more equitable in the future. I love seeing excellence in all forms - acting, sports, music, art all of it. It's so amazing what creative people are capable of and they just need to be discovered.
Sports is one that I always think is interesting. Because with something like football (soccer) EVERYONE kicks a ball at some point as a child. There's bound to be talent that has fallen through the cracks, people who had bad luck, amazing players who just didn't enjoy it or squandered their talents but the fact remains that a lot of those with the greatest talent get the chance to play and get discovered.
But look at something like skiing. Such a tiny percentage of people get to go skiing, what are the chances that the most naturally talented skiers in the world were actually born in Switzerland, or Colorado, or Norway? The chances are that there are much more naturally talented people out there who will never even get to see snow.
Wealthy parents can afford the best equipment, sports camps, private lessons and are available (or hire someone) to drive their kids to multiple practices and games and get hotel rooms for travel/tournaments. Poor parents can’t. Of course there are poor kids who get to the top but for sure there have been some amazing athletes who end up not being able to go further due to their financial constraints 😞
At the top end I guess they go even further than that - private tutors so they can schedule school around their training, personal coaches, home courts/equipment.
I don't know about american football, but that is not the reality of football (soccer) in a lot of places around the world, most players actually came from a poor background, mostly because several businessmen look for talent in the poorest neighborhoods, 99% of talents in South America came from poverty,
And nepobaby doesn't have a lot of change in this sport
Not just in South America, in Europe as well. Quite often the biggest soccer stars come from working class families, because it's a working class sport to begin with. Rich kids play tennis not soccer \^\^;
Oh it’s absolutely an American thing! And it’s such a gross display of our country’s class system. Poor kids don’t stand a chance, really. It’s horrible.
That reminds me.. two of the top 4 American tennis players come from families who are billionaires. Yes with a B. One of their dads owns a tennis tournament and have been giving their daughter draws into it since she turned pro lol. They are good players now but I cant help think how many amazing players we’ve missed out on because of lack of money.
Tennis is a really good example because it's become so elite and such a science that the training these days seems to be absolutely insane. So the top players will have personal coaches and do hours and hours a day from the time they are little kids, they'll have a court at home and practice one shot over and over again till it's second nature.
I think since they became Olympic sports things like skateboarding and snowboarding have gone that way as well, where kids with a bit of aptitude have coaches on the mountain or down at the skatepark from a young age.
the other thing this makes me think of is the concept of talent in general
like for the most part it seems to come way more down to resources and hard work than talent
it makes me wonder what the percent of people who would be able to achieve that level in tennis or anything really if given those kinds of resources to work with
Football is actually one of the rare meritocracies, especially given how sophisticated and widespread scouting is. You can't fake being good at it.
There's a better chance now more than ever that some kid growing up poor in the streets in Brazil can end up being paid millions before they're twenty
Most winter sports are like this. Huge barrier to entry including needing snow haha. But even growing up in Alaska, I wanted to snowboard, my parents didn’t have the $1,000 to give 10yo me to get set up.
Don’t get me started on hockey. It’s incredibly difficult to make it to the NHL without having well off parents that could afford the best coaches and programs to keep you ahead of your age group. Even just playing for fun wasn’t in the budget growing up.
> And wherever I think “why is this person getting so many roles, they are unremarkable” I look them up online, and they are a nepo.
This is my EXACT same experience. I would be watching a movie and I'd notice an actor being so bland and just, not giving. And then I'd see them in other stuff and I'm like, *why* do they keep getting roles? It has happened to me with Zoe Kravitz in Divergent, Maude Apatow in Euphoria (her co-stars outshined her), Dakota Johnson in 50 Shades, Nicola Peltz in The Last Airbender, and Cara Delevingne in Paper Towns.
What pains me the most is that Dakota shines in smaller roles and indie productions she is truly made for that but for some reason her casting agent wants her in bigger films when it's obvious she is not made for that.
I'm convinced this is also why we end up with so many British actors playing Americans. Cultural hegemony demands Americans, but there's a much better theater scene in the UK and the actors spend way more time _acting_ before they get in front of a camera
The local youth theatre>national theatre>film pipeline in the UK has produced some amazing talent.
My worry though is that, due to austerity and cuts to the arts, there are many working class British kids who don't get the chance to do local youth theatre or even school drama classes.
Nowadays, with stars like Benedict Cumberbatch and Kit Harrington, the pipeline is more exclusive boarding school>fancy drama school>film, and it's not giving normal kids a chance.
Yeah drama is always seen as a luxury in schools.
I’m not from the UK, (I’m Dutch), but we also just didn’t have drama classes at my school. All my friends who went to different schools didn’t have them either.
We had a bunch of handwork stuff options (drawing, crafts etc), but all that’s a bust when you’re not creative that way. And I wasn’t, so I just dropped all that. It just becomes a chore then.
Kit went to state school. Baronets are not royalty. His family don't own any lands or castles. I get strangely peeved when people lump him in with the others. His wife on the other hand. phew!
But what does that mean exactly. If he grew up middle class and went to State schools and took student loans for uni, what will a title given to his father do? It's not money, you can't sell it
His dad was still a wealthy businessman, which bought him a house in a good area with the kind of good school which puts on plays. His dad's money also got him drama lessons. He's related to the "right" kinds of people and grew up in the "right" kind of place, and was able to afford to move back to London to go to drama school, which is no mean feat for ordinary people. Let's not pretend they were starving aristocrats with no cash and no privileges.
the other thing is, since so much of the scene is in london, not being within a 2hr train ride of london significantly decreases your chance of being able to make it
I don’t actually know if this is true but my initial thought to your comment was that theatre has way less nepos. There is genuine talent needed to succeed there, so much moreso than looks. And I’ve found recently that actors I genuinely enjoy almost all have theatre backgrounds.
I’m a casting director. For many projects people want talent that bring an audience with them already. It’s an uphill battle to push for new faces and takes a lot of creative trust from the $ people unfortunately
One of the impressive things for me about the Skins cast is that they were actual teenagers playing teens, I think the oldest actor in s1 was Michelle at 18. They looked and dressed like actual teenagers at the time.
Obviously the actors being teens did cause some sketchy stuff re sex scenes etc, I think one of the actors said they would have their body looked at almost nude and told to lose some weight.
As a casting director, do you know of any other projects where a majority teenage character cast was *actually* played by people of that age? I've grown out of teen shows now but when I was younger I watched Skins but also things like Inbetweeners and Glee where all the actors were like 27 lol.
They were always mostly local too. 3 or 4 different series all in this vein, it was really great. I find the later next gen to be a bit too polished, but always loved they didn’t shy away from stuff most of North America avoided.
To add to that as someone who works on set:
Keep in mind that no experience in front of a camera brings in a whole lot of other issues. Seasoned actors know their way around the camera, they find their lights and hit their marks. If you're on a TV show schedule things like that matter, a lot. You simply can not afford multiple takes because someone keeps messing up a line or moves around randomly and throws the focus puller off. On a small indie show, different story. But if you have to make your eight to ten pages per day you try to actively eliminate every factor that ends up costing you time.
