Lacey Turner: Men find me intimidating – or ugly!

14/03/2008

Lacey Turner

It’s not often we spend the day working as bodyguards for the rich and famous – we tend to prefer schmoozing them over a big old magnum of bubbles as a rule – but today has been quite the exception. Soap starlet Lacey Turner is posing for our fashion shoot at a market in London’s East End (see what we did there?), and it would be fair to say she’s causing rather a brouhaha among the locals.

The crowd keeps swelling as every bystander phones their mum, gran and second cousin twice removed, telling them to come down and have a gawp at the EastEnders star posing in their local fruit and veg emporium. Camera phones are going crazy, every white van man is shouting ‘Oi, Stacey!’ and/or ‘This is the real East End, not like that Walford’ as he drives by, and the whole world wants an autograph or 10.

Luckily, Lacey, who is posing in skyscraper heels for our pics, has her Ugg boots to hand, so we can run back to our on-site location van between shots without her suffering too much manhandling. Seriously, we feel like Madonna’s security team.

Incidents like this strike home just how huge soap stars are in this country, and right now they don’t come bigger than Lacey’s alter ego Stacey Slater, The Square’s tart with a heart. As a result, this kind of public attention (well, maybe not quite this much – she doesn’t tend to pose in a prom dress in a pie and mash shop on a daily basis) is a regular occurrence for the 19-year-old actress.

‘It is strange. It becomes so normal to have someone shout your name down the street, I don’t even notice sometimes.’ she says. ‘I get a lot of Grandmas saying, “Oooh, if you were mine, young lady”, and I had an old man come up to me yesterday and say, “Thank you so much for what you do”, then walked away. It was so sweet, I wanted to cuddle him, but I didn’t think it was appropriate.’

Of course, it’s not always that sweet – Lacey admits the level of attention on our shoot was ‘really scary’, and people aren’t always particularly respectful.

‘There are girls who come inches away from my face and just stare, then laugh. And I was in Marks & Spencer the other day and this girl was trying to take my picture – she was literally hidden in the clothes, lying on the floor. I just thought, “If you just asked I’d say yes, but seeing as you’re fart-arseing about, I don’t think I’m too happy about that”. But if you were to take it too seriously, you’d end up mad.’

In fact, eccentric behaviour from fans isn’t the only thing Lacey takes with a pinch of salt. For such a young ’un, the actress has had numerous scandalous tales written about her, from stories of her having sex in a hotel corridor to the recent report in our downmarket rival claiming she was beaten up outside a Watford nightclub after a drunken night out.

‘It was purely an accident, it could have happened to anybody. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. A group of blokes were having a fight, but I didn’t know them, they had nothing to do with me. Then one of them came my way, he had a terrible aim, missed the bloke he meant to hit and got me. Never mind,’ she says. ‘I did go down like a sack of spuds – that much is true. It’s strange – me not being punched in the face is on the front page. You’ve got to laugh. All my friends rang me up and said, “There’s a really ugly cow on the front of the paper this morning”.’

In real life, Lacey is far from an ‘ugly cow’. She’s much softer-looking and prettier than her alter ego – in no small part thanks to losing Stacey’s dodgy wardrobe/hair/make-up combo.

‘I love that her clothes are awful, because lots of girls do actually look like that, and if her dress sense is really, really bad, it makes mine look better,’ she laughs. ‘The worst thing is the pink puffa jacket. I’ve been trying to get rid of that for ages. And I’m now developing a very strong hate for her fluffy coat. I might be able to get rid of it, I think it would be easier to set alight than the pink one.’

Has Lacey ever had a diva strop and refused to wear any of Stacey’s choice market-stall finds?

‘I do refuse at times. Some things are too short, clingy or purely disgusting. I used to hate purple and they brought out this skin-tight, really short purple dress. I was like, “No way”. You’ve got to have some dignity.’

It’s not only her clothing choices that are poles apart from her character. Lacey isn’t the slightest bit stroppy or brassy, and we can’t imagine her ever storming into a pub and chucking a pint over some poor unsuspecting punter after a skinful of vodka. In fact, we’d go so far as to say she’s a bit shy.

