Instagram/@emilia_clarke
Emilia Clarke is backing Open Door, an association that exists in the UK to help aspiring actors and professionals working behind the screens in getting through the door to the entertainment industry. Emilia Clarke made the ambassadorship announcement via social media and invited everyone with dreams of working in film, television, or theatre to apply. The program gives financial support, mentorship, and entrance to top drama schools. To date, the program has helped 236 candidates enter several prestigious schools.
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The photograph in this post is an inspiring one: Bold text invites applications, while a young hopeful leans on an old wooden door signifying the entrance to opportunity. Pincher offers half-time acting courses, creative labs, sessions with private tutors, and expenses to get to auditions. Applications are only open to people living in the United Kingdom with a household income of less than £43,000-a lifeline in the making for those who otherwise could not afford professional training.
Much excitement, thanks, appreciation, and support poured forth with the announcement. Some reminisced about their student days at drama school being the best days of their lives and thanked the program for helping those in need. Then came the grousing—”Wish I was just 16, so I could apply”—and those outside the UK, mostly the United States, lamented about the scarce opportunities back home: “Realizing that the U.S. needs more programs like this… Not everyone can get into, let alone afford, free drama schools like Yale or Juilliard. Another reason to loathe being in America.”
There were boos and huzzahs-two sides of the same coin. The irrelevant comment began its derailment by interrogating the actress’ standing on geopolitical matters. Also, another one questioned whether it was “too good to be true”, an allegation soon to be mocked, simply on the basis of the charity’s proven existence and impact.
Inspired fans from overseas joined in, with one Brazilian prodding that the nation would do well to embrace something along these lines. Another one inquired whether EU residents could apply (no they cannot). The other ghostly intervention came from a “real honey boyfriend,” which read more as jest than alarm.
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Clarke’s association with Open Door is so much more than just a celebrity endorsement; it is his life experience. Formerly on her way to household name status, she had been through training at Drama Centre London; presumably, this is what fuels her passion for open access to arts education. The charity’s success stories speak for its impact-alumni working with major networks and theaters. Shout it out if eligible: this could be your big break. Everyone else please try to comprehend what barriers people are facing when bits-and-pieces of a creative career are being put together-and why initiatives like this matter.
This story originally appeared on Celebrityinsider
