No.1 for Interviews - Ricky Whittle
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‘The Scots are crazy, they’re a bad influence on me’
Heartthrob Ricky Whittle, of Hollyoaks and Strictly Come Dancing fame, makes time for an intimate chat with No.1 during one of his regular visits to Scotland...
Ricky Whittle has reached epic heartthrob status between playing Calvin in Hollyoaks and showing his masterful two-step on Strictly. So it was with a mixture of giddy school-girl nerves and excitement that we made our way to meet him in Glasgow. And let us just say ladies, in the flesh he is not a disappointment! Once we’d composed ourselves it was time to find out more about the man attached to those dancing feet and how he deals with the ardent, at times ferocious, female attention...
You’re doing a club appearance at The Savoy in Glasgow – have you been before?
Oh yes, and it’s always messy. But I’m sober tonight, I’m playing a charity football match at Old Trafford tomorrow. It’s probably a good thing that I’m going to be sober tonight as the Scots are crazy – they’re a bad influence on me! I’ve never had a bad time in Scotland, it’s always fun.
Do you have security for when you’re at the club nights?
Yes I do, but it doesn’t stop them though – women are crazy! Women are worse than men. If I grabbed you I’d be in court for sexual harassment, if women grab me then it’s just funny. So just because it’s a woman men are supposed to laugh it off and just think ‘oh it’s cheeky’.
Do you get a lot of women grabbing you?
They grab me everywhere! They grab my buttocks, they grab my groin like they’re going to rip it off and put it on the mantelpiece at home. They rip my shirts, they rip them open or they rip them off. But I guess it’s all in the name of good fun and making sure everyone has fun on the night.
You’ve been so busy recently – when do you get time to see friends and family?
Usually I bring one or two friends with me when I’m up and down the country working, it is the only time I get to see them. I don’t get out really as there’s no point so I may as well go and get paid for it.
Do you ever go out in a disguise to avoid the attention?
My beard is my disguise. It’s about as disguised as I can get. Things like sunglasses inside just draw attention. I remember I was in Ibiza for my mates stag do dressed as a French maid with blonde hair and I still got recognised, it was insane.
How do you deal with all of the attention constantly?
It takes two seconds to say hello and take a picture. I never say no. Don’t get me wrong, two seconds every 20 seconds can add up but I won’t say no.
You do a lot of travelling, but where is home to you?
Liverpool is home right now. My dad was in the RAF so I get itchy feet after three years; I get bored of a place. I was in London doing Dream Team and after three years I got bored. People say if you’re bored of London you’re bored of life because it’s got so much to offer, but I was just over it. So, Liverpool is as home as it gets for now, but I’m up in Scotland all the time.
You’ve finished up with Hollyoaks now, was it hard to say goodbye having worked with them for over four years?
No. We all see each other a lot anyway – we meet up for drinks and go to parties. They’re all mad, we’re always first to the bar and first to the dancefloor. There are about 16 of us leaving so there will be plenty of parties. I’m going to miss the people, not just the cast but the crew as well.
But it was just time to move on?
Yeah I want to keep learning. I heard that after Charlize Theron won her Oscar she was at an acting class the next day. I like that, I want to keep learning. I don’t want to be Calvin from Hollyoaks forever or Ricky from Strictly. I want to be recognised as a good actor, not just someone who gets their kit off or someone who’s stereotyped.
How did you first get into acting?
Fluke! I was at university studying law and did a bit of modelling to pay the bills. My agent put me forward for Dream Team because I looked like a footballer. Then at the audition I blagged it. They offered me a two-year contract on Dream Team, I left uni straight away because I thought ‘I’m going to be on TV and chat up lots of girls!’ I was very shallow – girls, money and TV… I thought ‘wicked!’ Obviously now I want to be entertaining, but I learned as I went.
And you learnt as you went with dancing – how was the Strictly experience? Was it how you imagined?
It was the best thing I’ve ever done. I met some amazing people, like Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly. I had Shirley Bassey asking me to dance for her in Monte Carlo and I’ve got The Fonz on my phone! He phoned me up to wish me good luck. Random! He phoned me up when I lost and said, “I know who won, you know who won, everyone knows who won, chin up!” He came to watch us train and he loved Natalie [Ricky’s dancing partner] and he said we were the best by far. If The Fonz says we’re the best then I don’t care what happened in that competition, because he’s The Fonz, he’s the coolest [laughs]. Having him on my phone is my claim to fame.
Are you going to head across the pond soon to try and break the US?
I’m going to go wherever the work takes me. I’ve found the work that I love now and films and American drama is where I would love to be. I watch Lost and True Blood and that’s what I’d love to do – the writing is amazing! But at the end of the day there are better actors out there than me who have failed so a lot of it is who you know. Hopefully something comes along for me but for now I’m going to get my head down in Britain and get stuck into work. There have been a lot of interesting offers so we’ll see.
You obviously work hard on your body and training for the London Marathon must have helped – how was your experience of the marathon?
Worst thing I’ve ever done: it was horrible. I just wanted to finish, I wasn’t going for a special time or anything. I got to 16 miles fine but then I had to stop to go to the toilet, I had to queue for 20 minutes to get into a cubicle and after those 20 minutes my legs just seized up and I never recovered. So every two or three miles I had to stop and stretch. I was running with Richard Branson and his team.
You’ve spoken in the past about being bullied as a youngster, was that racial bullying?
Oh it was all sorts, kids can be mean. They’ll pick on anything that’s different, whether you’re tall, short, fat, thin, wear glasses, red hair, short hair. I was in different countries as well so I got picked on for being English in an Irish school and the black thing was just another label for them to pick out. It’s just kids being kids and it’s made me stronger. Kids grow out of it when they realise that everyone is different and they’re different themselves.
I think it’s important for kids to know that they can be themselves and be proud to be themselves. I used to get nervous when I was younger but my mum would say, “You’ll enjoy being different when you’re older.” I would say things like, “Maybe I didn’t want to be black,” but she said I’d like not being like everyone else and she was right – it’s nice being unique.
What do you do in your downtime to relax?
DVD boxsets and the cinema: I just love films. I like just curling up and watching DVD boxsets as well with lots of sweets and chocolate!
Who’s your celebrity ideal woman?
I always say Megan Fox, I think she’s lovely and she’s got great eyes. I don’t mind tattoos on women if they’re done in a nice way – something classy then they can
be sexy.
In a movie of your life who would play you?
Can I not play myself – I need a job?
No, sorry you can’t because you’re very old at that point in time and you need someone to play how you are at this age in your life…
Then it would have to be someone younger than me now..?
There’s a special kind of time machine by then that makes it possible for someone the same age roughly as you are now to play you in the future…
Okay I see [laughs]. Well Will Smith is my idol. He made a massive journey from sitcom actor to serious drama. He’s seen as a serious actor as well as a comedy actor, and it’s very hard to be loved by women and adored by men too, but he is. If you could make him a little bit younger with your weird time machine I’ll go for him!
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