‘I bloody hope I’m nothing like her. I can be a bit naughty sometimes. I used to shout at my mum a lot, but that’s about it.’ she says. ‘I feel like a schizophrenic, because at work I’m one person and at home I’m someone else. I do love everything about her, though. She’s boisterous and a loud mouth. Everything people can’t or won’t say, she says and does. She gets on with her life and says what she wants and does what she wants and she doesn’t care. I think she’s great.’

Lacey has now been playing Walford’s number-one minx for four years. And while some characters come into soaps and blend into the wallpaper, others get to do things like have explosive affairs with their fiancé’s Dad. Stacey is, of course, the latter.

‘It never crossed my mind how big she was going to be. I was just excited to be in EastEnders.’

And on current form, Stacey – and Lacey – could well be set to go down in soap legend. ‘They could get bored of me and I’ll have to see what else is out there, or I could be here like June Brown, for the rest of my life. I never make plans. But I’d like to do other things, because this is the first show I’ve done, so at some point I’d like to see what else is out there.’

Lacey didn’t spend her childhood at the Sylvia Young theatre school like so many of her contemporaries, but she was born to play Stacey Slater. And she’ll never be taking it for granted.

‘I do have moments where I think “Oh my God, what am I doing here? Even four years later. I think “God, you are so lucky”. It’s strange, I mean, how weird is my life…?’

Lacey on her body and boobs…

‘Going to the gym is boring. Who wants to exercise? I can’t be bothered.’

‘I’m a terrible eater. I don’t eat fruit or vegetables, so I don’t have a very good diet. Nando’s has just opened near the EastEnders set and I’m in there every day. I’m also a chocaholic, I can’t help it. I can go through a whole Terry’s Chocolate Orange every night.’

‘I’d love to be one of those people born with a curvy, toned figure, but I’m quite happy with my shape. I don’t really care. And I wouldn’t like to be stick thin.’

‘People say, “Oh, aren’t you little”. Either that or, “You look really fat on the telly”. I can’t watch myself, because it’s not nice. I fast-forward the bits I’m in.’

‘My boob job made me feel better, and if you can have one and you want one, you might as well. I don’t know if I’ll have any other cosmetic surgery. It depends how wrinkly I get and how bad I look.’

Dress, £49.99, River Island; bag, £5, New Look; necklace, as before; ring, £8, Accessorize

//pull quote on page 3//

‘i bloody hope i’m nothing like stacey. but i can be a bit naughty sometimes’

//boxout 1 on page 3//

Lacey on love…

‘I think a lot of men find me intimidating and unapproachable. Either that or they think I’m ugly. So I never really get chatted up. The ones you want to talk to you don’t come over – but you always get the drunk ones who are quite happy to burp in your ear. In the first 30 seconds of meeting someone, you know what they’re there for. I analyse everything they say and everything they do – it’s hard to trust people. They’ll say, “How much do you earn?” And I just think, “Right, you can go”.

I’ve been single for nine months and it’s great. I don’t have to answer to anyone, I can just do what I like.

I don’t have a type. The two boyfriends I’ve had were very different. I just like anyone who makes me laugh. I’m in love with Ashton Kutcher, I can’t help it. And Jamie Redknapp. I never go for blondes. Gingers? Aw, like Charlie Clements. He’s lovely.’

What Stacey did next…

‘She’s getting close to Steven Beale at the moment. They’ve got a bit of a love/hate relationship – and he’s quite cute, bless him. It could turn into something good or it could go nowhere. But he’s not Bradley, is he? I love those two together, and I think the public do too. People are always asking, “When are you two going to get back together?” I’m like, “I’m trying!” I love Stacey when she’s out, screaming, shouting and fighting, but I also like her when she’s at home with Bradley watching TV. I really miss working with Charlie (Clements, aka Bradley), I don’t see him as much now.’

To vote for Lacey and EastEnders at this year’s British Soap awards, go to www.britishsoapawards.tv

Words: Lara Kilner.