Little Ms Funtime! We catch up with Les Misérables star Samantha Barks as she prepares to glam it up for the BAFTAs
By LYDIA SLATER
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As she prepares to sashay down the red carpet at tonight’s BAFTAs, Les Misérables star Samantha Barks tells Lydia Slater how she’s living (and loving) the dream
Samantha wears DRESS, Julien Macdonald. EARRINGS, Asprey. SHOES, Jimmy Choo
In the plush surroundings of a boutique London hotel, Samantha Barks is giving me a masterclass in strutting the red carpet with confidence. ‘You’ve got to be yourself, but more so,’ she instructs. ‘You know how Beyoncé has her alter ego, Sasha Fierce? You need to channel that.’
Samantha knows what she’s talking about. At just 23, she is already a red-carpet veteran, having reportedly beaten both Taylor Swift and Scarlett Johansson to the role of tragic anti-heroine Eponine in the film of Les Misérables. The velvety power of her voice and her scene-stealing performance saw her showered with prizes, and she and the cast were even invited to perform at last year’s
'The cast of Les Misérables had so much time for me. We’d all jam around the piano'
Oscars. Now the awards season is in full swing again and top hairdresser Charles Worthington has chosen Samantha to be his muse at tonight’s EE British Academy Film Awards (Charles Worthington is the official hairstylist to the 2014 Baftas).
It’s no wonder: Samantha has natural star quality. Her high-street ensemble of red Boden jumper, black Topshop skirt and Jones Bootmaker boots looks designer-chic on her neat frame, while her long dark hair gleams like chocolate even before Worthington has got at it with his Volume & Bounce Body Booster Mousse. With her thickly lashed dark eyes, tawny skin and dimples, Samantha is the image of Disney’s Pocahontas – although her own background is less exotic. ‘I’m a Celt!’ she says. ‘I’m naturally olive-skinned.’
DRESS, Christian Dior. EARRINGS, Lulu Frost. SHOES, Jimmy Choo
Samantha was born and brought up on the Isle of Man, where she spent an idyllic and outdoorsy childhood. ‘In the summer we’d be out on boats, or swimming. I was always climbing trees. It was a great place to grow up – so safe, calm, natural and untouched.’ None of her family is in show business: her mother Ann and sister Kim are teachers, her father Richard a building surveyor; her elder brother Carl is a pilot. But Samantha followed a different path. ‘I was dancing from the minute I could walk,’ she says. ‘If there was music on, I was moving.’ She begged to join her sister’s dance classes, starting with ballet and moving on to tap and jazz, and insisted on learning the clarinet, recorder, drums and guitar.
Her most prized Christmas present was a karaoke set. ‘I’d have the instrumental versions of musicals and pop songs and I’d sing away at the top of my lungs,’ she laughs. ‘It annoyed my brother so much – I’d be singing in my room at 3am and he’d knock on my door and ask me to stop because he had to get up for a flight.’
Catherine Zeta-Jones was Samantha’s idol, and her ambition was a career on stage, which made her something of an anomaly at school. ‘I was never teased, but people didn’t understand,’ she says. ‘I’d talk about musical theatre and they wouldn’t have heard of it. Nobody knew about it in my high school.’
So, at 16, having joined every amateur dramatics production she could, she implored her parents to allow her to move to drama school in London. ‘I said, “I really believe that this is what I should be doing.” I couldn’t guarantee I’d make it, but I knew I’d give it everything. Selflessly, my family let that be more important than the fear of their child moving to London. I was very lucky.’
Samantha arrived to study at Arts Educational Schools London in Chiswick having never visited a big city, and without a single phone number in her pocket. A nerve-racking prospect, you might assume, but Samantha denies it. ‘It was completely overtaken in my mind by the thrill of doing what I loved every day.’
