After Life actor overwhelmed by social media love

Ethan Lawrence has featured in Afterlife, Horrible Histories and Bad Education

A television actor said he had been overwhelmed with support after opening up about his mental health and career struggles.

Ethan Lawrence, who lives in Maldon, Essex, has featured in Netflix's After Life, Horrible Histories and Bad Education.

But his last role was in 2023 and he has previously delivered pizzas to make ends meet.

He wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that "I’m about to reach the point where I just give up trying to be an actor".

However, he said an influx of supportive messages had made his anxieties feel heard.

"So many people were so very, very kind about moving forward and it really warms the cockles," he told the BBC.

"It’s reminded me that if I do go I may well be missed actually, which does make you rethink."

Mr Lawrence played the dim-witted pupil Joe in the BBC sitcom Bad Education

Lawrence, who attended his local comprehensive, Plume Academy, started acting aged 18.

He played Joe Poulter in Jack Whitehall's comedy Bad Education, about a dysfunctional secondary school.

His biggest break came when he played James in Ricky Gervais's multi-award winning dark comedy After Life, who was introduced as a musician trying to get into the local newspaper.

The BBC miniseries Boat Story in March 2023 was his last role, and he has since kept afloat thanks to podcast interviews, TikTok content and intermittent voiceovers.

'Enormous brain drain'

The 31-year-old said he feared the showbiz industry ran the risk of "sleepwalking off a cliff" if actors were not supported.

"The problem that we have is this is a very financially precarious industry," he told BBC Essex earlier in the week.

"All of the people who make the things you love, we exist as self-employed contractors with no real financial safety net.

"It is kind of scary and it becomes increasingly scary when you hit little schisms like this.

"We run the risk of having an enormous brain drain in this industry so that when things start to pick up again, there will be some people who have left this industry and they aren’t coming back.

"That should worry us and we should be mad about it."

The character James, played by Lawrence, begins work experience at the Tambury Gazette in series three of After Life

Lawrence said people have a "really overinflated view" of how much actors get paid for smaller roles.

The actor said he owned "basically no assets" after a 12-year career.

"If nothing is done and more people leave the industry and there’s no-one there to replace them, we really run the risk of sleepwalking off a cliff," he added.

"This is a powder keg that people don’t really seem to be paying attention to."

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt unveiled tax breaks for independent British films and TV studios in England in his recent budget, which was broadly welcomed by the sector.

However, the arts union Equity said it should be seen in the context of more than £1bn in government arts cuts made since 2010.