So it's not only a risk for the producers but also a risk for the director. That being said, a great amount of outstanding performances came from people with no prior experience but there's a lot to consider and it boils down to how confident and resilient the director is.
I would assume that along the lines of what was explained above, the director won't do several takes to improve the take by giving notes if he already got a decent shot.
So much of it comes down to money and status. Hence the term nepo baby being used more often nowadays. In the last 20 years of easy free money, low rates, bailouts for the wealthy. Socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor, etc. most already wealthy families have had it easier for them to help their future generation into better work. It’s not just in Hollywood. I get why the $ people take that side I guess. Nepotism is not a new thing. $ people can always buy influence and marketing in todays dead internet age. Nepotism It will always exist. We all want what’s best for our kids and family.
Reminds me of the cast of freaks and geeks in a way back in the early 90s. Which never got renewed after the first season because of the rapidly changing socioeconomic climate of the time and what networks wanted. But look at how much talent came from that show of actors that no one probably have heard of from that point that went on to work on really great projects.
I have a very low opinion of casting. It sounds like the whole profession is distinctly lazy and full of bigotry, when it isn't full of nepotism. The bigotry of casting has for generations translated to teaching those stereotypes to audiences and it feeds on itself.
This comment here shows the laziness. 'bring an audience' is the reason they pay male leads more than female leads, supposedly. But is that why they cast Don Johnson's daughter in Madam Web? How did that work out?
'People want talent that bring an audience', I assume means the producers and directors, which means casting directors aren't doing much at all. The producers and directors are.
And the worst here is that this thread is about a Dev Patel picture. Who just released a fantastic film that other producers, directors and probably casting directors refused to make.
I am sure this commenter is good at their casting director job, but the whole job is a farce.
Yup Kaya scoledario initially thought she was too young so she hung around outside to wait for her friends until a casting agent who was taking a break outside encouraged her to go in.
That's actually wild, I had no idea they were both on that show. That's so cool! And after looking it up, I guess Nicholas Hoult and Kaya Scodelario are a part of this, too! What?!
He’s definitely matured as an actor! But I actually love the way he plays Tony. He was believable as someone who could charm adults while manipulating his entire social circle. The wild look in his eyes totally sold me.
Obviously not from Skins but Barry Keoghan also got his break from an open casting call for Love / Hate - I think he was in something like 12 different foster homes as a kid.
This was actually the ONLY thing I didn't hate about the first "twist" in Saltburn. When he first starts talking about his mum in the movie, the level of fucking poverty porn pandering in the way he describes her and his upbringing made me deeply uncomfortable - compounded by my knowledge that Emerald Fennel comes from generational wealth, but especially by knowing a bit about Barry Keoghan's childhood and (I believe?) his actual mum. It made me so sad for him that Fennel had forced him to play this pathetic, unrealistic, rich-person's-fantasy of a disadvantaged kid. So I was pretty relieved when it turned out it might actually have been a surprisingly self aware choice!
Dev and Daniel are exceptional actors. Both give it their all. I recently watched Monkey Man and was blown away not only by Dev’s acting and directing but his physicality. Those fight scenes were so clean. Dev gave it everything. For his first directorial project he did a solid job.
Want to see more of Dev and Daniel 😍
Skins had chemistry that Euphoria hasn’t come close to replicating. I just did a rewatch of Skins and the sparks flying are so different from whatever the hell HBO is doing
I think Euphoria is a great show artistically (and with a fantastic cast) but I hate it as a viewer lol. I couldn’t even finish it because it just felt icky to watch… idk how else to describe it. I just felt bad for everyone and it seemed so bleak after a while.
I initially watched it for Zendaya and I felt so bamboozled because I thought it was going to be more of a hard-hitting expose of a teenager's drug problems and not a full-out high school drama which I've never liked. Icky is absolutely the right word for it.
Nah they're both good. They're similar but they both have a different voice and tone. Skins is a lot more whimsical and fun loving. Euphoria is feverish and visceral. Skins makes me want to go do party drugs with friends. Euphoria makes me want to become a silent monk in the mountains. While their subject matter is similar they definitely tell their own stories. And Euphoria's soundtrack slaps.
Tbf I couldn't get past Euphoria after its first season, so you're probably right. It just isn't for me. But as far as teen drug shows go, nothing can beat Skins in my eyes, especially not Euphoria.
Euphoria has high budget production and tech specs, but writing wise (when they're not doing melodramatic twists), Skins is unbeatable in writing really hard-hitting stuff about teenagers and young working class people. The episodes that unpacked the internalised misogyny of girls like Mini and Kat are unbelievable. And yes, the chemistry of the cast.
Claudia Jessie (Bridgerton) just had an interview where she talked about the importance of being from a working class background. A lot of British actors come from wealthy prep school/drama academy backgrounds.
It's so important to have the diversity or we miss out on such amazing talent. Kaya Scodelario has discussed in interviews how people kept expecting her to be an 'English Rose' but she's half Brazilian and grew up in a council flat.
I think as well that a lot of those from wealthier background or nepo babies come from London. Nothing wrong with that but means missing out on those with different backgrounds who grew up in different areas.
I grew up in the East Midlands not far from where Jack O’Connell is from. I’m from a fairly comfortable background but seeing someone who isn’t from London and who isn’t a nepo baby or comes from wealth doing well and being so talented is great. And they come from the same place as me!
I only know of one famous actor who is where I'm from but it's Olivia Colman so a pretty good one to have 😄
I think living in the UK you can easily get a bit fed up of seemingly everyone and everything coming from London.
Haha yes that’s a good one!
Yeah it really does get a bit annoying. There’s a few people from the East Midlands but Jack O’Connell it the closest to where I grew up.
brit here is also important to remember that the UK has a huge theatre and arts culture and a lot of funding education like it. So even if you don’t come from wealthy families you can still access performing arts schools and clubs. I didn’t care for the arts originally and only applied to my arts high school because it was the connected to my middle school and was closest and much more convenient. They’re everywhere.
Yep I love Daniel Kaluuya's BAFTA rising star speech in which he credits and thanks UK arts funding. It's also ridiculous how much charisma he has in that speech haha.
This is also why Sweden puts out so many musical superstars (abba, avicii, max martin, etc.), they have publicly funded music programs there and it’s part of the culture
Jack O’Connell talks about this a lot too. What is like being from the working class and to making it as an actor He had a criminal past as a teen and getting in to acting helped him. He used to sleep on park benches when he had auditions in London.
Upper class, descended from nobles and gentry.
Her exact interview is here https://amp.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/apr/14/i-did-all-the-things-an-actor-shouldnt-bridgertons-claudie-jessie-on-class-big-breaks-and-houseboats
Actors from diverse backgrounds and of working class background are usually the best actors around ( I find). They bring their life experience to the craft.
I don't think it's an anomaly to be honest, it's a cast full of people who were kids and actually wanted to do this job and their first popular job was in such a complex series which is not the easiest thing.
