thank you for answering, really appreciate it!! nahh ur not talking out of your ass, it all makes sense. ur right, it's probably the lack of full-time drama school that was the biggest disadvantage. now i wonder, why didn't they send him to one bc that was definitely doable. or was he planning to become someone other than an actor? doesn't seem like it, pretty sure he just randomly picked a major to study at the uni. had to look it up - “I selected the drop-down menu, and I went a) archaeology, anthropology… anthropology? I guess that sounds good, I’ll do that.” so yeah lmao (no shade to him, i feel like most teens are like this. i for sure was). so i wonder why they (or just him) weren't more serious about him potentially becoming an actor. or maybe his dad just wanted something more solid for him, since most parents are universally doubtful about kids pursuing art as a career. also, i remember reading somewhere that he didn't want to use his dad's help and instead worked at the restaurant before landing a role in domina. brother, don't piss me off with all that, you should've been using the fuck out of your dad's connections. but don't quote me on that. just something I've read on twitter, idk where they got that info ab him refusing his dad's help from. its so frustrating bc he's a great actor but you never know when and if you're gonna see him in the next (hopefully decent) project. like, i definitely knew that backrooms were going to be huge, the hype was overwhelmingly there, so imagine my disappointment when he was for approx. 5 seconds in it :/ not saying that they should be handing him major roles out just because but my god, it's so frustrating. he does book good project with other great actors, but it's almost always some surface level role for him. or aerion - like you said, the character itself isn't that deep (funnily, he was widely praised for making him more interesting compared to the books), but it's a good role in terms of further career prospects. and of course it's just for one season… not dissing showrunners tho, ik that's how it is for aerion in the books, too. it's just me being an old man yelling at clouds. can't wait for your thoughs regarding the schools. im not from the uk either. i'm more familiar with the uk's foreign affairs, rather than their general societal framework, other than it being extremely classist as i already mentioned in the original ask. it's a know fact the uk has some of the fanciest schools in the world. but i have no idea what their schools stand for in regards to class and politics in general. other than the obvious ones - like eton is where all these royals go, or oxford and cambridge being elite and top-tier; easy to imagine what kind of crowd flocks to these ones. though, pretty sure the uni he got accepted to is considered to be really good. and it's in belfast 👀 his sis graduated from trinity college in dublin. so maybe i have an idea what you might touch upon in your answer. can't wait nonetheless
The University Finn got accepted into was known to take super-high proportions of undergraduates from state schools (99.5% in 2005~06). It's one of the reasons why I assume he attended state schools for secondary education. The other reason is that he talked about getting into acting through extracurricular classes on Saturdays at Stagecoach Performing Arts, but he didn't say he took drama classes at his own school.
Most of the fancy private schools (called "public schools" in UK, their public schools are called "state schools"... so confusing lol) have their own, well-funded drama departments. Students from well-off backgrounds attend private schools and discover their love for performing there; down the road, they feel comfortable to major in drama at university, or go to full-time drama schools like RADA. It's a well-established pipeline for actors in the UK.
Working-class kids often do not have that pipeline. It has led to a decline of working-class actors, and there has been a lot of discourse about that for at least 15 years (I first read about it when I started following Andrew Garfield circa 2010).
Finn's case is peculiar. He grew up in a well-off family, but his parents chose Hackney to raise their kids. Hackney was originally a working-class neighborhood, which began to gentrify in the 2010's and is quite expensive today, but it was known as one of London's ~deprived areas when Finn was a child. Ronan Bennett got his start in TV by creating a series about drug dealers in Hackney, after seeing kids deal drugs at a supermarket there.
So Finn's parents, despite their wealth and social status, chose to raise their kids in a working-class area and send them to state schools. I would guess that it was mostly because of their progressive ideals -- pure conjecture, of course. Regardless of their reasons, Finn grew up the way he did, outside the "posh" environment. I suspect that Finn might just not feel comfortable about drama majors and drama schools, simply because he didn't know any people doing that at the time.
The thing is, Finn is not working-class either. He couldn't be. When I first started to watch his interviews, I had thought he was, because the "shit" and "fuck" rolled off his tongue so lightly, and he was at ease with his slight lisp. Then, he would causally mention that his father lived in Spain and speak Spanish to the interviewer. So I looked him up and yeah, nepo.
I'm losing my train of though lol... I've tried to figure out why Finn had a slow start, but ultimately it's speculation. It hardly matters now. Finn has been noticed! That Esquire UK interview says he is "getting excellent scripts optioned," which is amazing. Producers option scripts; sometimes big actors do through their own production companies. For an upcoming actor like Finn to "get script optioned," it probably means he or his agent is helping the scriptwriters pitch their scripts successfully. It's cool to be so involved from the start.
Regarding Aerion: I do think AKOTSK is by far the best production Finn has been a part of, not even close. Aerion is a very effective character for the show; Finn's work there is impactful and deserving of the breakout. I have nothing but appreciation for the entire team.
To serve the story, everything Aerion did on screen was for arousing emotional reactions in other characters, like Dunk and Egg, Maekar and Baelor, even the crowd. The show did not care about Aerion's inner life (and it was arguably more effective that way). In the entire series, Aerion had only one shot that was about how the character felt - his reaction to Dunk rising like a zombie. Finn nailed that one short moment. Looking back, that was when I decided to look into the actor.
True Detective S4 does not match AKOTSK's quality, and Prisoner is much worse. But both Peter and Olly have several scenes that are entirely about them, how they feel and react. Those roles give the actor more room to play.
