backstage.com: The U.K. government has apologized to British Equity actor Michael Sheldon, who was told that he could not provide a reference on a passport application because "acting is not a proper job," The Stage reported on Wednesday.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
U.K. Government Apologizes for Saying ‘Acting is Not a Proper Job’
backstage.com: The U.K. government has apologized to British Equity actor Michael Sheldon, who was told that he could not provide a reference on a passport application because "acting is not a proper job," The Stage reported on Wednesday.
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4 comments:
Overall, this is completely comical and even more foolish to debate in the House of Commons. It goes without saying that acting most certainly is a profession. Now, is it a stable and reliable profession, that is a completely different matter. I can't believe that the passport agency withheld rights to a customer because of a profession. Acting isn't even a confusing profession.
Sometimes, we say the wrong things or approach something in the wrong way. I know of numerous people with power that didn't filter their thoughts, our presidents of years past for example. The entire thing is embarrassing and someone always gets offended. It's just words but those words can make someone think "hey, that's crossing the line and I should do something about it", which inevitably leads to a fight. I guess the lesson here is to screen your thoughts and actions.
I agree that it is completely ridiculous that the passport agency referenced in this article withheld rights the way they did. Actors have a hard enough time as it is, since they are essentially freelancers who may not be able to prove they have a steady income, like someone in an "office job" might. I thought it was great though that the government issued an apology, it shows that they do respect the arts, something that is honestly, somewhat questionable in the case of the US government. It makes a great public statement about the arts, affirming that a career in the arts is a legitimate one, and one that should be respected. A number of my friends have been told on occasion by people from their parents to strangers that by choosing to go into theatre they are not going to have a "real job," which we can all agree is not the case.
How embarrassing for Alan Brown and his department! I'm sure that this off-base decision will be ridiculed for quite some time in the U.K. How can anyone say that acting is not a legitimate profession, especially when there are so many people who make a great living doing it? I wonder what other jobs they don't think are legitimate. Who are they to judge? I realize that there are some weird blurry lines in terms of who makes an appropriate passport reference and who doesn't, but come on, this situation should not have been considered anywhere near blurry. Actors have been respected for hundreds and thousands of years, and I'm glad that Sheldon continued to do the respectable thing and spoke up about this offense. We should all follow his example and continue to vocally defend our career choices as legitimate and beneficial to the world and our communities.
all in all it is nice to see the agency owning up for their screw up and blatantly stating that they messed up and their statement was incorrect. This is really hard to find nowadays is companies taking responsibility for their employees. As becca states it is also nice to hear an agency such as this to release a statement giving workers in the entertainment industry and creative arts validity as a part of the modern workforce.
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