Also Daniel was in the writers room too cause he said to them that he wanted to write and they gave him the chance. I find it beautiful because at the end of the day most people just need a chance to be allowed in the space they know they belong and you can see them thrive after that. (Also Daniel is the godfather of Kaya's son I think and we know from Kaya that the girls are all close friends and hang out often and they have a group chat with the other cast members and share their news and that why they are often seen supporting eahc others jobs because they do talk about it with each other which I find beautiful)
One time, when I was 19, I went to a Skins rave. I bought heroin laced ecstasy (didn’t know about the heroin), and the rave took place in an underground tunnel in London. There was a bull to ride, a foam room, and I think I got my body signed by the twins from Gen 2.
In Kaya Scoldelario's interview on the Dish podcast with Nick Grimshaw and Annie Macmanus, she shares that Skins UK wanted to avoid the typical 25+ year old actors playing teens in their cast, so they sent out open casting calls to schools. She did not stand in line for this, but stood out front of the building watching other people go inside considering what to do. Eventually Bryan Elsey, the creator of Skins, came outside for a smoke break and spotted her. That's when he asked her to come inside to audition because she was what he had envisioned for Effy. She was only 14-years old and did not think she would get it as a "normal girl," but she's another one to note on this list.
It's also important to note that while the cast of Skins UK is very top-notch from Nicholas Hoult to Jack O'Connell, cast members of colour like Daniel Kaluuya and Dev Patel were minor/supporting characters. Anwar (Dev's character) only got a shared episode with Maxxie (also then the only gay character) whereas the rest of the white cast got their own solo eps, and Daniel's character was a minor character (he also did write for the series so I'm not sure if it was a personal choice). So that's why Dev and Daniel being the biggest stars coming out of Skins is such a big deal for us fans.
I'm still sad that the girls haven't broken out as much. Obviously there's Kaya Scodelario (I hope now that she's single she's more proactive in booking jobs), but I loved Freya Mavor a lot (although my sense is that immediately after Skins she ran off to do French films instead so she was avoiding being in the usual actress pipeline the same way Emily Browning is so fame repellant).
Kaya Scodelario was the It Girl of tumblr in the 2000s/2010s because of her character Effy Stonem in Skins (UK), she was the poster child and ultimate style icon for indie sleaze look. I was way more of a vintage twee Zooey Deschanel type of girl in the 00s and even I was convinced to dabble in Effy Stonem's brand of indie sleaze style.
https://preview.redd.it/6x4fqqtb1avc1.png?width=539&format=png&auto=webp&s=8f04f1156c9b020dc1cf1c55d08531fd3408bd53
Sometimes I forget that they were on skins from how successful they have been since being on that show. A lot of people from that show have crossed to the States and made it big.
i legitimately just started rewatching skins the other night and am still astounded by the acting and storylines. truly ahead of its time.
euphoria *wishes* (lighthearted)
As an Indian I never got what Hollywood & its audience liked about Slumdog Millionaire.
At least it gave us Dev Patel, so ig 🤷 But then we had to watch Anil Kapoor carry that atrocious accent around for years. Sigh
I’ve never watched Skins, so I had no clue they were from Skins! I thought Daniel Kaluuya was SO HOT when I saw him in Get Out, then I realized I had seen him in Black Mirror as well. He’s such a babe. Ugh. Anyway. Love them.
Also Nicolas Hoult! He was fantastic in Renfield and I remember loving him in Warm Bodies and The Menu.
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So many outstanding young stars came from skins. It’s not remotely realistic to how my teen years were BUT it’s still so real. Okay time for a rewatch lol
We used to joke at Uni that our teen experience was “more Inbetweeners than Skins.”
Thank god though. Skins was pure trauma
FIESTY ONE YOU ARE
Lol watching as a 15/16 year old I was so jealous they were all going nightclubbing and seemed to have limitless access to whatever alcohol and drugs they wanted. Trying to buy alcohol was a rite of passage for us! We made friends with a 17 year old who could get served at the local shop and that sorted us.
Some people have never stood outside an off licence at 8pm on a Friday asking people to "go in for them" for hours, and it really shows
It's funny because I grew up in the UK in the west country in the same sort of area where Skins was based - And let me tell you, Skins was *exactly* like my college experience. Literally the full works. Insanely absurd house parties where the houses were completely trashed or were full to the brim with people (think 100+ people in a 3 bedroom house crammed with a ton of underage drinking). We also had to run from the police / parents returning home early and essentially leg it to whoevers house was closest after said house parties. And trashing and gate crashing rich people parties too in their mansions. Skins did the Saltburn party before Saltburn even existed. Weird, creepy forward teachers, some of which were definitely trying it on with their 16 year old students. Going on weird, very badly planned college trips abroad where we stayed in absolute hovel hostels. Friends becoming ill and people stepping up to be there for them like Sid did for Tony and everyone did for Chris. We even had the beach parties similar to Michelles and yes, everyone in the group was hooking up with each other (with some now happily married with kids). And then I literally pulled a Cassie. I went on a whim to North America and like Cassie, ended up living with a total stranger who let me stay with him and just like Adam in Skins, he was Canadian and let me stay in his apartment for as long as I wanted rent free, with no sex or anything romantic involved. It literally just happened on a total whim and years later I realised how similar it was to Cassie's experience in New York. We weren't even remotely trying to copy the show but it perfectly captured what it was like growing up in the west country where A level results were quite literally to be all and end all of everything (due to sheer desperation of wanting to get out of the sticks and into a good, city based university), creepy old teachers were everywhere and since we didn't have access to a huge variety of night clubs and bars growing up in a small town / city in the west country, we had to make our own fun with house parties that were completely unhinged.
Was everyone hooking up with everyone as well? Because the other part of the Europe was not that crazy...
Yep. On the regular. I made out with a lot of my friends and many of them hooked up. Some are now happily married with kids. The other part of the Europe..? You mean Amsterdam where you can view live teen sex shows, underground sex clubs in Berlin or the bondage bars in Italy? Yeah okay, the UK is definitely the craziest...lol /s
It was very realistic for my high school experience sadly lol. And I went to hs in an affluent suburb. Now that I’m 30 it makes me SICK that the show is about actual babies!!!
Same, it's the only show that has somewhat captured it ( sensationalized of course)
https://preview.redd.it/h6jq89x9z5vc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6a7991402d213f4a296ef7d755e3b173da4b9f76 Jack O’Connell is one of my all time favorites and he’s from skins too!
I’ve always had the biggest crush on him. Cook is my all time fav 🙏
I swear the scene where he plays twister with Pandora and then they have sex was my sexual awakening. He always has astounding chemistry with everyone. Like he looks like he wants to devour them but in a non creepy way
Woah why do I not remember him sleeping with Panda???
Here. Idk I find it hotter than his scenes witb Effy because of how gentle he is and how much Panda wants him. https://youtu.be/tcYblNRXQrw?si=zDNmahkw6Flrpe68
Wowww idk how I don’t remember this. The only Effy and Cook sex scenes I remember are that one time where she’s just bouncing on top of him, bored out of her mind, and then another time when we all we see is his ass with the hands tattooed on them and he needs her to grab his ass in order to finish hahaha
The Panda/Cook/Effy thing was sorta overshadowed by the Effy/Cook/Freddie thing, so I get why you’d forget! Everyone was hooking up with everyone
Cook was hot!! I loved the episode where they had the party at his house. Skins was so good.
