West End and Broadway musical theatre star Kerry Ellis is loving the thought of being cruel this Christmas.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Always lovely
00:07to speak to Kerrie Ellis, even if she's being evil mean for all this Christmas. 101 Dalmatians
00:14at the Theatre Royal in Brighton, sounds a perfect Christmas film. But it's new territory
00:19for you to be mean, isn't it?
00:22It is, yes. I've been green, but I've not been mean.
00:27What's the attraction of being mean then?
00:31It's just fun. You've got liberty to just be outrageous, I think. And it's just, it's
00:36so far from what, you know, from anything that I am. It's a big kind of caricature.
00:40So it's wonderful to play. The show is just upbeat and fun and it's emotional. It makes
00:47you feel something. There's so much heart in it. But it's a really kind of fun family
00:52Christmas show. It is kind of for everyone as well. When I took my kids earlier on in
00:59the year, I wasn't expecting to kind of fall in love with it as much. You know, I thought
01:02it was going to be very, you know, just enjoyable. But I came away and I'd really been moved
01:07by it. And I think that's wonderful. The wonderful direction of Bill Buckhurst and the direction
01:13of the puppets is worth coming to see just in itself.
01:16Have your children seen this new side to you yet?
01:20They have. I mean, they haven't seen the show with me yet. They haven't seen the show with
01:28me yet, but they will do at Christmas, at Brighton actually, they're going to come.
01:32We saw the show with lovely Kim Marsh, who was wonderful. And they loved it. They just
01:37found it hilarious and sad and funny. And it was great. So yeah, I'm excited for them
01:43to see me do it.
01:44And you're saying you kind of feel that you need to think why Cruella is the way she is.
01:49And you need to understand her a bit then. What's gone wrong that you've become this
01:53cruel person?
01:54Oh, you know, I think she's the eldest child. I think she had a kind of a loveless relationship
02:04with her mother. I think she feels a bit unfairly treated. And we kind of play her that she's
02:11slightly from a lower class and she puts on this facade, making herself incredibly important.
02:18She's kind of created a caricature of herself, which I love. I think it's quite, there's
02:23an underlying, you know, you have to keep up this pretense of being very important.
02:28And I love that about her.
02:29So you can excuse that cruelty then?
02:32A little bit, maybe. You've got to love to hate her. That's the trick. You've got to
02:37love to hate her.
02:38And you're saying the puppetry is fabulous.
02:40The puppetry is unreal. It really is. I mean, when you're on stage, you literally, you know,
02:46you talk to the dogs. It's all aimed, the cast members that control the puppets are
02:54just unbelievable. They're so talented. They really are. You know, you've got to come just
02:59to see them do their job. They're so brilliant. And it's designed brilliantly well. So the
03:06focus is at the puppets. And, you know, it makes you really feel for them. You really
03:11buy into it straight away.
03:13You make it sound fabulous. Really lovely to speak to you. Have a super cool Christmas.
03:20Thank you so much. Thank you.
03:21Thanks a lot. Bye-bye.
03:22Bye-bye.