I should have quit DWTS
HE’D be the first to admit that the last few months have been the hardest of Johnny Ward’s life. While he had signed up to take part in Dancing With The Stars, he had no idea his dad John would become so desperately ill during the hit show.
And he also had no clue that his dad’s last wish would be the thing that made him stick with the RTÉ series, against his better judgement.
For just hours after John’s funeral, Johnny was back in the rehearsal room with his dance partner Emily Barker in a determined attempt to get to the final. But now, he regrets the days he spent away from his family at such a devastating time.
‘It was enjoyable at the start but then it just wasn’t fun any more,’ Johnny says of his time on the show. ‘With what happened with my father I was pretty much hit with this uphill task. As much as I loved him, I hated that he had given me this impossible task to do because I just wanted to be there with him and the rest of my family.
‘And I think that’s what I should have done. That’s what I wanted to do but you can’t argue.’
The fact that he wanted to do well for his father piled the pressure on for Johnny — and Emily.
‘It wasn’t enjoyable because all our focus then was just getting to the final and making sure that every single dance was perfected,’ he admits. ‘You look at it with no regrets but if it had been up to me, I would have definitely just quit the show. And I probably should have, but I couldn’t because it was his dying wish and that was difficult.
‘I think I put a lot of pressure on Emily — we went to the funeral and then it was straight back into rehearsals.’
However, Johnny admits spending all the hours he had on the dance floor in the aftermath of his dad’s death from cancer was in some ways therapeutic.
‘There were times when we didn’t even speak, we were too busy trying to get the dances perfected,’ he says. ‘It was therapeutic as there is so much stuff inside you that you want to say but you use all those emotions as colour and the dance floor as a canvas.’
Johnny didn’t manage to waltz off with the prize and it was in the aftermath of DWTS that things took a further turn for his family.
‘My sisters live in Kildare and Longford so I moved in with my mum again,’ he explains. ‘It was just bad waking up in the morning to see my mum crying on her own and no-one there. I would say “I need to stay here” and she would tell me, “No, you’ve got your focus. Do it for your da.”
‘And then the day after the Dancing With The Stars final she suffered a mini heart attack and ended up in hospital. I was thinking, “Is someone putting a curse on my family? What is going on?”
‘She has been out of hospital a couple of weeks now and she is great, so much better.’
MEANWHILE, Johnny and his family are still dealing with the red tape surrounding John’s death, while making sure his mum gets back to full health.
‘It takes something as powerful as a death in the family for you to realise how many people are there for you,’ he says. ‘As a family we are really strong and we all pulled together.’
Johnny is still coming to terms with his dad’s death but focusing on work is keeping him busy.
And there’s a project he is very much looking forward to — the return of Copper Face Jack’s: The Musical to Dublin’s Olympia Theatre.
The action-packed, laugh-a-minute homage to one of Dublin’s best-loved clubs sees Johnny reprise his role as swaggering GAA star Gino Wildes.
‘I’m really excited,’ he says of the extended month-long run from July 10. ‘I loved doing this last year. There wasn’t one day when I went into
rehearsals that I wasn’t excited. There’s not one member of the cast who isn’t so much fun.’
He will be starring alongside Rosanna Purcell in the show, playing a culchie-hating clamper who’s a big noise on the GAA pitch.
And Johnny admits his swaggering character with some very weird sartorial choices is based around someone who was born not too far from his own family home in Walkinstown.
‘There is a bit of Conor McGregor in Gino,’ he says. ‘But he’s also based round the idiots and eejits who think they are Conor McGregor.’
INITIALLY Johnny had his doubts when he heard about the musical. ‘On paper it does look like a bit of a risk,’ he says. ‘But once I saw Paul Howard’s name attached to it, I knew I had to do it. I saw all of the Ross O’Carroll Kelly plays with Rory Nolan and I loved them.’
Coppers: The Musical packed them in when it opened last year and one of the hardest things for Johnny was not laughing during some of the show’s most outrageous scenes.
Of course, it had its detractors, but it’s a show that’s not set up as highbrow to begin with.
‘Obviously it’s not your average theatre-goers in the audience,’ Johnny says. ‘You get people from the age of 18 to 88 and they are all raving to Maniac 2000, laughing and singing and clapping.
‘It’s very funny, the most difficult thing from an actor’s point of view is trying not to corpse.
‘There’s a monologue in it about Fungie the dolphin that I do and at that point it is very difficult not to laugh. You can hear the audience in stitches and you are the only person in the whole auditorium who has to keep a straight face. It’s a challenge.’
First, though, Johnny will be performing as part of the Word On The Street festival where he acts out two novels which were written in a different language.
And on May 4 he’ll be using his fancy footwork for a cause of a different kind.
‘I am playing in a fundraiser against Celtic for Darndale FC,’ he explains. ‘I am a huge Celtic fan so I am delighted to be doing it. Dave O’Sullivan from Fair City asked me to do it and I am playing against heroes of mine — John Hartson, Brian McClair, Tom Boyd and Stiliyan Petrov.’
And there’s another unusual event on the horizon.
‘Strangely enough, I have been
Fair City star Johnny Ward reveals how his father’s dying wish kept him from his family in their time of grief
nominated for a VIP Style Award in the men’s category,’ Johnny says. ‘I’m up against people like Julian Benson and Darren Kennedy. For them, fashion is everything and I have no idea why I’m there. It’s like they felt sorry for me and wanted to give me a boost. I wear tracksuits, mostly — usually a Celtic one. That’s why I find it so funny.’
One thing Dancing With The Stars did for Johnny was instill the confidence in him that he can succeed if he works for it.
‘Emily was very strict,’ he says of his dance partner. ‘I would watch the videos in the beginning and think, ‘I look like an absolute idiot, I am making a total show of myself.’ The constant dedication, doing the same thing over and over again until you get it right. I remember thinking in the beginning, ‘there is no way in hell I will be able to do this.’
‘It just shows, no matter what you do, if you work hard enough at it, you will be able to do it.’
Some hard work will be going into reprising Gino Wildes too but Johnny is looking forward to seeing his Coppers gang again.
‘Doing the musical the first time opened my eyes to how much people love Copper Face Jacks,’ he says. ‘It is an institution and some people even have Copper Face Jack’s tattoos. When I did the Ray D’Arcy Show, there were two women in the audience who had CFJ tattoos because it means so much to them.’
And although his character is larger than life, Johnny has decided not to ham up Gino too much.
‘I find it’s really important to show a soft side to him too,’ he adds. ‘It would have been easy to ham it up but I think the more I play the character as a sincere person, the funnier he is. And knowing that this is around the corner is great. It is so much fun and such a good gang. It was the best summer I have ever had and hopefully this summer will be just as good.
‘We only have one week of rehearsals which is really intimidating because I can’t remember a percentage of the script, if I’m honest. But we will work hard and it will be as good, if not better than last year.’