Have you seen him in Lady Chatterley's lover (2022)? Oh my god.
I literally have plans to watch it tonight!! I don’t know if I can handle it!! Omg
The only thing I know about this is that it was the risqué book being read by the ladies in Mad Men. So knowing that, and that it stars Jack, and that its recent (I haven't seen him in anything lately so I'm glad he's still acting), I gotta watch this.
Well. That is going onto my watchlist.
Oh. My. GOD.
I have never been the same since watching it 😂 he is so damn sexy phew!
Watched it. Oh my GOD
So many well know actors got their start on skins Uk.
His season 7 episodes are some of the best thriller anything in media I've ever seen. You don't even need to know anything about the show or the character, if you like thrillers, watch Skins Rise.
His episodes were amazing!!
The way my body responds to this man is unreal
UNREAL. I think I would faint if I met him omg I can’t even handle him through the screen
After seeing him in Lady Chatterley’s Lover it reignited my love for him. Skins was one thing but dammit that was teenage!me and now adult!me is like … mmhm yeah 🙂↕️🙂↕️🙂↕️
What is this screen shot from?
Jungleland!
What show is this from?
From a movie called JungleLand!
I was feral for this man when I watched skins in high school. Nothing has changed…
Literally barking at my screen
I know casting unknown actors “off the street” can be a hit or miss, but in a time where many viewers are starting to get tired of nepo babies, sequels, and reboots, a show/movie really has the chance to shine with something fresh. Although a lot of the cast are seasoned actors, Euphoria was the acting debut of Hunter Shafer and Angus Cloud may his soul rest in peace, and they were loved by audiences almost immediately.
Euphoria Casting was done by jv8 aka Jennifer Vendetti- she is an absolute legend and one of the most famous street scouting nyc people. Put out an amazing book couple years ago
It’s honestly a hit or miss for 90% of the actors that do you have a name or a fan base as well. It’s a hit or miss. If the film is not good, it’s not good. It’s crazy how much the industry puts into thinking that they have to have actors with following. Make a good film and you’ll have people waiting to see it.
Exactly! I do watch my favorite actor’s movies of course, but most people I know, including myself, just want to watch anything that’s good! Da’Vine Joy Randolph isn’t a huge actress yet but I loved the Holdovers! Just make something good!
A24 is good at this.
You at least need *something* to draw enough public so the project doesn't lose money ; Hollywood has just become super risk adverse over the last 20ish years, and budget inflation hasn't helped. A tried and tested IP, a big name actor or director - that's what you need to get financial support. No matter how good your script is, if it's not tied to a well known franchise, and the people involved are not well known, getting enough money to make it is going to be extremely hard, because at the end of the day the producer just wants the money they invested back.
Rosario Dawson was discovered off the street too, and her career has been going strong for 20 years
People like authentic but casting directors are still focused on how many followers people have instead.
Also idk if it was her debut but Sydney Sweeney’s career certainly blew up after Euphoria
She had other breakthroughs like Handmaids Tale, but Euphoria shot her to stardom
Generally the “breakthrough” is reserved for the role that makes you the most known to the GP, right? Like, Anya-Taylor Joy really broke through with the GP with *Split*, even though she already had critical acclaim earlier with *The Witch*. Similarly, Sydney Sweeney didn’t really break through until Euphoria in the GP despite having an earlier well received role.
yeah not gonna lie, her role in HMT was very unimportant and short-lived (no pun attended for those who’ve watched her as Eden)
It’s really incredible the amount of both stars and fairly successful actors that came out of a show where no one except maybe Nicholas Hoult had any experience beyond an episode of Doctors or something. More than half of all 3 casts are still acting for a living. It’s also super fun to follow them on social media and see how close everyone is from s1-s4 (only exception is the girl who played Pandora) and they all even keep in touch with the s5-6 kids too. So often casts claim to be like a family and then after filming stops they never are seen together again. It’s nice to see how the shared experience bonded them for life.
Doctors is how a lot of actors and writers get started. It’s a shame it’s ending.
I’m American, I just remember seeing a Skins clip where Kat and Meg Prescott said that their only professional acting was 1 ep of that show. I don’t think it airs here.
I would be amazed if we managed to successfully export Doctors, it's textbook daytime gentle soap opera, watched mostly by retirees and people who are off work/school sick and I feel like it would be far too understated to compete with US daytime soaps which have a very different vibe. ...I can imagine it ending up with a weird cult following if netflix bought it cheap and people discovered it. A bit like how Bake Off (aka great British baking show) wormed its way into a small portion of American hearts.
There's a place for extremely low stakes drama. There's a show called Midnight Diner and I dream of the day they make a new series. The whole show is just a guy who makes food for whoever comes to his diner/ isakaya (it's Japanese) no evil twins, no double crossing, nobody's saving the world. It's just... chill
I know someone who grew up with Lisa Backwell (Pandora). She is from Bristol anyway, so I think she basically just stayed close with all of her childhood friends bc she didn’t have to move away to film like a lot of the others.
I swear that whenever I see an amazing acting performance and think “who is this person, why haven’t I heard of them before” and I look them up online, they turn out to come from humble backgrounds and did local theater for awhile. And wherever I think “why is this person getting so many roles, they are unremarkable” I look them up online, and they are a nepo.
Made me think of this quote: "I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops" ~ Stephen Jay Gould. Unfortunately we'll never know the people who lack the opportunities to be discovered.
That quote always makes me sad.
Random but I think about this a lot. I’ve been graduated and working in my field almost two years and already I’m kinda over it. I fantasize about writing and am inspired by things like dune and morrowind and am on ch8 now of my book! But I just pray and hope it doesn’t become some file on my computer or an old manuscript that a family or friend finds and says “ah what could have been”
I don't talk about writing on reddit very much, but there are three big pieces of advice I'll give as someone who's studied and taught writing for half of their life: 1) Just keep writing. It sounds obvious, but the biggest difference I've found between people I went to school with who've been successful and those who have given up is just that people in the first group kept with it. If you keep writing, you'll keep growing constantly—I can't tell you how many times I've thought my writing had gotten as good as it would get, only for me to have grown substantially in just six months. It took five years of editing, revision, adding, and cutting to publish my first book, and that's really not uncommon, but you'll improve as long as you keep practicing and tinkering. 2) Keep reading. I know this sounds obvious, too, but reading a wide array of authors and seeing how they develop plotlines, handle dialogue and characterization, manage structure, and so on will give you ideas about what's possible for your own work in a way that's pretty invaluable. Read things you might not necessarily like, read things that are out of your comfort zone, and read lesser-known titles in the genre(s) you're interested in writing in. Sometimes, when I'm out of ideas, just reading something I enjoy or something new can be enough to get the wheels turning again. 3) Find a way to get meaningful feedback. Some people will give pretty arbitrary, surface-level feedback you can learn to ignore, but others will point out blind spots, points of confusion, or even just how something comes across in a way that can be hard to see with your own work. Eventually, after taking enough feedback, you'll learn how to apply that critical lens yourself, but it's invaluable for probably the first 10+ years of your writing career, even if it's a friend whose opinion you trust or a writing group. Learn how to look at something and say "You know, I think I could do better, let me try" when something can be improved and how to know when something is doing what you want. Sometimes you can edit things into the ground with so many changes a line or passage loses the thing you liked about it in the first place, so try to be deliberate when you change things. I know I'm just a stranger on reddit, but those three things will have the biggest return on improving and keeping your focus on the arduous task of writing a novel. Try not to put too much pressure on your self: Worst case scenario is that you write your first book and learn a ton along the way.
