Daisy May Cooper has told how she hit ‘rock bottom’ after she struggled to find a job when she left drama school.
The Bafta award-winning actress is famous for her role as Kerry Mucklowe in This Country, which she co-wrote with her brother Charlie Cooper.
And despite recently making her debut on Celebrity Gogglebox with her dad Paul, Daisy’s career didn’t start off so successfully.
Speaking with Kate Thornton on her recent White Wine Question Time podcast, Daisy explained that she went to the Job Centre after leaving drama school where the advisor offered her a job as Father Christmas.
‘One of the bleakest [times] was going into the Job Centre actually after finishing RADA,’ she began.
‘All my peers had gone on to be really successful. My friend Alex, she was in my year, was playing Meryl Streep’s daughter in a Margaret Thatcher film and I was back home and I was having to go to the f*****g Job Centre.
‘I went to the job adviser and I just thought “God, I really hope that you know that I don’t want to f*****g be here, like, I shouldn’t be here.
‘”I am somebody and I don’t want to be claiming Job Seekers Allowance, I want to be out there pursuing my dream but I’m at f*****g rock bottom”.’
Daisy went on to add that when the adviser searched for jobs in the ‘arts’, there were not many options available apart from Father Christmas and a DJ gig.
She added: ‘He said, “well, all that’s coming up really is a Father Christmas slot available in a grotto in Swindon arcade or they’re looking for a DJ in a club in Cheltenham”.
‘I just kind of sat there… I was completely f*****g humiliated.
‘I just said “I want something that’s in the evening, that no one can f*****g see me, that nobody knows that I’ve completely failed at everything”.’
The actress explained to Kate that she couldn’t even get a job as a kitchen porter at her local curry house.
‘He said, “there’s a kitchen porter job at the local curry house”. I said “kitchen porter, is that a posh word for waitressing? As in portering the food?”,’ Daisy continued.
‘And he said, “no, it’s a pot wash”. And he phoned up the curry house and they said: “sorry the job’s taken”. Over 40 people had applied for the pot wash job.’
And despite the fact Daisy struggled to find a job at that precise moment, it also spurred her on to pursue her acting career.
She explained: ‘That made me think ‘f**k if it’s that f*****g hard to get a pot wash job then I’ve got to put my energy into acting and something I want to do, rather than fight 39 others to work as a pot wash’.
‘That was a massive moment for me.’
It comes after Daisy’s dad Paul spoke out about how drama school knocked the confidence out of his daughter.
‘It started eight years before the first series came on,’ he told Metro.co.uk.
‘Daisy came out of drama school and she hated her time there, I think they knocked the confidence out of her and they tried to change her and there’s no point doing that.
‘She wasn’t getting any work so she came to the conclusion she had to do something for herself.’
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