The ‘Strictly’ star talks about playing the Emcee in 'Cabaret', being thrown out of stage school and coming to terms with being gayWhen Layton Williams was growing up on a council estate in Bury, he was one of the lads. He and his friends would play football, knock-a-door-run, man hunt . And then he would go over to his stepmum’s and make outfits for his dolls. “I couldn’t do that in front of the boys,” says the 30-year-old now. “I would have been tormented. I was smarter than that.
that year) gave such thrilling, intimate, joyful performances every week. He danced a fiery samba, a sexual tension-laden tango, a playful quickstep, his outfits running the gamut from plunging sequinned jumpsuit to suit, tie and braces.“The way that I was dancing and holding myself was very true to who I am,” says Williams, who in person is just as warm, buoyant and prone to bursting into song as you’d imagine if you watched him on. “Sometimes I’m super-feminine, sometimes I’m super-masculine.
“I used to hate that line – I didn’t even say the word in rehearsals,” says Williams. “It felt like I was saying the N word. It was awful.” How does it feel singing it to an audience? “Icky. The energy and temperature just immediately drops. And some people nervously laugh. You don’t know what to do with your emotions. There’s something about it that’s really powerful, because I’ve led the audience along to get them on my side. And then you’re like, ‘Wow, this person is part of the problem.