The star of Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or-winning movie I, Daniel Blake has attacked the film industry for prejudicial treatment of actors from less privileged backgrounds.
Speaking to the Evening Standard, Hayley Squires said: “It’s a cliche for me to say, but there aren’t enough parts for working-class women.
“And the ones that are out there, you’re either playing the girlfriend of a drug dealer, a heroin addict, or a mother who can’t look after her kids.”
Squires said she thought her height – she is 5ft 2in – had also held her back. “When they’ve got 20 English roses who are 6ft tall and a size six, why would [Hollywood directors] see me? I always know I’m not going to get a part when I walk into a room and they go, ‘OK, we’re just going to do a full body shot, how tall are you?’ I’m 5ft 2in and a size 10, so you’re not going to put me in that Hollywood film, are you?”
In Loach’s film, Squires plays a single mother who befriends an older carpenter with whom she bonds over their struggle to claim welfare benefits.
Squires said she hopes the film will cause a “shitstorm” when it is released next month. “I hope the film resonates with working-class audiences and helps them understand that compassion and unity is needed. Without that, no kind of change can happen.”
