Lily Allen took her West End role in ‘2:22 A Ghost Story’ out of “self-hatred”.
Lily Allen took her West End role in ‘2:22 A Ghost Story’ out of ‘self-hatred‘
The 37-year-old ‘Smile’ singer – who is married to ‘Stranger Things’ actor David Harbour, 47, and whose dad is ‘Trainspotting’ star Keith Allen, 69, while her brother Alfie, 36, was in ‘Game of Thrones‘ – had never tried her hand at acting before taking the role at London’s Noël Coward theatre but took the part as she thought she would bomb and end up conforming she was a “piece of s***”.
She said on her upcoming appearance on ‘The Jonathan Ross Show’, which will air on Saturday (01.04.23) on ITV when asked why she took the job playing terrified wife Jenny in the spooky tale: “I kind of took this job on because I was full of self-hatred at the time.
“(I was telling myself), ‘this will be a disaster, I’ll hate it, the reviews will be horrendous’ and I’ll be able to be like, ‘Yes you are a piece of s***’.”
Lily ended up being so critically acclaimed it landed her a nomination in the best actress category of 2022’s Olivier Awards, and the play has since had more runs with former ‘Love Island’ host Laura Whitmore, 37, and currently ex-Girls Aloud singer Cheryl, 39, in Lily’s role.
She said about her surprise at her work being praised: “But actually it was really brilliant and it sold out. I got an Olivier nomination!”
She added: “It was probably the most scary thing I’ve ever done.”
Lily, who is now starring in new Sky series ‘Dreamland’, added her decision to return to the stage at Glastonbury in 2022 and perform with Olivia Rodrigo, 20, was also frightening.
The singer, who has daughters Ethel, 11, and Marnie, 10, with her first husband Sam Cooper, 45, said: “I was really nervous. I haven’t done it in a long time, I haven’t done it sober. I don’t really know what I was expecting. It was really, really amazing. “People went absolutely ballistic. I was really overwhelmed. My kids were like, ‘What’s going on?’ Olivia is their idol.
“People were screaming louder for me than her at some points. I got off stage they didn’t really want to talk to me.
“In the car on the way back, Marnie looked at me, and went, ‘Are you kind of popular then?’
“She was like, ‘What, in the charts?’ And I was like, ‘Yes…’.”
But Lily added about banning her tunes from her family home: “Lily Allen is banned in our house. You’re not allowed to. Absolutely not. I don’t really like it that much. I liked it when I wrote it.”
Asked if she will record again, Lily said after Glastonbury she did start making new music.
She added: “It sparked something in me. It is quite fun, I am quite good at that. I booked in five weeks in the studio just before Christmas last year.
“And, it was awful. Nothing really came and everything felt really contrived. It was just not very good. So I'm not going to put any of that out. Maybe one day, we’ll see.”
Speaking about how she met her husband David on celebrity dating site Raya: “(It was) the first time I’d been on this dating app. I was scrolling through and landed on David’s profile and pressed accept.
“I didn’t know who he was. I thought he was just like a sexy policeman from a reality TV Show.
“He was wearing a policeman’s uniform. It was a still from Stranger Things. I’d never seen Stranger Things.
“I don’t even know what I was looking for. It was just something to do on holiday, swiping, it’s a bit of fun. When I met him I didn’t think it was going to go anywhere.
“He was here (in the UK) filming ‘Black Widow’. He was only going to be here for a couple of months. And then it did (go somewhere.)”
She added about their attraction to each another: “I’d say it was pretty instant actually. He was sitting underneath a clock.
“It was a little bit like that moment in ‘Titanic’, when (Jack) turns around under the clock. It was a little bit like that for me.”
‘The Jonathan Ross Show’ will be shown on Saturday, April 1 at 9.40pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
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