He may have been one of TV’s hardest men but in real life, he suffered tremendous abuse for being ‘too posh’
Former EastEnders thug Ross Kemp said he was teased for ‘talking posh’ by his friends when his career started out.
The actor made his name playing Grant Mitchell during the 1990’s in the BBC soap.
Whereas he looked to come across as an East End gangster, his mates off screen ripped into him for his accent.
This banter was at its most rife after he returned home following a stint at drama school in London as a teenager.
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He told The Observer Magazine: “When I came home from drama school I was accused of talking posh.
“I went to London when I was 18 and when I returned to Essex my friends didn’t like my accent much.
“It was all part of this dreadful idea that drama schools can break you down and rebuild you into the model actor.”
Ross then made the move into documentary making with the Bafta-winning Ross Kemp On Gangs series.
Yet, the 52-year-old said people still think he is the EastEnders character.
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He said: “He (Grant) had a Neanderthal-type thuggery about him.
“I’m not necessarily professing to be the brightest person on the planet,
“But I think once people have a conversation with me, they work out he was just a character I played.”