MICHELLE KEEGAN

How a shop girl from Salford went global

Lunchtime at the Sunset Tower in LA, and all that can be heard is the gentle hum of power meetings taking place and script deals being brokered. A landmark of old Hollywood, the hotel’s wood-panelled lounges, once graced by Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe, are quiet even when packed. And today is no exception. The only sound that interrupts the hushed tones is the occasional tinkle of a drink being made at the bar by a suited waiter. Then suddenly… “Oh my God, I look like I’m in Ibiza,” laughs Michelle Keegan, as she appears at our table. She’s wearing a tiny sports bra with matching joggers, and excuses her outfit, explaining that she has just come from the gym. “I thought I was going to have time to get changed,” she says, plonking a Chanel handbag down, and radiating the happiness that comes from spending a few weeks immersed in LA’s laid-back lifestyle. Despite her recent gym session, her mascara is perfect, and her tan is streak-free. For seasoned Angelenos, January isn’t the time for sunbathing, but Michelle admits she takes advantage when the sun comes out, lying outside at her West Hollywood rental.

“So why are you in LA?” she asks me, intrigued by the idea of a British ex-pat here. “Do you love it? Mmm, yeah, Mark’s like that.” Michelle, 30, doesn’t waste any time dropping her husband Mark Wright’s name. Every time she waves her ginormous diamond wedding ring about, you feel his presence. It’s a rock big enough to drag her to the bottom of the Pacific, and it’s certainly not a ring you’d want to lose, say, while on location in the Malaysian jungle, living like an army cadet.

When Michelle decided to undertake eight months of extreme travel last year and reprise her role as Lance Corporal Georgie Lane, filming several miniseries of BBC soldier drama Our Girl, she and Mark, 31, had ‘The Chat.’ “Before I went to South Africa last April, we were sat in the gym car park and he was asking how long [for]. I said, ‘What do you want to do?’ He said, ‘Don’t know.’ And I said, ‘When I’m away, why don’t you go to America?’ He had an agent here. So he did – and look what’s happened. It’s unbelievable!”

Mark has moved to Los Angeles for 12 months, after landing a contract interviewing A-listers for the celebrity news show Extra. Michelle is proud of him, but somewhat disappointed that he’s not a little more star-struck when grilling her favourites. “He met Kevin Costner the other day,” she explains. “I was like,‘Oh my God, how was it?’ He said, ‘Yeah, alright. Have you had any lunch?’”

The couple flew here on Boxing Day following their reunion at Christmas after eight months. It was the longest they’d ever been apart. The press had a field day, particularly when she was photographed without that ring, and rumoured to be cosying up to castmates. It was already tough being apart, never mind having to contend with gleeful speculation about their supposedly ‘rocky’ marriage.

“Luckily for me, I was away,” she smiles. “So I didn’t see a lot of it. We had no internet in the jungle.” She removes the crusts from her avocado on toast. “I find it shallow, and I don’t think it would have happened if it was the other way round. Why can’t a woman have a happy marriage but still have a career? They’ll say, ‘She’s not wearing a ring.’ Why would I wear my ring on set? I’m wading through sh*t every day.”

Mark and Michelle were on FaceTime constantly. “It was like he was in the room,” she says. “He’d have breakfast, I’d have dinner. He’d get in the shower, I’d do my scripts. It was the norm. We were [living at] different ends of the spectrum. I remember FaceTime-ing him surrounded by cattle and mud. He was in Nobu in Malibu having cocktails, saying, ‘Aw, babe, look at the view!’ I said, ‘Do you want to see my view?’”

Friendship is the key to their success. They’re each other’s biggest champions. These past few weeks, Mark’s enjoyed showing his new friends and city to Michelle, while she takes some well-earned rest. On New Year’s Eve, they hiked and watched the sunset. They’ve been to Vegas (where they played roulette), as well as Elvis’s house in Palm Springs. “As we pulled up, Burning Love played on the radio – mine and Mark’s song!” She even spotted Chrissy Teigen and John “Lennon” in a car. “Legend, sorry!”

“Why can’t I have a happy marriage and a career?”

Not that she could see herself moving out here.“I’m too much of a homebod. I like going back just to breathe, do you know what I mean?”

