Sheridan Smith calls herself ‘a scrubber from Doncaster’ but she is the queen of theatreland

By
Alison Boshoff
Last updated at 9:51 PM on 24th March 2011

Has there ever been an acceptance speech quite like it? Sheridan Smith, a tiny blonde bombshell with a helium personality, beamed ecstatically at the cream of the theatre world, gathered in Drury Lane.

Then, accepting her best actress Olivier award last week, she exclaimed: ‘I don’t think I deserve to be here. I’m just a complete scrubber from Donny Doncaster. I’m just blagging it.’

The award was for her performance as Elle Woods in Legally Blonde, the show based on the hit movie about a dizzy Californian blonde going to law school. 

Moving on: Since Sheridan split with her ex-love James Corden, seen here in 2009, her career has flourished

It was regarded as lowbrow by some theatrical types, but people flocked to see it in the theatre and its feelgood fun attracted more than £2 million in advance bookings. Better still, there were standing ovations every night — a star was born.

Talent, charm and sheer focus have since made Sheridan, 29, one of the names who can open a West End show; she was the only actress in The Stage’s list of the most influential people in the business.

Not bad for a woman who didn’t go to drama school and doesn’t regard herself as a ‘proper musical theatre actress’.

‘I always feel like a bit of a fraud, but so far I’ve not been found out,’ she says.

But it’s not happened by accident. During her run in Legally Blonde, Sheridan spent up to an hour a night outside the stage door, signing autographs for as many as 250 people a show.

She communicates incessantly with her Twitter followers (her ‘Twit fam’) and last  week she apologised for only posting a dozen times, as she’d had so many thank-you messages to respond to.

So, what is the truth about her rise to fame? For this overnight success has been an awfully long time coming — 13 years, in fact.

Along the way, she has roomed with defunct pop stars, struggled in bit parts, suffered at least one false dawn and lost a famous boyfriend — James Corden. 

Born in Epworth, a village between Doncaster and Scunthorpe, she is a ‘country bumpkin’ who likes to escape from her flat in Crouch End, North London, and head back up North whenever possible.

Her parents, Colin and Marilyn, are in a country and western band, The Daltons, while her brother Damian, 34, plays in rock band The Torn. Smith, not embarrassed by her parents’ musical taste, wants to go to Dolly Parton’s theme park, Dollywood, for her 30th next year.

Blonde Ambition: Sheridan had rave reviews for her performance in Legally Blonde, receiving standing ovations nearly every night

After seeing her family perform she, too, sought the spotlight and joined the National Youth Music Theatre as a teenager. By the time Sheridan was 16 she was living in London with Hannah Spearritt from S Club 7 and three other friends, surviving on jam sandwiches while playing Tallulah in Bugsy Malone. She says: ‘I was terrified of slinking back to the village, my tail between my legs.’

After Bugsy, she was cast in Into The Woods at the Donmar in London’s Covent Garden. She was 17 and tipped for stardom, but it wasn’t to be. Hailed The One To Watch in 1999, she ended the year as obscure as she had started it.

Then came a role in The Royle Family, as Our Anthony’s girlfriend. Though well-received, she was being pigeon-holed. ‘Chavs and slappers are a speciality,’ she told an interviewer.

Parts followed as Smithy’s sister in Gavin And Stacey, as Jonathan Creek’s assistant and in Benidorm and Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet of Crisps.

Then Sheridan made her return to the stage, eight years after Into The Woods, in Little Shop Of Horrors. She earned an Olivier nomination and this was her lucky break.

She performed at the 2008 awards and director Jerry Mitchell, who had just opened Legally Blonde on Broadway, saw her. In the bar afterwards, he told her: ‘You are going to be my Elle Woods.’

To keep up with the demands of the role — 18 songs and 16 costume changes a night — Sheridan gave up drinking and smoking. It was a lonely time and her romance with James Corden ended.

To cheer her up, on the opening night her parents and coachloads of Yorkshire pals came to watch, her dad walking the aisles in a pink T-shirt reading: ‘I’m the Daddy.’

Smith’s family have always been close and were further bonded when her brother Julian died of cancer when he was 18 and she was eight.

‘Julian would spend time lying on the couch and I’d do little shows for him,’ she recalls. ‘It made me want to make the most of every opportunity. I’ve seen how fragile life is.’

After Legally Blonde, Sheridan was in demand and while she was on holiday director Trevor Nunn offered her the role of barmaid Doris in Flare Path. She accepted and is outshining her co-star, Sienna Miller.

For a while her personal life was flourishing, too. Last year, she began dating hunky Band Of Brothers actor Ross McCall, who was previously engaged to Hollywood actress Jennifer Love Hewitt. The pair had been friends for ten years before dating. She said at the time: ‘He’s great: handsome, kind, charming and he makes me laugh.’

Now, though, she is apparently single again and has just completed her first movie, Hysteria, with Maggie Gyllenhaal, in which she plays a prostitute — the film is a comedy about the invention of the vibrator.

Her next project is tipped to be a stage version of Bridget Jones’s Diary, with songs written by Lily Allen.

Sheridan relates to the role: ‘I’m always wearing Spanx, eating ice cream and feeling a bit lonely. Bridget makes an a*se of herself and I’m totally like that.’

However, the newly-crowned queen of theatreland does admit her huge success makes such comparisons a bit silly.

‘I didn’t expect to last in London for three months even and I’m still here.

‘What a great 13 years!’

For Flare Path tickets, call the Theatre Royal Haymarket box office on 0845 481 1870 or visit trh.co.uk.