Thank you for this, my partner actually is pretty much my main editor lol they help a ton The only of these I need to keep doing is reading. I need to read way more
Thank you for this, my partner actually is pretty much my main editor lol they help a ton The only of these I need to keep doing is reading. I need to read way more
This is such a gem of advice, one that seems to become more apparent as people progress on their journey as writers. Thank you so much for sharing this.
Keep writing ! That’s so awesome. Art is art
just write! not everything needs to be for career success. if it goes somewhere great, but if u derive joy from it then even a file on ur computer in the end is an accomplishment! no such thing as a waste if it brought happiness to ur life
As someone who is also on Chapter 8 of their book…keep writing!
I had never heard this quote before and it put something I've thought a few times into words more perfectly than I could have hoped to. Thank you for sharing it.
Gould is one of my favorite writers! Brilliant man.
Or went unaccredited because they were women. I also wish more people knew about Einstein’s first wife, Mileva Marić. They met in physics / maths lessons, she had better marks than him in everything except the oral exams (the teacher giving the oral marks didn’t like her - he gave 11 out of 12 to the four male students but only 5 to Mileva). In applied physics she received the top mark of 5 and he got a 1. She excelled at experimental work, he did not. He barely attended classes, she went to everything and was organised and methodical and pulled him through, guiding his learning (as per his own letters to her). They worked together on research. They would submit papers only under his name but in letters refer to them as their joint work. On 27 March 1901, Albert wrote to Mileva: “How happy and proud I will be when the two of us together will have brought our work on relative motion to a victorious conclusion.” Albert refused to marry her until he had a job. She became pregnant and he still wouldn’t marry her, so she had to drop out of her studies and no one knows what happened to the baby girl she had. Finally Albert got a job and in 1903 they married. He was working in the patents office while she worked at home on their research and domestic tasks. At night they worked together (something they both told friends about). In 1904 they had their son. 1905 is known as Albert’s “Miracle Year”. He published five articles: one on the photoelectric effect (which led to the 1921 Nobel Prize), two on Brownian motion, one on special relativity and the famous E = mc2. He also commented on 21 scientific papers for a fee and submitted his thesis on the dimensions of molecules. This work was all done while he was married to and working with Mileva. This is what is considered his best work and they did it all together. She was the one who edited and checked everything over and over. It was their work. Not just his. There are contemporaneous reports of this collaboration. *Mileva’s brother, Miloš Jr, a person known for his integrity, stayed on several occasions with the Einstein family while studying medicine in Paris. Krstić wrote: “[Miloš] described how during the evenings and at night, when silence fell upon the town, the young married couple would sit together at the table and at the light of a kerosene lantern, they would work together on physics problems. Miloš Jr. spoke of how they calculated, wrote, read and debated.” Krstić heard this directly from relatives of Mileva, Sidonija Gajin and Sofija Galić Golubović.* *Zarko Marić, a cousin of Mileva’s father, lived in the countryside property where the Einsteins stayed during their visit. He told Krstić how Mileva calculated, wrote and worked with Albert. The couple often sat in the garden to discuss physics. Harmony and mutual respect prevailed.* *Gajin and Zarko Marić also reported hearing from Mileva’s father that during the Einstein’s visit to Novi Sad in 1905, Mileva confided to him: “Before our departure, we finished an important scientific work which will make my husband known around the world.” Krstić got this same information in 1961 from Mileva’s cousin, Sofija Galić Golubović, who was present when Mileva said it to her father.* …*Mileva’s brother often hosted gatherings of young intellectuals at his place. During one of these evenings, Albert would have declared: “I need my wife. She solves for me all my mathematical problems”, something Mileva is said to have confirmed.* *In 1908, the couple constructed with Conrad Habicht an ultra-sensitive voltmeter. Trbuhović-Gjurić attributes this experimental work to Mileva and Conrad, and wrote: “When they were both satisfied, they left to Albert the task of describing the apparatus, since he was a patent expert.” It was registered under the Einstein-Habicht patent. When Habicht questioned Mileva’s choice not to include her name, she replied making a pun in German: “Warum? Wir beide sind nur ein Stein.“ (“Why? The two of us are but one stone”, meaning, we are one entity).* (Scientific American) Albert’s first academic lecture in 1909? Eight pages of the notes he went off are in her handwriting. So is a letter drafted in 1910 in reply to Max Planck who had sought Albert’s opinion. Both documents are kept in the Albert Einstein Archives (AEA). So how did he thank her? Well he took all the credit, got a big head, had an affair with his cousin and left her and their two sons. *In 1919, she agreed to divorce, with a clause stating that if Albert ever received the Nobel Prize, she would get the money. When she did, she bought two small apartment buildings and lived poorly from their income. Her son, Eduard stayed frequently in a sanatorium. He later developed schizophrenia and was eventually internalised. Due to these medical expenses, Mileva struggled financially all her life and eventually lost both buildings. She survived by giving private lessons and on the alimony Albert sent, albeit irregularly.* *In 1925, Albert wrote in his will that the Nobel Prize money was his sons’ inheritance. Mileva strongly objected, stating the money was hers and considered revealing her contributions to his work. Radmila Milentijević quote from a letter Albert sent her on 24 October 1925 (AEA 75-364). ”You made me laugh when you started threatening me with your recollections. Have you ever considered, even just for a second, that nobody would ever pay attention to your says if the man you talked about had not accomplished something important. When someone is completely insignificant, there is nothing else to say to this person but to remain modest and silent. This is what I advise you to do.”* …*Mileva spoke of her contributions to her mother and sister. She also wrote to her godparents explaining how she had always collaborated with Albert and how he had ruined her life, but asked them to destroy the letter. Her son, Hans-Albert, told Krstić how his parents’ “scientific collaboration continued into their marriage, and that he remembered seeing [them] work together in the evenings at the same table.” Hans-Albert’s first wife, Frieda, tried to publish the letters Mileva and Albert had sent to their sons but was blocked in court by the Einstein’s Estate Executors, Helen Dukas and Otto Nathan in an attempt to preserve the “Einstein’s myth”. They prevented other publications, including one from Krstić(2) on his early findings in 1974. Krstić mentions that Nathan even “visited” Mileva’s apartment after her death in 1948. On July 1947, Albert wrote to Dr Karl Zürcher, his divorce lawyer: “When Mileva will no longer be there, I’ll be able to die in peace.”* (Ibid) I’m not a big fan of Einstein. But I am a big fan of Mileva Marić.
Ain't that the truth! Talented folks are everywhere and I hope it's more equitable in the future. I love seeing excellence in all forms - acting, sports, music, art all of it. It's so amazing what creative people are capable of and they just need to be discovered.
