Gavin & Stacey has become hugely successful recently – and you’ve suddenly become really famous. How does it feel?
Joanna Page: It’s just weird, I’m still getting used to it. I was in Covent Garden today having a pizza, and these men who worked there were secretly trying to take my picture from behind the counter. That sort of thing is so odd. And oh God, it’s mental in Wales. My mum lives in Swansea and says it’s mad – people never stop doing Nessa’s catchphrases. I first realised it when me and Ruth [Jones, who plays Nessa] turned on the Barry Island Christmas lights. I thought, ‘No one will know who the bloody hell I am’, and we didn’t think anyone would be there, but there were hundreds of people and our car was mobbed. We so weren’t prepared – Ruth looked at me and was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m not wearing a scrap of make-up’. She was dying.
So your co-star James Corden. He’s not the most likely sex symbol. What’s the fuss about?
JP: As soon as you meet him, within five minutes you’ll want to sleep with him. He presented me with my award for Comedy Actress of the Year at the Glamour Awards and he said such lovely things. He’s so charming and he listens to you and he’s funny and sensitive and adorable. I can totally see why all the women fall for him.
Is this a recent thing? You know, since he got famous…?
JP: He’s always been absolutely gorgeous and had that charm, but he was in a steady relationship until quite recently, so it’s only of late that all the girls are like, ‘Oh my God, oh my God’.
You’re treading the boards in London’s West End in a play called Fat Pig, and your character Jeannie (a spurned woman whose ex has fallen for a larger lass) is a bit of a bitch, isn’t she? Quite a departure from Stacey…
JP: She’s very different from Stacey because she’s strong, she’s American, she’s a businesswoman and she’s feisty – and I get to hit Robert Webb [her co-star, from Mitchell & Webb] every night and scream at him, which is great. But in some ways she’s not that different from Stacey, who is impulsive and feisty and gives Gavin what for.
The critics have given you mixed reviews for the show. Does it bother you?
JP: I couldn’t give a sh*t what they have to say. As soon as I go home and see my husband [James Thornton of Holby Blue fame] and pick up my dog and cuddle him, that’s all that matters. I couldn’t care if some theatre reviewer thinks my American accent sounds a bit Welsh. And people are so het up about the fact I’m in the theatre – it’s like, ‘Ooh these telly names, can they be any good?’ I came out of RADA and my first job was at the National Theatre, but everyone wonders if I can cope. It makes me laugh.
Do you have any pre-show rituals for luck?
JP: Loads. I have to keep Dune perfume in my dressing room, because I always wear it, but I must never put it on in case it makes me choke. I don’t know why it would, but just in case… I also have to eat Halls Soothers, and do my tongue-twisting exercises because if I don’t, everything will go wrong. Oh, and my co-star Kris Marshall went on The Paul O’Grady Show and brought back a Buster the Dog, who now lives outside my dressing room. Every time my co-star Emma and I are on our way to the stage, we have to tap him. Sometimes we forget and have to go all the way back to do it.
What’s the weirdest fanmail you’ve had?
JP: One fella went on the internet and got lots of photos of me in Love Actually, topless and naked and stuff, printed them off, stuck them on A4 paper, laminated them and sent them to me for me to sign. I was away and asked my husband to open all my mail for me, so he got quite a shock. And another man sent me a picture of a face where the nose was a willy.
What’s the worst job you’ve done?
JP: I worked in Bhs, but I was only there for a couple of weeks before I got fired because I needed the Saturday off to go to drama club. I was useless – I was so bored. There was nothing to do, so I’d go and do a circuit of the store, throwing jumpers on the floor, then go and pick them up. It wasn’t rock ’n’ roll rebellion, it was just to look busy. They tried to teach me how to work the till and I’m useless with numbers, so I was making it all up as I went along. I must have lost them tons of money.
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What’s the best freebie you’ve had?
JP: I got one of those Slendertone things in my goody bag from the Glamour Awards. There were all these other lovely things in there, like candles and all sorts, but I was just like, ‘Oh wow, I can sit and watch telly and eat rubbish and there it’ll be, pulsing away on my abs’. I have to wear a bikini in the play, so I’ll be using it all the time – I’ve always wanted one. I joined the gym in March, had an induction, and I haven’t been back since. I thought ‘Sod it, I’ll just put some fake tan on and hold my stomach in.’
When was the last time you cried?
JP: At An Officer And A Gentleman on TV last week. I started crying right from the start and by the end, oh my God, when he lifts her up, I was absolutely sobbing. My face was all swollen when I went to bed.
What was the last lie you told?
JP: I was in Covent Garden earlier today and a fella stopped me and told me I looked nice and that he liked my shoes. He went on and on chatting me up, and said he wanted to take me out for ice cream. Then he asked me for my number and, instead of just saying ‘I’ve got a husband’ and getting myself out of it quite easily, I got all flustered, so I gave him a false number. Then I ran off before he realised. He’s going to read this now and think ‘bitch’. Still, it’s exciting to get chatted up in the street now I’m a married woman.
What’s the most romantic thing your husband has ever done?
JP: Well, his proposal was amazing. It was Christmas five years ago and he took me to the sea to take pictures of me and my dog, Daisy. He made me stand under a tree with a Bonio and shout for Daisy, who came running towards me with this pouch around her neck. I opened it up and there was a wooden ball in it that split open, and my engagement ring was in there. I turned to look at him and he was down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I was like ‘Oh my God, of course yes’. And he bought me a beautiful ring with diamonds all the way around it.
• Joanna is starring in the UK premiere of Fat Pig at the Trafalgar Studios until 6 September. Tickets are available from the Trafalgar Studios Box Office (0870 060 6632/www.theambassadors.com/trafalgarstudios)
Joanna’s Reality Check
Can you cook?
My husband would say my signature dish is pasta with a tin of tuna plonked on top. So, no. Although I make a good bangers and mash. I have been known to stick cocktail umbrellas in it, take a photo and send it to James upstairs with a text saying, ‘Your food’s ready’.
What was the last domesticated thing you did?
I washed the bathroom floor with Dettol at 3.30am after I got home from the Glamour Awards. And this morning I cleaned the stairs with Vanish.
Have you ever used your celebrity status to get something you want?
Oh, yes. My parents came to see the show recently and I wanted to take them to The Ivy, but I didn’t think I’d ever get a table on a Saturday night. So my friend phoned The Ivy for me, pretending to be my PR person. And it worked. Very exciting.
