Actors should ‘cock a snook’ at Queen’s honours, says Jim Broadbent

OSCAR-WINNING film star Jim Broadbent has said he does not believe in actors accepting honours from the Queen – because they should be anti-establishment figures.

The star of The Iron Lady, Moulin Rouge, Iris and Topsy Turvy told an audience at the Edinburgh International Film Festival that he felt actors should be trouble-makers and “cocking a snook” at the establishment rather than accepting honours.

The 63-year-old, who was speaking to a sell-out crowd at the Traverse Theatre, revealed he had also hired a publicist for the first time after winning an Oscar, to try to do less publicity work himself.

Broadbent, who turned down an OBE several years ago, said sports people who had dedicated much of their lives to the pursuit of excellence achieved much more than actors.

He said he would not criticise others such as Kenneth Branagh or Lawrence Olivier for accepting honours, but agreed with the playwright and actor Alan Bennett, who wrote an essay about turning down a knighthood.

Broadbent said: “If it’s good enough for him, it’s good enough for me. I quite like the romantic notion of actors cocking a snook at the establishment.”

Broadbent is in Edinburgh for the duration of the film festival after agreeing to chair the jury for the best British feature.

He said: “I came here three times before, for the Edinburgh Festival in the 1970s and 1980s, when I was with the National Theatre of Brent, and it was a huge formative experience for me as an actor.”

He also spoke about his latest cameo role in Filth, an adaption of Irvine Welsh’s novel, which has been filming in Sweden.