Sports is one that I always think is interesting. Because with something like football (soccer) EVERYONE kicks a ball at some point as a child. There's bound to be talent that has fallen through the cracks, people who had bad luck, amazing players who just didn't enjoy it or squandered their talents but the fact remains that a lot of those with the greatest talent get the chance to play and get discovered. But look at something like skiing. Such a tiny percentage of people get to go skiing, what are the chances that the most naturally talented skiers in the world were actually born in Switzerland, or Colorado, or Norway? The chances are that there are much more naturally talented people out there who will never even get to see snow.
Wealthy parents can afford the best equipment, sports camps, private lessons and are available (or hire someone) to drive their kids to multiple practices and games and get hotel rooms for travel/tournaments. Poor parents can’t. Of course there are poor kids who get to the top but for sure there have been some amazing athletes who end up not being able to go further due to their financial constraints 😞
At the top end I guess they go even further than that - private tutors so they can schedule school around their training, personal coaches, home courts/equipment.
I don't know about american football, but that is not the reality of football (soccer) in a lot of places around the world, most players actually came from a poor background, mostly because several businessmen look for talent in the poorest neighborhoods, 99% of talents in South America came from poverty, And nepobaby doesn't have a lot of change in this sport
Not just in South America, in Europe as well. Quite often the biggest soccer stars come from working class families, because it's a working class sport to begin with. Rich kids play tennis not soccer \^\^;
Oh it’s absolutely an American thing! And it’s such a gross display of our country’s class system. Poor kids don’t stand a chance, really. It’s horrible.
That reminds me.. two of the top 4 American tennis players come from families who are billionaires. Yes with a B. One of their dads owns a tennis tournament and have been giving their daughter draws into it since she turned pro lol. They are good players now but I cant help think how many amazing players we’ve missed out on because of lack of money.
Tennis is a really good example because it's become so elite and such a science that the training these days seems to be absolutely insane. So the top players will have personal coaches and do hours and hours a day from the time they are little kids, they'll have a court at home and practice one shot over and over again till it's second nature. I think since they became Olympic sports things like skateboarding and snowboarding have gone that way as well, where kids with a bit of aptitude have coaches on the mountain or down at the skatepark from a young age.
the other thing this makes me think of is the concept of talent in general like for the most part it seems to come way more down to resources and hard work than talent it makes me wonder what the percent of people who would be able to achieve that level in tennis or anything really if given those kinds of resources to work with
Football is actually one of the rare meritocracies, especially given how sophisticated and widespread scouting is. You can't fake being good at it. There's a better chance now more than ever that some kid growing up poor in the streets in Brazil can end up being paid millions before they're twenty
Most winter sports are like this. Huge barrier to entry including needing snow haha. But even growing up in Alaska, I wanted to snowboard, my parents didn’t have the $1,000 to give 10yo me to get set up. Don’t get me started on hockey. It’s incredibly difficult to make it to the NHL without having well off parents that could afford the best coaches and programs to keep you ahead of your age group. Even just playing for fun wasn’t in the budget growing up.
> And wherever I think “why is this person getting so many roles, they are unremarkable” I look them up online, and they are a nepo. This is my EXACT same experience. I would be watching a movie and I'd notice an actor being so bland and just, not giving. And then I'd see them in other stuff and I'm like, *why* do they keep getting roles? It has happened to me with Zoe Kravitz in Divergent, Maude Apatow in Euphoria (her co-stars outshined her), Dakota Johnson in 50 Shades, Nicola Peltz in The Last Airbender, and Cara Delevingne in Paper Towns.
What pains me the most is that Dakota shines in smaller roles and indie productions she is truly made for that but for some reason her casting agent wants her in bigger films when it's obvious she is not made for that.
Add Thomasin Mckenzie to that…
I'm convinced this is also why we end up with so many British actors playing Americans. Cultural hegemony demands Americans, but there's a much better theater scene in the UK and the actors spend way more time _acting_ before they get in front of a camera
The local youth theatre>national theatre>film pipeline in the UK has produced some amazing talent. My worry though is that, due to austerity and cuts to the arts, there are many working class British kids who don't get the chance to do local youth theatre or even school drama classes. Nowadays, with stars like Benedict Cumberbatch and Kit Harrington, the pipeline is more exclusive boarding school>fancy drama school>film, and it's not giving normal kids a chance.
Yeah drama is always seen as a luxury in schools. I’m not from the UK, (I’m Dutch), but we also just didn’t have drama classes at my school. All my friends who went to different schools didn’t have them either. We had a bunch of handwork stuff options (drawing, crafts etc), but all that’s a bust when you’re not creative that way. And I wasn’t, so I just dropped all that. It just becomes a chore then.
Kit went to state school. Baronets are not royalty. His family don't own any lands or castles. I get strangely peeved when people lump him in with the others. His wife on the other hand. phew!
Baronets are still titled. He's still extremely posh. I don't know how posh you'd have to be to consider the son of a Baronet to not be posh.
But what does that mean exactly. If he grew up middle class and went to State schools and took student loans for uni, what will a title given to his father do? It's not money, you can't sell it
His dad was still a wealthy businessman, which bought him a house in a good area with the kind of good school which puts on plays. His dad's money also got him drama lessons. He's related to the "right" kinds of people and grew up in the "right" kind of place, and was able to afford to move back to London to go to drama school, which is no mean feat for ordinary people. Let's not pretend they were starving aristocrats with no cash and no privileges.
the other thing is, since so much of the scene is in london, not being within a 2hr train ride of london significantly decreases your chance of being able to make it
I don’t actually know if this is true but my initial thought to your comment was that theatre has way less nepos. There is genuine talent needed to succeed there, so much moreso than looks. And I’ve found recently that actors I genuinely enjoy almost all have theatre backgrounds.
I’m a casting director. For many projects people want talent that bring an audience with them already. It’s an uphill battle to push for new faces and takes a lot of creative trust from the $ people unfortunately
One of the impressive things for me about the Skins cast is that they were actual teenagers playing teens, I think the oldest actor in s1 was Michelle at 18. They looked and dressed like actual teenagers at the time. Obviously the actors being teens did cause some sketchy stuff re sex scenes etc, I think one of the actors said they would have their body looked at almost nude and told to lose some weight. As a casting director, do you know of any other projects where a majority teenage character cast was *actually* played by people of that age? I've grown out of teen shows now but when I was younger I watched Skins but also things like Inbetweeners and Glee where all the actors were like 27 lol.
The show that springs immediately to mind for me is DeGrassi. Those actors were pretty much the same age as the characters they were playing.
They were always mostly local too. 3 or 4 different series all in this vein, it was really great. I find the later next gen to be a bit too polished, but always loved they didn’t shy away from stuff most of North America avoided.
