Dominic West finds it “staggering” that people assume he’s posh.
The Affair actor attended the prestigious school Eton College in England as a youngster, where other actors including Eddie Redmayne and Tom Hiddleston, as well as British royals Prince William and Harry, studied. But Dominic insists his privately-funded education, which currently comes at a cost of $48,000 (£37,000) a year, doesn’t make him privileged, something others assume due to its reputation.
“Well, I always find it staggering that people think I’m a jumped-up posh tw*t, as I’m middle-class and from Sheffield,” he shrugged to Britain’s ES Magazine.
“It did (annoy me). But I quickly realised people have a lot worse things to worry about than being pigeonholed as a public schoolboy. It’s up to the actor to show your talent is bigger than that. And being typecast as an Etonian is no worse than being typecast as something else. Even though I have never played an Etonian.”
Dominic, 47, has had a varied career, appearing in everything from Sandra Bullock comedy 28 Days to playing Richard Burton opposite Helena Bonham Carter in TV series Burton & Taylor.
He can next be seen in the reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise, playing the father of Alicia Vikander’s main character Lara Croft, and there’s also drama Colette coming up.
The latter is a biographical drama about French novelist Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, in which he plays her husband Henry Gauthier-Villars, though the role wasn’t quite what he anticipated in terms of appearance.
“Next up I am playing Keira Knightley’s husband (in Colette),” he explained. “Great, I thought, a chance for my youthful, leading man swagger to come back a bit. I went to the costume department expecting to get something snappy and I was fitted for a fat suit and a bald cap. I thought, ‘How unfair.’ You know the way one sees oneself is at times in contrast to the reality.”
