Rod McPhee: Keep Burberry boys in check: Yorkshire Evening Post

           

PRETTY BOY: Douglas Booth in Great Expectations.

Published on Thursday 15 December 2011 06:00

As open-minded as I ought to be about a string of British Burberry models landing top acting roles – the latest is Douglas Booth playing Pip in the Beeb’s big Christmas period drama, Great Expectations – I just don’t feel like it.

Robert Pattinson started all this off. Then emerged Tom Hughes in legal drama Silk alongside Maxine Peake and Alex Pettyfer who’s currently nurturing a nice little Hollywood career.

All of them are part of the band of willowy pretty boys who could be found staring pensively out from the pages of Vogue and Marie Clare and then found themselves, miraculously, getting leading parts in films and TV. They’re often parts that their peers with a lower profile, and lower cheekbones, would pull out their off-white, imperfectly arranged teeth for.

Surprised

Ironically, some of the Burberry lads are not only genuine actors, but good actors too. Booth, for example, surprised critics with a well-observed portrayal of Boy George in BBC 2’s Worried About the Boy and Hughes is actually RADA-trained.

Trouble is there’s no escaping the suspicion that their perfectly symmetrical bottom and top lips, chiselled cheeks and puppy dog eyes might have been the foot in the door of casting directors. Of course, a modelling career confirms the appeal and that delightful Burberry cachet a deal-clincher, surely?

Meanwhile there’s the danger that the next Alan Rickman or Alec Guinness is overlooked because they’re just not as nice to look at.

And though I’m sure it seemed like a good idea at the time, taking up modelling alongside acting does dint your potential to be taken seriously as a bona fide thesp. It’s difficult to pass it off as complete coincidence too, particularly when there’s a batch of them – all models, all signed to the same fashion house and, in many cases, sometimes appearing in the same ads.

Even Robert Pattinson has cottoned on to the unfortunate association, reportedly turning down another lucrative Burberry modelling contract in a bid to boost his credibility in movieland.
With that in mind I’m not sure if being blessed with good looks might not turn out to be a curse for the new batch of Burberry boys.

Here’s hoping.

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