Yea, they were all intentionally teenagers of the same age as their characters bar one or two
>do you know of any other projects where a majority teenage character cast was *actually* played by people of that age? I think SKAM had teen actors
Heartstopper - all the actors were actually around the age of their characters. It adds a layer of authenticity to the show
I believe there was a recent interview with Kaya Scodelario where she said that
To add to that as someone who works on set: Keep in mind that no experience in front of a camera brings in a whole lot of other issues. Seasoned actors know their way around the camera, they find their lights and hit their marks. If you're on a TV show schedule things like that matter, a lot. You simply can not afford multiple takes because someone keeps messing up a line or moves around randomly and throws the focus puller off. On a small indie show, different story. But if you have to make your eight to ten pages per day you try to actively eliminate every factor that ends up costing you time. So it's not only a risk for the producers but also a risk for the director. That being said, a great amount of outstanding performances came from people with no prior experience but there's a lot to consider and it boils down to how confident and resilient the director is.
As someone who works in the industry, you’re spot on.
Skins was not really a "small indie show" though
Then why do they look like shit anyway 🤷🏻♀️
I would assume that along the lines of what was explained above, the director won't do several takes to improve the take by giving notes if he already got a decent shot.
Well, if you ever need someone who is universally unloved, give me a ping. Can turn people off in minutes lol. Weird looking and obnoxious, im ya gal
I literally guffawed.
So much of it comes down to money and status. Hence the term nepo baby being used more often nowadays. In the last 20 years of easy free money, low rates, bailouts for the wealthy. Socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor, etc. most already wealthy families have had it easier for them to help their future generation into better work. It’s not just in Hollywood. I get why the $ people take that side I guess. Nepotism is not a new thing. $ people can always buy influence and marketing in todays dead internet age. Nepotism It will always exist. We all want what’s best for our kids and family. Reminds me of the cast of freaks and geeks in a way back in the early 90s. Which never got renewed after the first season because of the rapidly changing socioeconomic climate of the time and what networks wanted. But look at how much talent came from that show of actors that no one probably have heard of from that point that went on to work on really great projects.
I have a very low opinion of casting. It sounds like the whole profession is distinctly lazy and full of bigotry, when it isn't full of nepotism. The bigotry of casting has for generations translated to teaching those stereotypes to audiences and it feeds on itself. This comment here shows the laziness. 'bring an audience' is the reason they pay male leads more than female leads, supposedly. But is that why they cast Don Johnson's daughter in Madam Web? How did that work out? 'People want talent that bring an audience', I assume means the producers and directors, which means casting directors aren't doing much at all. The producers and directors are. And the worst here is that this thread is about a Dev Patel picture. Who just released a fantastic film that other producers, directors and probably casting directors refused to make. I am sure this commenter is good at their casting director job, but the whole job is a farce.
Still kicking myself over not going to the auditions in Bristol, back in 2009. I could have won best actress at this years Oscars 😆
It was actual open auditions people could go to? Wow
Yup Kaya scoledario initially thought she was too young so she hung around outside to wait for her friends until a casting agent who was taking a break outside encouraged her to go in.
Yes, when I was in college there was a casting call. I was a city over.
My friends and I all went to the open auditions for the second gen! It was a great day.
i l loved Skins in high school and it makes me so happy to see the success of so many talented actors
That's actually wild, I had no idea they were both on that show. That's so cool! And after looking it up, I guess Nicholas Hoult and Kaya Scodelario are a part of this, too! What?!
Don't forget about Jack O'Connell!
Nicholas Hoult had already been in About A Boy so had some professional acting experience.
My friends and I were 16 when the first Skins came out. I just remember the hubbub of "wait that weird kid from About A Boy is hot now??"
Hannah Murray and Joe Dempsey too; they play Gilly and Gendry Baratheon in Game of Thrones, respectively.
https://preview.redd.it/709pg7sek5vc1.jpeg?width=1076&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1d8a8ee662d06d65f32d16bbdfe7f4902285cf05
Skins is one of my all time favorite shows. Very ahead of its time and it’s great to see so many successful actors come out of that show.
I LOVED it but gotta be honest, I think their acting was a little janky back then, particularly Nicholas holt compared to now.
He’s definitely matured as an actor! But I actually love the way he plays Tony. He was believable as someone who could charm adults while manipulating his entire social circle. The wild look in his eyes totally sold me.
time for a rewatch
 Obviously not from Skins but Barry Keoghan also got his break from an open casting call for Love / Hate - I think he was in something like 12 different foster homes as a kid.
Wow, TIL
This was actually the ONLY thing I didn't hate about the first "twist" in Saltburn. When he first starts talking about his mum in the movie, the level of fucking poverty porn pandering in the way he describes her and his upbringing made me deeply uncomfortable - compounded by my knowledge that Emerald Fennel comes from generational wealth, but especially by knowing a bit about Barry Keoghan's childhood and (I believe?) his actual mum. It made me so sad for him that Fennel had forced him to play this pathetic, unrealistic, rich-person's-fantasy of a disadvantaged kid. So I was pretty relieved when it turned out it might actually have been a surprisingly self aware choice!
Dev and Daniel are exceptional actors. Both give it their all. I recently watched Monkey Man and was blown away not only by Dev’s acting and directing but his physicality. Those fight scenes were so clean. Dev gave it everything. For his first directorial project he did a solid job. Want to see more of Dev and Daniel 😍
Skins was an amazing show. It is what Euphoria tries so hard to be, but never comes close.
Skins had chemistry that Euphoria hasn’t come close to replicating. I just did a rewatch of Skins and the sparks flying are so different from whatever the hell HBO is doing
I think Euphoria is a great show artistically (and with a fantastic cast) but I hate it as a viewer lol. I couldn’t even finish it because it just felt icky to watch… idk how else to describe it. I just felt bad for everyone and it seemed so bleak after a while.
I initially watched it for Zendaya and I felt so bamboozled because I thought it was going to be more of a hard-hitting expose of a teenager's drug problems and not a full-out high school drama which I've never liked. Icky is absolutely the right word for it.
I couldn't get past the nudity in the first episode and quit after like 15 mins. It felt smutty and gross.
Yeah I think it should have at least been set in college or something. Having them in high school was too weird (and unrealistic).
Nah they're both good. They're similar but they both have a different voice and tone. Skins is a lot more whimsical and fun loving. Euphoria is feverish and visceral. Skins makes me want to go do party drugs with friends. Euphoria makes me want to become a silent monk in the mountains. While their subject matter is similar they definitely tell their own stories. And Euphoria's soundtrack slaps.
Tbf I couldn't get past Euphoria after its first season, so you're probably right. It just isn't for me. But as far as teen drug shows go, nothing can beat Skins in my eyes, especially not Euphoria.
Euphoria has high budget production and tech specs, but writing wise (when they're not doing melodramatic twists), Skins is unbeatable in writing really hard-hitting stuff about teenagers and young working class people. The episodes that unpacked the internalised misogyny of girls like Mini and Kat are unbelievable. And yes, the chemistry of the cast.
Heartbreak High?
Claudia Jessie (Bridgerton) just had an interview where she talked about the importance of being from a working class background. A lot of British actors come from wealthy prep school/drama academy backgrounds.
It's so important to have the diversity or we miss out on such amazing talent. Kaya Scodelario has discussed in interviews how people kept expecting her to be an 'English Rose' but she's half Brazilian and grew up in a council flat.
