Tabloid Darling Kelly Brook on Baring It All in London's Calendar Girls

Kelly Brook has been a TV presenter, celebrity game show contestant, and bit of celebrated British eye candy; now she is reasserting herself as a stage actress. When not in the tabloids linked with one famous consort or another (the actors Jason Statham and Billy Zane, rugby player Danny Cipriani), Brook has been treading the London boards. She made her West End debut last year in the second cast of Neil LaBute’s Fat Pig and is now appearing at the Noel Coward Theatre in the third, and final, ensemble of Calendar Girls, playing Celia (“Miss September”), alongside Janie Dee. The play, of course, is adapted from the hit film about a group of women in Yorkshire who disrobe for a charity calendar. That should strike a chord or two with the young Julia Roberts lookalike, Brook, who has never been shy about baring all. The exceedingly amiable and self-aware performer met Broadway.com recently to talk about stripping off, finding your footing in life and work, and how the men she goes out with tend to gain in profile as a result of dating her.

Tell me about what I guess you could call “the looks factor” in the shows you do: Fat Pig, for instance, a play whose very title implies a society obsessed with how we look—as you have no doubt experienced first-hand.
I have, but I think that can work to your advantage. If you’re known for looking a certain way, they are more likely to cast you: I started out as a model and got into TV. The tabloids always talked about me and my body because I’ve got a curvy figure and we’re so weight-obsessed anyway. So the focus with Calendar Girls particularly has been about my taking my clothes off. Even in Fat Pig there was a tiny little scene at the end where we are on the beach in swimwear, and that’s what got all the press. At times, you do feel like saying, “You realize, there’s a two hour play there, as well!” It’s not like I’m in a bikini or naked on stage all the time.

Do those perceptions frustrate you?
It goes with the territory. I know there’s going to be a time when people don’t particularly want to come and see me take my clothes off, so as long as they’re interested in it or want to write about it, I suppose I’ll just embrace it for what it is. I’m not one of these actresses who goes, “I’m not a model, I’m an actress! I’m more than my figure.” I’m not competing with Judi Dench for her roles. And she’s not competing for mine.

But it’s not as if the nudity in Calendar Girls is something incidental. It’s fundamental to the plot.
Obviously there is that element, but the story for me is really about a woman who loses her husband to cancer. That resonated to me because I lost my father to lung cancer, age 59, two years ago, so primarily that’s what drew me to the piece. It’s about the spirit of these women getting together and losing their inhibitions and saying, “I don’t care if I have a fantastic body or even if I do have a fantastic body, I’m not used to showing it to everyone. I’m doing this for my friend to raise money for this man we all loved, and we’re going to do that because we all love each other as a group of women.” That’s why I did the play: as an actress approaching the piece, the nudity is pretty irrelevant.

Right. It’s about much more than popping out wearing nothing but some artfully placed cream buns.
All that is very choreographed with lighting and reflectors, and it’s done in a really comedic way. It’s not like, “Here we are posing naked!” We’re all very nervous about it, and there are lots of moments where we’re not where we should be or things pop out that shouldn’t: stuff like that. A lot of the girls in our cast are comedians, so they’re not afraid to do anything for a laugh. We’re a little naughtier, a little braver, maybe, than the previous cast.

You’ve now taken over two stage roles. Are you conscious of not opening a show cold to the critics and all the stuff that gores with that?
Because the Neil LaBute was my first West End play, it was kind of nice to step into something I’d already seen and that was already working. It’s a lot of pressure to take on a new project and have that resting on your shoulders, though my next challenge would be to start something from scratch.

I remember the kerfuffle you caused a decade or so ago playing a pole dancer in Eye Contact at the Riverside [a fringe theater in west London].
That was my first acting job and I just wanted to know whether or not I could actually go on stage—if I could learn lines, if I could carry something like that. So even if the piece was not ideally what I would have chosen, it was an opportunity to prove whether I could do it or not and I did it, and I was glad I did. And afterwards, I packed my bags and went to L.A. and did pilot season and tried to get some work out there.

That must have been an extraordinary time for you.
Oh my God, yes! When I was, like, 21 I got an offer to be in a girl band, and then I got a job on MTV and a call to go and be on Smallville in America [as Lex Luthor’s girlfriend]. Then I came back here and hosted a show called Celebrity Love Island. Everything was happening. But when you’re in your early 20s, you pretty much think you can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it.

And having all those starry boyfriends kept you in the tabloids.
But do you know, when I met Jason Statham, he wasn’t high-profile? No one knew who he was; he was unemployed. My mum was like, “What are you going out with him for?” I was like, “No, you mark my words! He’s going to be somebody.” And Billy [Zane] was actually someone I had had a crush on when I was a little girl and watched him in Dead Calm. I thought he was beautiful and that I was always destined to meet him and date him [laughs]. My boyfriend at the moment Danny [Cipriani]: I didn’t know he was well-known. I mean, he plays rugby, and that’s not very popular in America, is it?

No, but it is here.
Here it is, yeah, and it turns out that he is quite well known in his world [laughs]. I think they become high profile because they date me.

Danny’s considerably younger, isn’t he?
He’s 22. But I think for him, because of his career and what he does, he has to be very regimented and quite disciplined, so it’s probably good for him to be with someone that knows who they are and is a bit older and more sensible. It helps balance him out. If I was 20, I don’t think it would work. He needs a bit of focus.

How do you see your career moving forward?
I’m really grateful that in my 20s I’ve been able to just be moved from pillar to post and try different things, and I saved a bit of money, which is always good. But I feel ready for this next chapter to be where it all comes together and all means something. The thing is, we’re so celebrity-obsessed, especially in this country, and I could literally make a career just out of who I am. I could be a guest on this and that talking about relationships and my body and my beauty regime. It’s harder to go, no, I’m going to have a proper job and say this is what I want to do and improve on that. I just love acting; I always have.

Anything fun coming up?
Well, there’s Piranha in 3-D, opening in April, so get your glasses.

Do you keep your clothes on in that?
Of course not! [Laughs.] There’s some pretty risqué underwater swimming. I’m going to take my clothes off for as long as I can take my clothes off. There’s going to be a time when I’m not going to be able to.