I came out of ‘Strictly’ a different man
Danny Mac on how shyness held him back
Contestants just beginning their journey on the nation’s favourite TV dance show – especially those worried about the now fabled “curse of Strictly Come Dancing” – might take some comfort from one of last year’s finalists, Danny Mac. No question that the ex-hollyoaks actor and his partner, Oti Mabuse, tore up the dance floor with some of the most sizzling routines ever witnessed on the show (consider their Manghalenha Samba routine, likened by judge Bruno Tonioli to “a pagan mating ritual”). Yet, despite the palpable chemistry, when I meet Mac in the plush basement of a Mayfair hotel he is deep in arrangements for his summer nuptials with fellow actor Carley Stenson, his fiancée before and, reassuringly, after, last year’s competition.
“I’m lucky that all of my relationships, not just with Carley, but with family and friends, are strong. That’s just the way I am. But it matters when it comes to Strictly because that show shines a light on everything,” he says.
His advice for the incoming crop of contestants, which includes Debbie Mcgee, Paralympic sprinter Johnnie Peacock and Sunday Brunch host Simon Rimmer, is “to allow it to take you over and it will, believe me. It will be physically, emotionally and mentally draining, but it will also be one of the best experiences of your life.
“Remember, though, who was there before the competition started and who’ll be there for you when it ends.” While definitely not forgotten, the Strictly experience is firmly behind Mac, who is currently preparing for his starring role as Joe Gillis in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Sunset Boulevard. Playing the young writer that the ageing Norma Desmond (played by Ria Jones) becomes besotted with is presumably no great stretch, given the almost ludicrously dishy Mac notched up numerous “sexiest male” gongs at the British Soap Awards.
The musical kicks off at the Curve Theatre in Leicester before embarking on a nationwide tour. Mac’s wedding is sandwiched between his new role and the end of his last, he has been playing Gabey in On the Town, at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, to rave reviews.
Given his schedule, then, he can be forgiven for arriving slightly late – not least because he also turns out to be charming, affable and generous to a fault. I suggest he was robbed of the glitterball trophy: “No, no, I wasn’t,” he insists. “Ore and his love for the show and his love for dance just grew every week. It was beautiful to see. And no one deserved to win more than he did.”
Though Ore Oduba and his partner Joanne Clifton may have raised the trophy, the series proved to be a win for Mac, too. “I went on a bigger journey than anyone will ever know. I came out a different person,” he says. Not only did his career receive the ubiquitous post-show shot in the arm, but so did the 29-year-old’s self-confidence. “Before, I was constantly talking myself out of roles,” he admits. “Scripts would arrive and, even before I’d finished reading them, I’d say: ‘I’m not up for this, I know who they’ll cast and it won’t be me.’
“Then Strictly – a show I’d said ‘no’ to three years in a row – knocked again and this time I said ‘yes’. Before, I’d turned them down because I’d only ever wanted to be a celebrity if I’d done the work to justify it and, believe it or not, I’m also incredibly shy; I’m the last person who’ll get up on a karaoke night or show off on the dance floor. So, I was terrified of being seen as just me, rather than a character
– and me in a sparkly outfit, too, potentially making a fool of myself.”
Eventually the magnitude of the opportunity dawned on him, “and doing it helped me discover so many things about myself and what I was capable of, and to finally let loose in ways I never had before. I threw everything and the kitchen sink into it.”
One of the most endearing things about the Mac I meet is his sense of wonder at his own success. As a little boy, he dreamt of a stage career and finding himself now starring in Sunset Boulevard strikes him as miraculous.
“Where I came from, no one became an actor or went on stage,” he says. Born Danny Mac Greene, he grew up with a sister, two brothers and an abundance of cousins in Pagham, a small seaside community near Bognor Regis. His father, Mark, launched a successful fruit and veg business on the back of a market stall; he describes his mother, Jan, a hospice nurse, as “an incredible woman”.
“I saw both parents work so hard for their living but my dream was to go off and earn money, basically, from having fun. They could have totally discouraged it, but they did the reverse.”
From an early age, Mac began attending a local Saturday morning drama club: “I never told any of my friends because drama was something boys from my background didn’t do.” Linked to a talent agency, the club propelled him into his first professional stage role aged 10: Gavroche in a production of Les Misérables in Southampton. “From that moment I was hooked, but I still kept quiet about it around my friends.”
Those friends, he says, are still a big part of his life, though the differences between their career paths have been stark. When he went off to study drama at the Arts Educational School in London (other alumni include Julie Andrews, Martin Clunes and Strictly judge Darcey Bussell) his friends became “grafters”; “they’re all electricians, plumbers, scaffolders,” he beams. “I worried they’d laugh at me in Strictly – but if they did, it was mostly the kind that comes with complete surprise and shock that someone can do something you never thought them capable of. They were totally supportive.”
He’s looking forward to seeing the new series, different this year, he concedes, with new head judge Shirley Ballas. “But I also feel that the show peaked last year and couldn’t be bettered, so fresh blood now could be great for it.”
Despite what looked like explosive chemistry with Oti on the dance floor, he only mentions her platonically, “like a brother and sister who can love each other and hate each other, often in the same day.
“That’s how intense it was between us, but God, I owe her so much for putting up with me.” The curse of Strictly that has felled so many relationships, including those of Natasha Kaplinsky, Rachel Riley and Ben Cohen, never had a chance. Mabuse herself remains happily married to professional dancer, Marius Laure, and Mac is not the type to forget his loyalties. “Carley and I are just an incredibly strong unit,” he says. “We’re a team and that’s all there is to it.”
It helps, perhaps, that Stenson is also in the business, currently starring as Fantine in the West End production of Les Misérables. Coincidentally, she and Mac both cut their teeth in Hollyoaks – “although, actually, she’d left the show by the time I joined and we first met by chance in a London pub,” he recalls.
He has been sworn to secrecy about his forthcoming wedding, laughing that “Carley will kill me” if he reveals so much as what will be played for their first dance.
There are unlikely to be any Strictly-style spangles, sequins or naked torsos involved, however. “Just me with Carley in my arms,” he says. “The real thing.”