Posted April 9, 200817 yr Thanks to Rachel on .net Funny how the same interview can have a different feel, when the interviewer has a bit more intelligence and insight. I recognise Darius from this one, we all know he loves to talk LOL - and the other stuff about him too, Article in the Telegraph Frankly, Darius Danesh does give a damn Last Updated: 12:01am BST 09/04/2008 Darius Danesh has come a long way since losing in 'Popstars'. Now playing Rhett Butler on stage, he talks to Bernadette McNulty Darius Danesh is like a cat with nine lives. In 2000, appearing on the first ever ITV Popstars talent show, before even Simon Cowell was involved, the Scottish university student became notorious for his self-belief, pony tail and histrionic rendition of Hit Me Baby One More Time. He failed to win a place in Hear'Say, and yet, despite mass public derision, he returned to compete in Pop Idol, with Cowell as a judge. Despite losing again, Cowell offered him a record contract to make an album of Sinatra cover versions. He turned this down, but secured his own deal with Mercury records. He made number one with his first single, Colour Blind, and had a platinum-selling album. His second album was less successful. Just as his pop career seemed to be taking a dive, he popped up in the West End in Chicago and Guys and Dolls - to some acclaim. Now, in another remarkable twist, Danesh has been cast as Rhett Butler in the world premiere of the stage musical of Gone with the Wind, directed by Trevor Nunn. The reaction seems to be, "Who does this guy think he is?" advertisement Rising from a reality TV show - the entertainment equivalent of being in the stocks and having rotten cabbages thrown at him - he has had the audacity to elevate himself to treading the boards with serious thesps and filling the shoes of a cultural icon. Meeting Danesh backstage at rehearsals, I am surprised by how tall he is. While his head and shoulders (and those twiddly, imploring hands) are burnt into the mind's eye from Popstars, he turns out to be three inches taller than the statuesque 6ft 1in Clark Gable was. The eyes are dark and mischievous. The pony tail and goatee have gone, but the black hair is slicked back in matinee-idol waves. There is a white-toothed smile but alas, no lustrous moustache. He assures me that this only takes him four days to grow, and I can believe it. So if, like Trevor Nunn, you'd never laid eyes on Danesh before, this fine-voiced, swaggering young cad might not seem such an implausible Rhett Butler. "Trevor didn't know who I was. He had really never seen me before. Given his stature and who he has worked with in the course of his incredible career, I knew he would have the pick of the crop. I thought they would get a big name to open the show; someone like Ewan McGregor in Guys and Dolls. So I was taken aback when I got the call. Trevor wrote me this beautiful letter asking me to be Rhett. It was the most moving, articulate, touching letter that I have received. He blew me away." Unlike gruff, man-of-few words Butler, Danesh can talk the hind legs off a donkey. If the end of sentence is looming into view, he will light upon a new horizon without so much as taking a breath. As I am thinking this, he is merrily galloping on ahead: "Strangely, it echoed when I met first met Steve Lillywhite, the U2 producer who signed me to Mercury. He didn't know who I was after doing Pop Idol. He thought Darius was a band and when he heard Colour Blind he wanted to sign them. "So it's the second time I got the job because of what I did and, in this case, how I responded as an actor. That for me is the biggest gift. It was incredibly humbling and exciting at the same time." He may sound like an American diva trying to play down her reputation rather than a 27-year-old Glaswegian pop star, but you can hardly blame him for having a Teflon ego. The eldest son of doctors, one of whom was a senior consultant, grandson of one of the Shah of Iran's ambassadors, he was named, like his three brothers, after Persian kings. He attended the alpha-male breeding ground of Glasgow Academy and was halfway through a degree at Edinburgh University when fame beckoned. "I wanted to go to Rada but my parents wanted me to be a doctor or a lawyer - I studied English and philosophy as a compromise." Danesh is admirably unperturbed to be stepping into such an iconic role. "Pressure is just something we create - in the mind's eye. Maybe it's difficult for people to accept I have taken this role, but is that a pressure? No. It is a privilege that I have this role. It is only a pressure if I make it a pressure." The cheesiness in Danesh seems to come from being an old-fashioned man trapped in a 21st-century reality star's body. He has a deep, buttery, posh-Scots accent, blurred at the edges by an LA drawl. He tries to dress down but his Converse trainers seem too stiff and clean, his jeans too consciously ripped, while his tailored jacket and silk scarf sit perfectly. His arm wraps protectively around the back of the sofa and when he talks about his childhood it sounds like the 1950s rather than the 1980s, all loch-swimming and tree-climbing. When I ask if his positive attitude to life comes from his living in the US for the past few years, he almost sounds as if he's doing an impression of his idol, Sean Connery. "Not at all. I'm Scottish through and through. It comes from my mother, who would say, 'Eat when you're eating and walk when you're walking.'" There is a substance and engaging intelligence and passion to Danesh. He sees this version of Gone With the Wind as dealing with the serious themes of the book, much more so than the sweepingly romantic film. "It takes on the real essence of the Civil War - the freedom of the slaves and the birth of capitalism - the things that shape American and continue to shape it to this day." By the end of the interview the sonorous, baritone lilt and relentless mantra of positivity have me in a trance, and I tell Danesh that for his next incarnation he could become a hypnotherapist or new-age guru. He throws his head back and laughs, deriding West Coast airheads, but reveals that he has finally fulfilled his childhood dream and has been taking acting lessons "with the same teacher as Sean Penn". For a moment, his aspiration seems ludicrous - from Popstars to Hollywood actor! But then I remember his cat-like survival so far, and I think again. # 'Gone With the Wind' opens at the New London Theatre (0870 890 0141) on April 22.
April 9, 200817 yr It is a very fair article but I do wish journalists would be a little more original with their headlines. I'm tired of that famous quote by Rhett and all versions thereof. I'm beginning to think I'll scream with pent up frustration if Darius says it in the show. "twiddly imploring hands" - Great description Edited April 9, 200817 yr by Baytree
April 9, 200817 yr I don't mind watching his lips move saying it though. Now where are those ear plugs BA/Virgin etc. kindly furnish their passengers with?
April 10, 200817 yr It makes me wonder with a number of journalists what an easy or lazy job they have - using repetition headlines, picking up pieces out of other articles etc ets. Not many with originality.
April 10, 200817 yr After hearing the little sample of D's Southern accent last night,maybe I won't mind listening to it said in that nice deep slow drawl. I'm confused by this snippet in a review on a theatre site ....I did find it a little irritating that on the two occasions Rhett says the famous line (which even I have heard of!) there was a ripple of expectation/excitement and then applause....... Does he really say it twice ? Edited April 10, 200817 yr by Baytree
April 10, 200817 yr Author I noticed that too - reading all the reviews I am starting to have quite a few questions needing answering, regarding who sings what songs..and things like that line being said twice.
April 10, 200817 yr It was - on one occasion and on the other, it was said once and the other version later on.
April 10, 200817 yr So My dear, I don't give a damn and Frankly,my dear, I don't give a damn. Did he forget his hat and have to come back for it or something?
April 11, 200817 yr That's the really sad thing about Darius doing theatre work. I think there's nothing to beat live theatre. However, at top West End prices without much chance of discounted tickets, I won't be able to see Rhett many times. Certainly not enough to cement him in my mind for as long as Billy or Sky. The only consolation this time is that we may a tape of the documentary and possibly a cast recording.
April 11, 200817 yr The amount of narration is not good. The cast are and, if you remember it isn't a musical, are great. A play with music. The cast of actors are good. Some seem miscast but then, it's not my opinions that created it. I can't wait to see it again. Maybe with a little fear about what they may have cut out as well.
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