There's a limit to the space I have available in which to list John Partridge’s many achievements but I’ll do my best. He is an actor, singer, presenter, writer and director. He trained in ballet at the Royal Ballet School and at just 16 joined the original UK tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats. He has been working ever since. He is, perhaps, most widely known for his long-running role as Christian Clarke in EastEnders but he has starred in more leading theatrical productions than I can count, including solo shows Dames ‘n’ Dudes and Dancin’ Man. He’s a panto veteran and a regular and much-loved face on the small screen.
He won the Inside Soap Award for Sexiest Male, been awarded Entertainer of the Year at the annual Stonewall Awards, and has further received an ICON Award for services to entertainment. Oh yes, and he won Celebrity Masterchef in 2018, after which he wrote a cookbook. Hmm, I wonder if it includes any recipes for fava beans and chianti, as the next role he’s taking on is the cannibal we all (weirdly) love to hate, Hannibal Lecter in the first ever stage adaptation of The Silence of the Lambs.
John, how do you go about approaching such an iconic character – how do you make it your own?
Well, I approach this as I approach any character that I've played or auditioned for, and it comes down to the source material. I was given a script, written by Gino Gionfriddo, and it is absolutely stellar. Basically, I just approached it from the words on the page and that is my absolute honest answer.
I am not Anthony Hopkins – shock horror – and it would be foolish of me to try and recreate anything he has done before. I've been doing this a long time; I turned 56 this year and you can only colour with the crayons you have in your pencil case. That's what I do in this role; I have been able to gather and roll up everything that I have learned along the way and put this into this role.
I am a physical person, a physical actor. I started my career at the Royal Ballet. I have danced and used my body all my life. So, I use what I have, and you will find that there is a lot of movement in my Lecter, particularly in the choreographed fight scene – I don't want to give away too much but that's where I'm able to use what I have in my arsenal. That's what I do with my Hannibal: it’s delicious, and it's been a joy.
What can the stage, rather than the screen, bring out of the story?
We seem to have endless comparisons to the movie, and when something is so iconic I understand, but we are two separate things, and our story is slightly different too; we take the trans element out (because we don't need to vilify our trans brothers and sisters anymore).
I think what you can do in a play that you can't do in the movie is show a different perspective. The movie is very up close; scenes where you are just seeing the face. There is a subtlety in that, that obviously works differently in a play. Our brilliant director Nicolai Foster has managed to create a split screen within the play, so there are scenes with myself and Clarice (Molly Gallagher), where we can have another story running at the same time. This is something that you can only do with the art of theatricality. We are able to create our own language which is very separate from the movie. I think that's very exciting.
I have to say the trailer is absolutely terrifying, how scary is the play?
We're not a jump scare, we are a psychological thriller. We're going for drip, drip, drip, drip… tension. You're waiting and waiting and waiting, and I find that that more frightening in a way.
So, no blood splattering over the front row?
Well, there is a bit of blood. Obviously, I do rip someone’s face off, but I promise we keep it quite contained.
I'm glad to hear it. Do you ever find when you’re working that you take on elements of your character? I mean, Hannibal Lecter’s quite a terrifying person to allow into your psyche…
The thing is, if you take the cannibalism out of the equation, I'm not too different from Hannibal Lecter. He's a cultured man. He likes travel, the arts, opera and the ballet. He loves buying wine. He loves elegance and courtesy and manners, and he's interested in the world and people… but then he just likes to also eat them.
I will say that normally, I can come off the stage, go home and be in bed by midnight. I have found with this, however, that I am quite wound up so in the wee small hours, I am still awake.
I play a lot of my scenes with Molly Gallagher, and I am in a giant Perspex box. I have to get my performance out of the box, through to her, and then through to the audience, and I have found that to be extremely… tiring is probably the wrong word but tiring in a different way. It’s not so much that I keep the character with me, but I have been so focused through the two hours of the play, and it is a mental marathon.
You’ve referred to the length of your career and I'm guessing that joining the cast of EastEnders was quite a pivotal moment. What it was like getting to grips with that level of fame?
I went into it a little bit blind; I had no idea that character would have the response he ended up having – and I certainly didn't have any idea that I was going to stay there for five years. I have never done a job for longer than 12 months. I've always been a jobbing actor and the reason [for that] is because I like to do different things – there must be a part of me that likes the insecurity of it: you don't become an actor if you want job security!
I certainly didn't think I would have the level of profile that I've gone on to have, and obviously, it is an adjustment. Unfortunately for me, through most of that time my mother experienced illness, and that wasn't something I was anticipating either. I was 36 and I was more shocked at people's interest in me than anything else, and more hurt, maybe, by some of the doorstepping situations that I had, where my mum was ill at that time, and had journalists turning up on her doorstep, some coming into her house, even though she was very ill. But listen, I know what I signed up for and you have to accept all of it.
It’s been nearly 14 years since I've been in EastEnders, and I always love that people remember Christian and love him. It's very difficult to tell a gay story at 7:30pm without offending somebody, and what I'm very proud of what we did with that story, and my whole arc, is that it just became about two people in love in impossible circumstances. People respond to that, whether you are heterosexual, homosexual, young or old. I think that was Christian's appeal and he appealed to a lot of people.
Would you ever go back?
I am always grateful for my time [there]. It's a great British institution, and we seem to be losing those on a daily basis, for one political reason or another. I'm always very proud of the BBC. I think they are an exemplary organisation and broadcaster, and I think as a country, we should be very proud of them.
[But] I believe that things have a shelf life, and I became an actor to have new experiences and try different things. I loved Christian, but he was of his time, and I'm happy for him to stay in Birmingham at the Bullring because I'm sure he's very happy there, working at the Body Shop or something like that. I also live in Canada now, so it would not be so practical. I live 3,500 miles away.
Are you comfortable to hear yourself cited as a role model?
If I wanted to be known for to be anything, it’s that I've gone from a very working-class background to some of the most prestigious schools in the world on scholarships. I've managed to sustain a 40-year career, and to have shown versatility and longevity in a career as precarious [as that] is really my biggest achievement. I'm happy for young queer artists who come from similar backgrounds to look at me and go, ‘if he can do that and sustain that and be that, then so can I’. If that's what being a role model is, I am very happy to wear that hat.
As far as I can see, the hat fits. John, you’re a bit of a polymath – there's the cooking, there's the dancing, acting, singing. Have you got any Everests left to climb?
Well, yes. My husband is Canadian and we relocated to Canada four weeks before I started this job. He's there and I'm here, and this is the first time in our 23-year romance that we have spent this much time apart from each other. So my Everest now, is when I finish this job and get over to Canada and begin a new life. I've acted all my life, it's all I've ever done and if I'm honest, I don't necessarily know who I am without it, but that is something I wish to find out.
I have no idea where this new chapter takes me, but I’ve opened the page, and I have my pen in my hand, and I – or we – really can't wait to write this new chapter or chapters. My dad passed away when I was very young, but he made me a pair of stilts when I was very small. I was like, ‘I can't do it, I'll never be able to walk’. He used to stand behind me, and in my ear, he’d go, ‘yeah, you can. You can do it, you can do it, you can do it’ – each step I took – ‘you can do it, you can do it, you can do it’. That's what I'm doing, because I am a little bit afraid but as my dad said, I can do it. So off I go.
The Silence of the Lambs is currently touring the UK and will be on at The New Theatre in Oxford 19-24 October. Tickets and further information are available from atgtickets.com.
