Lots of middle class people are running around pretending to be Cockney.
I love my accent, I thought it was useful in Gone In 60 Seconds because the standard villain is upper class or Cockney. My Northern accent would be an odd clash opposite Nic Cage.
I don't want to say I'll never play someone with a cockney accent, but I think I would be irritated by me doing it.
Somebody sent me a British magazine listing the 20 worst dialects ever done in movies. I was No. 2, with the worst Cockney accent ever done. No. 1 was Sean Connery, because he uses his Scottish brogue no matter what he's playing.
I was able to make up lots of portementos, literally hundreds and hundreds of words... See, I find that mine don't have any meanings. They're not proper. Although I've got a great dictionary of them. It's like the Cockney rhyming slang or something.
The Crafty Cockney had a picture of the owner dressed up as a copper, so I brought it home, wore it on TV and the name just stuck.
I actually had a cockney accent before I went to drama school. It's softened up a bit.
There are lots of actors who are posh and stick with that, and there are lots of actors who are cockney, and that's what they do. That's fine, but I don't think that could be said about me.
It was great to play an ex-marine cockney thug. All my roles are as different as the colours of the rainbow.
Adele's like a beacon of honesty. Doesn't compromise, goes to America and she's still the same sweary cockney.
