Being naked on stage is less scary than singing, says Happy Valley star

HAPPY VALLEY star James Norton said he was more nervous about singing on stage in his new West End play than getting naked.

The actor plays a troubled child abuse survivor in A Little Life and found himself at the centre of controversy after naked photos of him were published in a newspaper and online, prompting calls for theatres to ban mobile phones for certain productions.

The demanding role in the almost four-hour-long drama sees his character attacked and abused on stage and regularly self-harm… as well as sing a few verses of Mahler’s Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen.

He told the Standard: “I was nervous about the singing. With the nudity I just believe in it. I believe it’s so central and it’s required to really tell the story.

“I don’t feel in any way nervous about that because I believe in it and it feels justified. The singing is nerve-wracking because I’m not really a trained singer and it’s in German and I don’t speak German. It took a lot of time learning that, but it’s also lovely because it’s such a departure for me.”

Norton, joined at the post-show party in Soho by fiancée Imogen Poots, said he was on “a bit of a high” after the gruelling performance which was watched by a gala night audience including Dua Lipa, Anna Friel and Russell Tovey.

He said: “To be honest, weirdly after every show I’m very up. I come off and everyone asks me ‘You must find it really hard? You must be sitting at home crying?’. But I don’t know if it’s the nature of the material, that ending and the sort of consistency of the experience but it’s like a dream. Someone presses play and I go into this weird process and someone presses stop at the end and it’s kind of magical.”

The 37-year-old said the audience reaction at the Harold Pinter Theatre had been “remarkable”, with very few people walking out despite the show’s length and traumatic subject matter.

He said: “It’s a really special journey to go on… the moment we all gather together in that theatre everyone is aware of some vague idea of what’s going to happen and how long it is and all those trigger warnings so by being there they are agreeing to come on this journey with us. It’s like complicity, a sort of a pact that we are all in it together. It is dark but it’s a story about love and friendship and heroic acts of friendship.

“I’ve never had a reaction like it in a theatre and I hope it doesn’t sound conceited but it happens every night. Every night the curtain comes up and I’ve never had a full standing ovation in my life and literally there’s one every night.”

A Little Life is running at the Harold Pinter Theatre until

June 18