Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I used to drink and go all out but it’s a TV bubble.. now all I need is at home
ENDERS STAR PUTS PARTYING DAYS BEHIND HIM
FOR EastEnders boozer Jake Wood, the clinking of glasses didn’t end when the cameras in the Queen Vic stopped rolling.
Instead it signalled the start of real-life hard partying after work with castmates.
But now the actor, who plays serial womaniser Max Branning, reveals he’s put those bad old days behind him to spend more time with his wife Alison and their two children.
The Sunday Mirror got a glimpse of Jake’s family-first lifestyle last month with exclusive pictures of them on a Dubai break.
It’s a far cry from when Jake, 47, was a regular at nightclub meet and greets – but seeing others go “off the rails” was a wake-up call.
“There was a time when I was drinking but you have to find your way,” he says. “I am not that sorted kind of guy. It is trial and error – and a LOT of error.
“I think you have to make mistakes to realise what you want and how you want to live your life. For me, not drinking is a big part of that.
“When you spend 24 hours on a television series, and someone is playing your wife and someone is playing your best mate and you are all going out, I have done all that.
“It is a really weird life. There is a bubble and I know it is great fun, but it is not real. And when it does end it is brutal.”
HIPPIES
Jake joined EastEnders in 2006 after bit parts in a host of TV shows from Only Fools and Horses to Red Dwarf. He reached an even wider audience in 2014 when he starred in Strictly Come Dancing and reached the semi-final.
But what has grounded this son of two hippies who was raised in a commune was meeting Alison. They got married in 2001.
They now have children Buster, 11, and Amber, 14.
“I know I have a beautiful wife at home who is there all the time,” he says. “She was there every week for me when I was on Strictly – and I have beautiful kids.
“I have got everything I need at home. I think you have to get a balance as it is such a crazy life.
“I have seen people go off the rails with it. There are a lot of casualties in acting, with drink and drugs.
“It is very high-pressured. You get a lot of criticism aimed at what your insecurities are.
“I have seen the pitfalls. You are not human unless you have been around and made mistakes.
“I am lucky I have had that experience with acting from a young age. It draws you in.
“It is a great time but there are great highs and terrible lows as
well. For me the trick is to keep balanced. I just treat each job as an adventure. I have learned about myself.”
London-born Jake landed his first acting role in 1984 television series The Gentle Touch.
He went on to appear in Only Fools and Horses, One Foot in the Grave, Red Dwarf, A Touch of Frost and The Bill.
Jake has also appeared in films Vera Drake, The Aryan Couple, The Illusionist opposite Edward
Norton, and Dad Savage with Patrick Stewart. He has won gongs with EastEnders at the British Soap Awards and Inside Soap Awards.
But as he reflects on a successful career, he insists he just fell into acting thanks to an inspirational headmaster.
MAVERICK
“I did a bit of acting at primary school. There were a lot of poor kids. My parents were hippies and I grew up in a commune.
“The headmaster knew there was low expectation on the kids in that area. But he took all the pupils skiing to Switzerland, raising money for trips by doing photoshoots and fashion shows. It was all maverick things because he wanted the kids to have these experiences.
“He was an actor and he wrote scripts for us to perform. I loved Mr Lashbrook. An amazing guy – and he’s still alive.” When Jake’s family moved from Westminster to Islington, his parents signed him up to the Anna Scher theatre school. “That changed my life,” says Jake who reckons it took him 20 years to crack acting.
“It is a bloody hard job. It takes a long, long time to do it. You can’t learn it out of a book. You have got to get out there and do it.”
He reckons having plenty of front saw him through, just as it did during his time in Strictly where he was partnered with Janette Manrara, 35.
“I did not have a clue. I had never danced before,” says Jake. A boxing fan from childhood who has been in the ring himself, he believes a similar mindset is needed on the dance floor in some ways: “Mentally you have to be very tough to be a dancer and you need to put the hours in.”
Now a host on boxing podcast Pound For Pound, Jake says of his Strictly moves: “I was standing there saying to myself, ‘Is it left foot or right?’ and if I go on the wrong foot it would be t*** up.
“It is so scary. But I ain’t got a f ****** clue and I got to the semi-finals. I knew I could get out there and do a performance. I have got a lot of front.”