Essex is home for Mark and Michelle, but Manchester will always have her heart. She was born in Stockport, but moved to Salford at the age of one.“I had a great childhood,” she says. Her earliest memory was of “screaming the place down” when she was dropped off at pre-school. When her mum looked back at her daughter on the way out, Michelle’s tears were suddenly dry. “Mum knew then. She said, ‘She’s going to be an actress.’”

She went to Manchester School of Acting at the age of 19, while working part-time as a make-up girl in Selfridges. Within months, an agent signed her. A few weeks later, she got the role of Tina in

Coronation Street. It was her second audition ever. She told nobody.

“I went on my own. I was chilled. There was no chance of me getting that role. I just wanted to see what it was like.” She made it to the final round and acted opposite Jack P Shepherd (who plays David Platt). In a previous job as an airport check-in assistant, she had served him. “I was trying to be dead cool with the passport, going, ‘Oh my God, it’s David Platt!’ to my colleagues.” Did she tell him during the audition? “I did – straight away!” she laughs. “He found it hilarious.”

Michelle was in Selfridges when she got a call from her agent telling her an ITV producer wanted to see her. She can’t remember the meeting. “I blacked out. He came over and produced a tower of scripts.” She bangs the table.“Then he said, ‘Congratulations, you got the part of Tina.’ I went deaf for a good five hours. I drove home in silence, looking at the scripts going,‘Oh God.’ I picked my dad up from work. When he got in the car, I went, ‘Dad, can you just pass me those scripts?’ That’s when he realised.”

Life changed overnight, and within six months Michelle had become a household name. Via the forthright, progressive Tina, Michelle grew up on national telly. Tina’s character helped her grapple with early adulthood – “I grew through her, 100%. [But] no one prepares you for it.” The first time someone asked for her autograph, she turned to her PR and asked whether she had to sign it.“I went, ‘But I haven’t got an autograph!’”

It was in 2012, while she was working on the soap, that she met Mark on holiday in Dubai. And while her initial plan was to see Corrie through for four years, she found it too tough to part with.“Every year, when I signed again, it was always in the back of my mind – should I leave yet? I didn’t want to get typecast.” Eventually she realised it was time to move on. At first the writers left the door open for her. That soon changed.“I had a meeting with the producer who said,‘We’re thinking of killing Tina and doing a whodunnit.’ And I went,‘Oh my God, definitely no going back now!’” She panicked. Julie Hesmondhalgh (who played Hayley Cropper), however, told her that Tina dying in 2014 was the best thing. Not having a safety net would give her the drive to pursue her career’s next chapter. “She was right. I’ve never looked back and regretted the decision.”

Once Corrie was over, she knew her next job would be crucial. Ordinary

Lies – a dark six-part BBC series – cast her in an ambitious, unexpected role as a drug trafficker. It was Our Girl, however, that would be the most pivotal. Michelle had seen the first series and loved it. When a role came up in the second series, she liked the idea of doing action for the first time. The scripts made it a no-brainer.

“Reading the reviews the first time round, I was so nervous. I thought I was going to get totally ripped [apart]. I remember reading on Twitter what everyone was saying and it was so positive. I burst out crying.”

The training was “gruelling” though.“You know when you’re thinking, ‘Oh, I’ll be treated lightly?’ No! We went to the barracks in Sandhurst. We lived there for a week. Up at 6am every day.”

A drill sergeant showed them the ropes. They had to patrol, march, learn about Syria and Iraq, and be trained in loading a weapon. She demonstrates at the table.“When you raise [a gun], you have to keep it pressed against your shoulder because of the ricochet,” she explains.

They learned the lingo, too. “If you’re in battle, you can’t talk. If I had to get you to come to me, I’d need to do this.” She puts her cutlery down and raises her hands up over her head. The other day, Michelle and Mark were watching 12 Strong, starring Chris Hemsworth, which is about the war in Afghanistan.“I understood everything the characters were talking about. I said to Mark,‘Do you understand what he just said?’ He said, ‘No.’ I said, ‘I do!’”

Last year the show took her to South Africa, as well as the Malaysian jungle for three weeks to film new episodes that will air this year. There, they had to commute via boat, and saw a stray dog get bitten by a snake and die.“Working in those conditions, I felt like I was in the army. I understand how people get so close to their platoons, because you depend on each other.” At the end of it, she found herself feeling far more independent and self-assured.

“I felt empowered,” she says. “The first month in South Africa,

“I’m a homebod. I like going back to breathe”