“Game of Thrones” actor Kit Harington has criticized the suggestion people in the arts should retrain if there aren’t enough jobs amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Harington appeared on ITV’s “Peston”, when he was asked about the U.K.’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak claiming people “in all walks of life” should find new opportunities during the ongoing crisis.
The actor said he was “incredibly worried” about the effect the coronavirus pandemic is going to have on the performing arts: “I think every actor goes through life, no matter how successful they are, thinking they’re going to have to retrain because the work’s going to run out.”
“I don’t know what the chancellor said or didn’t say but I think the suggestion that people should just retrain is quite offensive,” Harington went on.
“It suggests that our jobs in the arts are just sort of hobbies that we can let go of in a whim.
“I think that what we do, and this country has a rich history of theatre and the arts, and I think it’s one of our greatest exports, and I think it needs to be valued as such.
“It brings a lot of money into this country, just on a purely economic basis, so the idea of retraining is a silly one, I think.”
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ITV has since reported Sunak was not talking specifically about the music or arts sector in his interview and was instead commenting on employment generally.
See more in the clip above.
