Former Love Island winner Amber Davies broke down in tears as she recalled the tough time she went through as she battled the critics to reach the final of Strictly Come Dancing last year
The Strictly Come Dancing star became very emotional as she discussed online bullying (Image: Call To Stage/YouTube)
Amber Davies broke down in tears as she remembered her Strictly Come Dancing struggles. The actress, 29, who found fame as the winner of Love Island in 2017. reached the final of the BBC Saturday night favourite towards the end of last year but endured tough bouts of criticism from viewers because of her mammoth experience on the West End stage.
The TV star, who trained at The Urdang Academy, a prestigious drama school in London, used the instant fame that came with Love Island to launch a career on the boards, and went on to star in Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5: The Musical, The Great Gatsby and can currently be seen in the leading role of Elle Woods in a national tour of Legally Blonde.
But before taking on that part, she was ushered in as a last-minute replacement for Dani Dyer on Strictly after her fellow Love Island winner sustained an injury, and had to quickly come to terms with the fact that it was going to be full on.
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She said: ” How on earth was I supposed to know that Strictly were going to call? And obviously that isn’t a that isn’t an opportunity I can turn down. And I think I underestimated how much Strictly was going to annihilate me and chew me up.
Becoming even more emotional on her Call to Stage podcast, she added: “Like, yes, it was the best thing I’ve ever done. I would do it a million times again. Like, I loved it with all my heart, even all the s****y trolls., but I flatlined after Strictly.
“There’s even like some clips come up on my social sometimes., of the semi-finals and the final and I can see it in my eyes like I’m not there. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. And like physically, emotionally, I couldn’t have given any more. By the end, I wasn’t me.”
After Strictly, Amber went straight into rehearsals for Legally Blonde, which is based on the 2001 film starring Reese Witherspoon, and after just four weeks on the road, she had to take time out as she battled a chest infection. During her time away, the part was taken by TikTok star Hannah Lowther and rumours of a backstage feud between the pair quickly began to emerge.
Even though both actresses quashed the rumours, comparisons of them began to dominate certain corners of social media and the trolling shocked Amber in a way she hadn’t expected to happen in the world of theatre.
She said: ” “The last thing I do want to speak out about – this has broke my heart in ways that I can’t even possibly imagine. When I was doing Strictly I’d had a meeting with my team and they prepared me for the trolling and the opinions.
“Sometimes the opinions aren’t trolling but the opinions are mean, so it counts as trolling. I think sometimes when people leave mean comments, they forget that they are talking about an actual human being who is just working hard.
What I wasn’t prepared for was the trolling that was going to come with Elle. I have worked…I am trying to find the words to explain this…I’ve been in this industry, I’ve done lots of jobs and I’ve never experienced trolling within the musical theatre industry as much as I have during this time.
“I want to be really clear that I know how disappointing it can be when your favourite musical theatre performer doesn’t book the role that you want them to book but it’s super important that people don’t go and attack the person who is playing the role. Everybody has worked so hard to get where they are in their career.”
Amber – who has interviewed the likes of High School Musical actor Corbin Bleu as well as fellow theatre performers like Wicked star Rachel Tucker, and West End legend Ruthie Henshall, also known for her appearances on I’m A Celebrity and Coronation Street, on her podcast – decided to release a special solo edition where she addressed her own personal ordeal, and spoke candidly of how her dream role of Elle was thwarted by severe anxiety early on in the run thanks to the “real malice” that came her way.
She added: “Elle Woods has always been a dream of mine and now I’m achieving it and it feels like the most wonderful thing in the world but it has been hard. For me, I wasn’t a massive TikTok person. TikTok person is engagement rings, dog videos and baby videos, I’ve been introduced to the world of TheatreTok and if you’re on the wrong side of that it can be really, really difficult.
“I feel like I didn’t expect to be playing Elle and living my best life with this heaviness behind me of real malice and nasty comments, personal comments, DMs being sent to me. So this is definitely something I have to cope with the year.
“That’s worse case situation but it is what it is and there’s nothing I can do. When it started happening, my anxiety was really bad, I was going on stage and felt like I had an elephant sitting on my chest. I was so scared to open any type of social media app.”
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