‘Poldark’ Star Ciara Charteris Reveals She Left Drama School After Female Students Were Groped By Classmates Wearing A “Rape Mask”

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: Ciara Charteris went to drama school with her eyes wide open. Born into a dynasty of talent agents, the Poldark actress-turned-safety advocate grew up steeped in stagecraft. “I entered drama school with a lot of privilege and knowledge of the industry,” she recalls. “It meant I was very aware of what was wrong immediately.” Charteris left home to join the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in 2013.

A decade earlier, Queen Elizabeth II gave the school its royal status to mark her 50th year on the throne. Its hallowed halls were once home to Anthony Hopkins, marking the start of a career that would take The Silence of the Lambs star to double Oscar glory.

Like Hopkins who went before her, Charteris says drama school students are thrown into an “adult realm” designed to break down inhibitions and channel trauma into dramatic performance. “The fundamental grounding of the courses themselves are built on things that are trying to strip a person of their natural rights, their physical rights, their gut instincts.

It’s all about letting those things go in literal, practical exercise form,” she says of her experience. Speaking to Deadline as part of our Drama Schools Uncovered series, Charteris says this environment created “monsters” among her classmates.