West End star Kerry Ellis will be Cruella this Christmas

SussexWorld

West End and Broadway musical theatre star Kerry Ellis is loving the thought of being cruel this Christmas.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Always lovely

00:07to speak to Kerrie Ellis, even if she's being evil mean for all this Christmas. 101 Dalmatians

00:14at the Theatre Royal in Brighton, sounds a perfect Christmas film. But it's new territory

00:19for you to be mean, isn't it?

00:22It is, yes. I've been green, but I've not been mean.

00:27What's the attraction of being mean then?

00:31It's just fun. You've got liberty to just be outrageous, I think. And it's just, it's

00:36so far from what, you know, from anything that I am. It's a big kind of caricature.

00:40So it's wonderful to play. The show is just upbeat and fun and it's emotional. It makes

00:47you feel something. There's so much heart in it. But it's a really kind of fun family

00:52Christmas show. It is kind of for everyone as well. When I took my kids earlier on in

00:59the year, I wasn't expecting to kind of fall in love with it as much. You know, I thought

01:02it was going to be very, you know, just enjoyable. But I came away and I'd really been moved

01:07by it. And I think that's wonderful. The wonderful direction of Bill Buckhurst and the direction

01:13of the puppets is worth coming to see just in itself.

01:16Have your children seen this new side to you yet?

01:20They have. I mean, they haven't seen the show with me yet. They haven't seen the show with

01:28me yet, but they will do at Christmas, at Brighton actually, they're going to come.

01:32We saw the show with lovely Kim Marsh, who was wonderful. And they loved it. They just

01:37found it hilarious and sad and funny. And it was great. So yeah, I'm excited for them

01:43to see me do it.

01:44And you're saying you kind of feel that you need to think why Cruella is the way she is.

01:49And you need to understand her a bit then. What's gone wrong that you've become this

01:53cruel person?

01:54Oh, you know, I think she's the eldest child. I think she had a kind of a loveless relationship

02:04with her mother. I think she feels a bit unfairly treated. And we kind of play her that she's

02:11slightly from a lower class and she puts on this facade, making herself incredibly important.

02:18She's kind of created a caricature of herself, which I love. I think it's quite, there's

02:23an underlying, you know, you have to keep up this pretense of being very important.

02:28And I love that about her.

02:29So you can excuse that cruelty then?

02:32A little bit, maybe. You've got to love to hate her. That's the trick. You've got to

02:37love to hate her.

02:38And you're saying the puppetry is fabulous.

02:40The puppetry is unreal. It really is. I mean, when you're on stage, you literally, you know,

02:46you talk to the dogs. It's all aimed, the cast members that control the puppets are

02:54just unbelievable. They're so talented. They really are. You know, you've got to come just

02:59to see them do their job. They're so brilliant. And it's designed brilliantly well. So the

03:06focus is at the puppets. And, you know, it makes you really feel for them. You really

03:11buy into it straight away.

03:13You make it sound fabulous. Really lovely to speak to you. Have a super cool Christmas.

03:20Thank you so much. Thank you.

03:21Thanks a lot. Bye-bye.

03:22Bye-bye.

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