Actress/singer Jessie Buckley has admitted she “wasn’t well” while she was appearing on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “bonkers” TV talent show I’d Do Anything at the start of her career.
Jessie Buckley “wasn’t well” during her stint on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “bonkers” TV talent show I’d Do Anything.
The 36-year-old actress/singer launched her career in 2008 as a contestant on the reality show which was a competition to win the role of Nancy in a West End production of hit musical Oliver! and she finished in second place behind winner Jodie Prenger – and Jessie has now admitted she struggled during her time on TV.
She told Vogue magazine: “It’s bonkers, in hindsight. I was just likeL ‘Oh my God. I get to peek behind this curtain already. I get to sing. I get to be part of this industry that I really was hoping I could be part of.’
“And I look back at it and I feel like: ‘God, you’re so brave.’ I don’t know if I’d have that courage now. And I don’t know if that was kind of innocence or ignorance.”
However, her mental health was suffering behind-the-scenes. She added: “[I] was not well fully. I was depressed and I – just wasn’t well.
“There was a lot that was really messed up.”
Jessie went on to reveal she particularly suffered from “a lot of body shaming” adding: “And bringing me to femininity school. And I was growing into my body.
“I was 17. I was in a moment of discovery. As women, it’s such unfair objectification … Back then, I was just trying to move into a space of myself.
“I really hope that a 15, 17, whatever-age woman never has to be brutalised quite like what happened on that show. But I didn’t recognise it fully at the time. I just felt it, which was difficult.”
After coming second in the competition, she was offered the chance to be Prenger’s understudy in Oliver! – and Jessie admits she turned the job down by walking into the office of famed theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh.
She explained: “I walked to his office, rang the bell and saidL ‘Is Cameron Mackintosh here? Thank you, but I won’t be taking that job’.”
Jessie went on to book plenty of theatre work and later moved into TV and movies making her film debut in 2017 thriller Beast.
Jessie Buckley ‘wasn’t well’ on ‘bonkers’ TV talent show
