Steven Elder

Steven Elder is a British actor who has had key roles in feature films The King and Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop, and in TV shows such as The Bay, Lost, and Apple Tree Yard. With a background that also involves theatre performances, Steven Elder will be shortly appearing in the highly anticipated TV series The Winter King on MGM+ and ITVX in 2023.

Film News caught up with Steven to find out more...

We know Sean Bean and Dominic West as notable actors arising out of Sheffield and South Yorkshire. How did growing up in Rotherham impact and inspire your Career?
My dad, my uncles, and my grandfathers, were coal miners in Rotherham, but soon after I was born my dad changed job, and he and mum started running pubs owned by Whitbread's Brewery. We moved from pub to pub in south Yorkshire. We got to know a lot of the pub regulars, and I suppose my interest in people watching, and how everyone’s got a little universe inside them, light and dark, might come from those days being brought up above pubs. Also the bar area is a natural stage and my parents kind of played a role every day for their customers - so maybe it’s somewhere in the DNA!

Do you feel the acting industry in the UK currently caters for young aspiring
working-class actors? What changes would you suggest?
It is harder now than it was when I entered the profession for those from working class backgrounds. A friend of mine successfully auditioned for a place at a top English drama school just a few years ago. A drama course that accepts only around thirty entrants out of around three thousand applicants per year. My friend couldn’t afford to take up their place - they didn’t have the money. There was government funding available for me to get to drama school. I got a grant. The UK government grants have gone. I doubt they will come back.

The cost of auditioning for schools has risen; the cost of travelling to auditions has risen. We are losing access to new talent, and a whole area of life experience (which fuels story-telling).

There are scholarships available for students undergoing financial hardship. The James McAvoy Drama Scholarship at the Royal Scottish Conservatory in Glasgow, and the Judi Dench Fund for Access to Drama Training at the Mountview Academy, for example, are important schemes. But we need more sources of funding. Aspiring actors out there from working class backgrounds need more help. I would love there to be more government support available, but unless that happens, we need even more accessible schemes out there.

So, from learning your craft in the early 1990’s, where do you find yourself now?
I think I’ve learned over the years to take those values of preparation from my theatre beginnings into screen work, but also to be prepared to throw it all away when you arrive on set. Some of the prep still filters through, but what I love about filming are those unanticipated moments of surprise that the camera can capture. Unplanned moments are, by their very nature, always fresh; and I think the camera likes them. Yes, prepare, but staying receptive to what’s happening right in front of you is even more important than preparation. Every take should surprise you in some way.

You play a regular role in The Winter King. Tell us more.
It’s a re-imagining of the legend of Arthur, and it’ll be a roller-coaster ride that will go in directions that will surprise and fascinate people. It’s set in the Dark Ages, and the various British tribes are struggling to assert themselves. I play Bedwin - who is both a political influence and an early Christian Bishop in a largely pagan Britain. The season is going out on MGM+ from 20th August and later this year on ITVX.

What are the biggest opportunities and threats across film and theatre?
The emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is of deep concern. It's not going away and not just actors but everyone needs protection against exploitation.

SAG -AFTRA (the US actors union) is currently battling for restrictions and protections in AI use by film/TV studios and streamers - and I wholly support them. AI can provide studios with huge cost savings, but I don’t believe it's an exaggeration to say that, if unregulated, it can remove the actual actor and the actors’ instinct and creativity from the mix. My own union, British Actors Equity, stands fully with SAG-AFTRA. AI isn’t going away, but usage of actors' data for AI needs to be limited to specific purposes and must be time limited - not signed away for ever. We need to keep the actual person in the mix for as long as we can. I hope reason will prevail.

As far as opportunities are concerned, the long overdue movement towards greater diversity, equity, and inclusion; plus the calling out of misogyny and all abuses of power, are making our working environment a safer, more respectful and more socially just place. There’s further to go, clearly.


Photo credit: PS Morrison