Do fragile actors deserve a break from the poison pens of critics?

Comments from ‘The Crown’ star Dominic West about spending ‘two days in bed’ after reading reviews have reopened a fractious debate about the role of criticism in the arts. Nick Hilton, The Independent’s TV critic, looks at the complicated, but symbiotic, relationship between creatives and critics and the human toll of public takedowns

Dominic West recently spoke candidly about his reaction to negative reviews (PA)

I read all the reviews,” actor Dominic West told Mishal Husain on the Today programme earlier this week, “and then spent two days in bed.” West had shown up at Radio 4, notionally, to discuss his upcoming appearance as Eddie Carbone in Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge, but the conversation drifted, magpielike, to his role as Prince Charles in Netflix’s The Crown. West’s comments made headlines, reopening a fractious debate about the role of critics in the arts, and whether they – which is to say, we – revel in our subjects’ misery.

The two seasons of Peter Morgan’s Elizabethan drama that West appeared in – its fifth and sixth outings – scored 71 per cent and 56 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes, a site which aggregates responses from professional critics. This was significantly down from the highs of 95 per cent for the fourth chapter, but it hardly represents a pasting. It indicates that more than half of critics found something to like about The Crown’s conclusion. For my own part, while I didn’t think much of the show’s final season, I didn’t pass any judgement on West’s performance. The Crown’s problem has never been the quality of the acting (though I did once write that “West looks like he could beat the s*** out of Prince Charles”, which I suppose is a backhanded compliment at best).

All the same, the relationship between creatives and critics is a tricky one. On the one hand, it is a symbiotic relationship. Critics serve as the first line of curation, a filtration system that means viewers don’t have to taste-test the entire menu to find something edible. Most creatives (or, at least, their marketing and PR teams) understand this. They solicit reviews, availing early and privileged access to critics. There is an implicit understanding that, without attention from the press, the majority of shows will fizzle and die; and, conversely, without a constant flow of creative output, the art of criticism will wither on the vine.