DENISE McCORMACK
BACKGROUND
DENISE showed true grit when she ‘pestered’ casting director Maureen Hughes for the role of gangster’s moll Linda in Love/ Hate, inset below — ‘originally they were looking for a 21-year-old for that part’, she has revealed. Her first professional acting gig was playing Minnie Holroyd in The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd in the Focus Theatre in Dublin, opposite the late Johnny Murphy.
Now playing the Machiavellian Bridget Kiely on Red Rock, Denise has also made memorable appearances in Raw and A Date For Mad Mary.
TRAINING
THE Red Rock star has always had the edge over many of her DWTS comrades, as she went to speech and drama school from a young age. Even more fortuitously, she had two years of ballroom and Latin American dance training.
‘My mother sent myself and my two sisters to classes when I was around ten and from the moment I stepped on stage to delve into a character my world became alive. It was electric,’ she said. ‘And not only did I love it, I was good at it.’
DANCE PARTNER
RYAN McShane not only achieved fame from the hit show — he’s also scored a relationship with model and former contestant Thalia Heffernan out of his DWTS stint. Ryan started dancing aged 4 and became a Latin champion in Ireland fairly quickly. He set his sights on the British competition circuit as a teen, and won the British Nationals at Blackpool and the youth title at the Champions of Tomorrow.
With his partner, Ksenia Zsikhotska — Dayl Cronin’s dance partner on the series — he is now the United Kingdom & British Latin Professional Champion & British Show Dance Champion.
REAL-LIFE PARTNER
DENISE has two kids — Harvey, 3, and two-year-old Sydney — with her partner Barry Gammell. Barry popped the question a year ago and the two plan to set a date soon. When asked about the famed ‘Strictly curse’ and whether the intimacy between Denise and Ryan was an issue for Barry, Denise laughed: ‘He’s grand, sure I’m an actor, so he’s well used to it!’
BEST MOMENT
SCORING a perfect 30 in the quarter-finals with her note-perfect charleston was a particular highlight. The score also sent Dayl Cronin, who had been sitting pretty for weeks at the top of the leaderboard, into second position.
WORST MOMENT
DENISE’S wobbles, mercifully for her, happened in the run-up to the competition. Initially, there was a crisis of confidence: ‘I remember the week coming up to it, thinking even if I was superhuman, I wouldn’t be able to do this,’ she admitted recently. ‘That was my negativity creeping in. ‘Then I delegated everything. I moved out of my house and into my mother’s, where I could be given a dinner and just go to bed. Something had to be taken out of the equation, and family life was the one thing I took out for that week. I couldn’t have done it otherwise.’
BEST COSTUMES
DENISE’S costume for week four was a thing to behold and dancing the rumba, the Dubliner looked every inch the sultry Latina goddess. As for her thigh-skimming flapper dress when she danced the perfect charleston — official dance queen status? Tick.
THE FUTURE
GIVEN that she has juggled her Red Rock schedule with the punishing demands of DWTS, Denise is likely to head back to the set of the TV3 soap, albeit with a little spring in her step. She has just wrapped on a short film too, entitled 6AM News, in which she was reunited with fellow Love/Hate cast member Peter Campion. DANCING With The Stars is on RTE 1 tomorrow at 6.30pm
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