Below: Samantha (pictured with Charles Worthington) wears DRESS, Carven. NECKLACE and HORSESHOE RING, Lulu Frost. CLUTCH, Jimmy Choo
It saddens her that young fans often ask her how to become famous. ‘It’s your job that should inspire you; fame is just a by-product of something that should give you satisfaction and happiness. Someone said that for every three seconds of glamour you see, there are eight hours of hard work. And if those eight hours of hard work aren’t what you’re in it for, then the three seconds won’t give you the joy that you think it will,’ she says seriously.
The trouble is, Samantha makes success look so easy. It was just a few months after her arrival in London that her singing teacher suggested she should audition for I’d Do Anything, a BBC talent series offering the winner the chance to play Nancy in a West End revival of Oliver! ‘So I went and queued up. Even when I was standing in line, I was thinking, “This is a cool life experience!”’ she says. ‘I didn’t think I’d get through, but I thought if I could sing for Andrew Lloyd Webber, that would be a great tick on the checklist.’
Left: Samantha in The Christmas Candle, and as Sally Bowles in Cabaret in 2008
To her astonishment, she found herself chosen to be one of the show’s stars, catapulted overnight to the status of nation’s sweetheart and getting masterclasses from Liza Minnelli and Idina Menzel, her musical heroines.
At times, she admits, the attention was a little overwhelming. As a tomboy by nature, she cringed at being made to wear hot pants on TV. ‘I was used to skinny jeans and Converse trainers, so I was mortified,’ she admits. The public criticism was also hard to cope with. ‘I thought, “Oh no, everyone I know is going to see that.” But it only lasted for a few weeks. And it was character-building – it gave me a thicker skin.’
She laughs aloud at the idea that she was disappointed to come third. ‘I was over the moon to be third! I never thought in a million years I’d get that far. And at 17, I probably wasn’t right for Nancy, I was too young.’ She’s still friends with Jodie Prenger, the winner of the contest. ‘I went to see her in Oliver! and I thought she was fantastic,’ she says, with the grace of the seasoned pro. ‘All those girls were so talented, I was genuinely happy for them.’
This generous attitude must come a little easier since her own subsequent career has put Jodie’s in the shade. Almost immediately, Samantha was signed up to play Sally Bowles in Cabaret; further stage roles as Eponine in Les Misérables and, ironically, Nancy in Oliver! followed seamlessly. And it was during one Oliver! curtain call at the Palace Theatre, Manchester in January 2012 that the producer Cameron Mackintosh walked onstage to announce to the audience that his protégée had just been cast as Eponine in the forthcoming Les Misérables film.
Samantha performing at the 2013 Oscars
Wasn’t she daunted by the prospect of starring with Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman in her very first screen appearance? ‘They went out of their way to make it not intimidating,’ says Samantha. ‘I remember the first time I met Hugh. I was in my gym kit, running on the treadmill, and he came and tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Hi Samantha, I’m Hugh.” I thought, “Even that tells me what a nice guy you are – I wouldn’t expect you to know my name.”
‘They all had so much time for me. It was like chilling out with friends. We’d have dinner parties together and we’d all jam around the piano – me and Amanda [Seyfried] and Anne would sing, Russell would sing.’ What were they singing? ‘A lot of Adele,’ she twinkles.
‘They all had so much time for me. It was like chilling out with friends. We’d have dinner parties together and we’d all jam around the piano – me and Amanda [Seyfried] and Anne would sing, Russell would sing.’ What were they singing? ‘A lot of Adele,’ she twinkles.
Her music-based friendship with Crowe has continued to blossom – last month she was in Australia singing with him, the Canadian folk-rocker Alan Doyle and the American actor Scott Grimes in a series of concerts. ‘I did a few last year, too. They’re so much fun.’
Global gossip persists in linking her to Crowe romantically, a fact that makes her roll her eyes expressively. ‘That’s when you know life’s changed a bit, when you’re just hanging out with a friend for a coffee and the next minute… You suddenly have to think about things like that,’ she says. ‘And sometimes those rumours can spiral and be hurtful to other people. In that situation, you can’t take it seriously, you have to laugh it off. We’ve been friends for ages, just really good friends.’