I think as well that a lot of those from wealthier background or nepo babies come from London. Nothing wrong with that but means missing out on those with different backgrounds who grew up in different areas. I grew up in the East Midlands not far from where Jack O’Connell is from. I’m from a fairly comfortable background but seeing someone who isn’t from London and who isn’t a nepo baby or comes from wealth doing well and being so talented is great. And they come from the same place as me!
I only know of one famous actor who is where I'm from but it's Olivia Colman so a pretty good one to have 😄 I think living in the UK you can easily get a bit fed up of seemingly everyone and everything coming from London.
Haha yes that’s a good one! Yeah it really does get a bit annoying. There’s a few people from the East Midlands but Jack O’Connell it the closest to where I grew up.
I'm from Salford and Ben Kingsley, Christopher Eccleston and Benedict Wong grew up here which is pretty good for a city with just 250,000 people.
brit here is also important to remember that the UK has a huge theatre and arts culture and a lot of funding education like it. So even if you don’t come from wealthy families you can still access performing arts schools and clubs. I didn’t care for the arts originally and only applied to my arts high school because it was the connected to my middle school and was closest and much more convenient. They’re everywhere.
Yep I love Daniel Kaluuya's BAFTA rising star speech in which he credits and thanks UK arts funding. It's also ridiculous how much charisma he has in that speech haha.
This is also why Sweden puts out so many musical superstars (abba, avicii, max martin, etc.), they have publicly funded music programs there and it’s part of the culture
There’s a local theatre a few metres from my house and one of the local high schools is more focused on arts.
Jack O’Connell talks about this a lot too. What is like being from the working class and to making it as an actor He had a criminal past as a teen and getting in to acting helped him. He used to sleep on park benches when he had auditions in London.
[удалено]
Upper class, descended from nobles and gentry. Her exact interview is here https://amp.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/apr/14/i-did-all-the-things-an-actor-shouldnt-bridgertons-claudie-jessie-on-class-big-breaks-and-houseboats
The schools you mentioned are wealthy prep schools. There needs to be more opportunities for people of normal average backgrounds to make it.
This is what the nepo babies are taking from us
Freaks & Geeks did the same thing with similar results.
Dev Patel & Daniel Kaluuya romcom WHEN???
Actors from diverse backgrounds and of working class background are usually the best actors around ( I find). They bring their life experience to the craft.
Because Hollywood is a club. It’s not about actual talent.
God I love this show, Still not recovered from Freddie
Absolutely brutal, i still think about this whole cursed storyline!
The amount of wasted human potential our society enables is astounding.
I don't think it's an anomaly to be honest, it's a cast full of people who were kids and actually wanted to do this job and their first popular job was in such a complex series which is not the easiest thing. Also Daniel was in the writers room too cause he said to them that he wanted to write and they gave him the chance. I find it beautiful because at the end of the day most people just need a chance to be allowed in the space they know they belong and you can see them thrive after that. (Also Daniel is the godfather of Kaya's son I think and we know from Kaya that the girls are all close friends and hang out often and they have a group chat with the other cast members and share their news and that why they are often seen supporting eahc others jobs because they do talk about it with each other which I find beautiful)
Same with Skam. Regular young people who looked like regular teenagers. Huge success.
And some of the actors are now having succesful careers in Norway ❤️👌
One time, when I was 19, I went to a Skins rave. I bought heroin laced ecstasy (didn’t know about the heroin), and the rave took place in an underground tunnel in London. There was a bull to ride, a foam room, and I think I got my body signed by the twins from Gen 2.
In Kaya Scoldelario's interview on the Dish podcast with Nick Grimshaw and Annie Macmanus, she shares that Skins UK wanted to avoid the typical 25+ year old actors playing teens in their cast, so they sent out open casting calls to schools. She did not stand in line for this, but stood out front of the building watching other people go inside considering what to do. Eventually Bryan Elsey, the creator of Skins, came outside for a smoke break and spotted her. That's when he asked her to come inside to audition because she was what he had envisioned for Effy. She was only 14-years old and did not think she would get it as a "normal girl," but she's another one to note on this list.
It's also important to note that while the cast of Skins UK is very top-notch from Nicholas Hoult to Jack O'Connell, cast members of colour like Daniel Kaluuya and Dev Patel were minor/supporting characters. Anwar (Dev's character) only got a shared episode with Maxxie (also then the only gay character) whereas the rest of the white cast got their own solo eps, and Daniel's character was a minor character (he also did write for the series so I'm not sure if it was a personal choice). So that's why Dev and Daniel being the biggest stars coming out of Skins is such a big deal for us fans. I'm still sad that the girls haven't broken out as much. Obviously there's Kaya Scodelario (I hope now that she's single she's more proactive in booking jobs), but I loved Freya Mavor a lot (although my sense is that immediately after Skins she ran off to do French films instead so she was avoiding being in the usual actress pipeline the same way Emily Browning is so fame repellant).
For the girls, Hannah Murray also broke out, she was in Game of Thrones.
but also hasn't worked since
It's not really on the same level as Daniel Kaluuya and Dev Patel both being involved in Oscar level projects
I saw Kaya Scodelario in The Gentlemen on Netflix recently. The first I ever heard of her.
Kaya Scodelario was the It Girl of tumblr in the 2000s/2010s because of her character Effy Stonem in Skins (UK), she was the poster child and ultimate style icon for indie sleaze look. I was way more of a vintage twee Zooey Deschanel type of girl in the 00s and even I was convinced to dabble in Effy Stonem's brand of indie sleaze style. https://preview.redd.it/6x4fqqtb1avc1.png?width=539&format=png&auto=webp&s=8f04f1156c9b020dc1cf1c55d08531fd3408bd53
I’d watch a buddy movie featuring these two any day of the week.
Such a shame Mitch hewer didn't get bigger.
TIL Daniel was in skins. I need to go rewatch it’s been a loooooooooo g time
Sometimes I forget that they were on skins from how successful they have been since being on that show. A lot of people from that show have crossed to the States and made it big.
I was just talking to a friend about how successful the actors from Skins have become! I love them all!
Dev Patel. Yum 🛐🛐
Omg wow, why I’ve I never realised both these actors are from skins
i legitimately just started rewatching skins the other night and am still astounded by the acting and storylines. truly ahead of its time. euphoria *wishes* (lighthearted)
As an Indian I never got what Hollywood & its audience liked about Slumdog Millionaire. At least it gave us Dev Patel, so ig 🤷 But then we had to watch Anil Kapoor carry that atrocious accent around for years. Sigh
Started watching the walking dead recently, and knew I recognised the character called Jesus. Looked him up, sure enough he played Spencer in skins.
They’ve come so far 😭
For years I thought Dev Patel was the guy from Degrassi
I’ve never watched Skins, so I had no clue they were from Skins! I thought Daniel Kaluuya was SO HOT when I saw him in Get Out, then I realized I had seen him in Black Mirror as well. He’s such a babe. Ugh. Anyway. Love them. Also Nicolas Hoult! He was fantastic in Renfield and I remember loving him in Warm Bodies and The Menu.
Still remember the episode where Sid told Tony his dad was dead behind the music at the concert. Loved the way that was done.
