15 October 2023 , 15:08
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Former EastEnders hardman Ross Kemp has revealed that his first role was catastrophic and ended with children crying at his performance.
The 59-year-old actor, who has made a new for himself making hard-hitting TV documentaries since walking away from Walford and his role as Grant Mitchell, opened up about the first time that he performed for the public and how he went "full method" for the role and brought more than a heavy element of Al Pacino's gangster movies to his version of Punch and Judy, leaving many of the kids in tears as they were frightened by what they saw.
In his new memoir, Take Nothing For Granted, Ross admits that he was a little too serious with his acting after leaving drama school as he searched for his first role before becoming a household name in the BBC soap. Speaking about the moment that the forcefulness of his Punch and Judy characters led to children wetting themselves in the audience, Ross wrote: "I was 20, fresh out of drama school and stuck in the classic Equity card Catch-22.
“The only way around it was to work in repertory theatre or theatre in education. For the younger kids, we were doing a play based on Punch and Judy. At a certain point, I steal the wizard’s sausages and, to teach me a lesson, he casts a spell to make me the size of a man.”
Ross Kemp has revealed the moment he made kids cry with his Punch and Judy (Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)Ross continued to say that his 'real-life' Mr Punch was more than most kids could handle. He wrote: “I’m Punch. I’ve even reshaped my nose, so it looks more like a puppet’s nose. I look objectively terrifying. But what you have to know, at this point I think I’m Al Pacino. I’m taking this very seriously.
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“And for some reason I do Mr Punch... with a tinge of Manchester gangland hitman in there too. So the set spins around and I come tumbling out and I have become Mr Punch and give it ‘HELLO BOYS AND GIRLS!’ And that’s the moment the entire front row wets themselves. Kids are crying. Teachers are shaking their heads. Some have got their heads in their hands."
Ross Kemp as Grant Mitchell in his EastEnders days (BBC/Kieron McCarron)Ross said that he tried to bring the performance back to something more family orientated or before he is carted off by the police for upsetting so many people. The actor continued: "I try and dial it down a bit, but every performer knows when they’ve lost their audience and by this point every time I say or do anything, there are all these little pairs of scared eyes staring at me. And they sit there, terrified, until the policeman comes and puts me back in my box.
“I don’t think the rest of the cast spoke to me off stage for the rest of the week, though I eventually got the hang of it. 'Enjoy that did you?' A very annoyed-looking man with a mop is glaring at me in the now-empty school hall. ‘Half the front row have weed themselves – you can clear it up.’
“He handed me the mop and bucket. Then he walked off. As reviews go, I’ve had worse.”