Samantha performing in Les Misérables
Previously, she’s dated TV presenter Matt Johnson and male supermodel David Gandy. And now? ‘I do have a boyfriend – a little bit,’ she says, shy for the first time. ‘It’s fairly new and he’s an actor. I don’t want to embarrass him by talking about it.’ (The smart money is on former Coronation Street actor Richard Fleeshman, who has been seen on her arm at various events in the past few months.)
Samantha rounded off last year with a starring role in The Christmas Candle, which was partly filmed on the Isle of Man (her sister Kim was an extra). The film also featured the Britain’s Got Talent star Susan Boyle, which co-star Lesley Manville subsequently declared was ‘disturbing.’
‘I feel that it was a shame that such a nice cameo role was not in the hands of any number of actresses I can think of who can act and sing and would have done it admirably. She sings, and that’s wonderful, but she’s not an actress,’ Manville said of Boyle’s involvement, sparking a Twitter storm.
Samantha rounded off last year with a starring role in The Christmas Candle, which was partly filmed on the Isle of Man (her sister Kim was an extra). The film also featured the Britain’s Got Talent star Susan Boyle, which co-star Lesley Manville subsequently declared was ‘disturbing.’
‘I feel that it was a shame that such a nice cameo role was not in the hands of any number of actresses I can think of who can act and sing and would have done it admirably. She sings, and that’s wonderful, but she’s not an actress,’ Manville said of Boyle’s involvement, sparking a Twitter storm.
Samantha is visibly torn when I bring this up. ‘It’s hard, isn’t it?’ she sighs. ‘I didn’t film with Susan to be honest, so I wouldn’t feel it was fair to comment. And Lesley Manville was really amazing, and so talented.’ Spoken with a diplomacy that augurs well for a future spent negotiating Hollywood’s prickly egos.
For that is almost certainly what lies in store. This year sees Samantha appearing in two major films. In the forthcoming Dracula Untold, she plays the role of Baba Yaga, a child-eating witch, which required her to spend six hours a day in prosthetics. Then there is The Devil’s Harvest, a film about the Ukrainian ‘Holodomor’
Samantha with rumoured boyfriend Richard Fleeshman
famine-genocide of 1932-33. Samantha stars opposite Max Irons (Edward IV in the TV series The White Queen). ‘You gotta love Max,’ she says. ‘The film was so dark, but I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much off-set. We got on instantly, which was lucky, as on our first day we had a love scene. I opened the schedule and went, “Argh!” But you just have to dive straight in and not take yourself too seriously. It was funny, actually.’
There are several more projects lined up, which, she insists mysteriously, she’s not allowed to discuss yet. ‘I’m hoping it will be an exciting year.’ Having got so far, so fast, does she ever worry she’s peaked too soon? ‘Yes, you could always think that this job is your last,’ she admits. ‘And you should always have that worry; you should always be striving for the next thing.’
Samantha lives in West London with her chihuahua Lily and, as you might guess from her dainty figure and tiny waist, she’s an exercise freak. ‘I do Bikram yoga and pilates – if I’ve got some free time, I might go five times a week,’ she says. ‘I find yoga very calming.’
Her other passion is cooking. She’s been a vegetarian since childhood, and says if she hadn’t gone into acting, she might have become a chef. ‘I’m passionate about healthy desserts. Last night I made sugar-free, wheat-free, dairy-free carrot cupcakes with tofu cream, sweetened with xylitol,’ she says eagerly (if she can make that lot taste delicious, Mary Berry might have a rival).
‘I like whacking as much good stuff as possible into a dessert. I make frozen yoghurt, and I have an air-fryer for frying vegetables without oil.’ Her favourite breakfast is an egg-white omelette, or a muffin she makes from flaxseed, egg, cinnamon, raisins, baking powder and stevia. ‘I mix it, put it in the microwave, and in one minute it’s a muffin!’ Gwyneth Paltrow couldn’t do better. No wonder Samantha takes the red carpet in her stride.
Samantha is the red carpet muse for Charles Worthington at tonight’s EE British Academy Film Awards, which will be shown on BBC1
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