JAMAL CRAWFORD, 20, from Ilford, appears in the musical the Bodyguard, at the Cliffs Pavilion, Westcliff, from Tuesday, September 15, to Saturday, September 26.

How did you get started?

There was no family history in the business. My dad is a doctor.

It was my primary school teacher who got me going. She saw something in me before I did.

But once I got started, I got really bitten by the acting bug.

My teacher really encouraged it, and so did my mum. She saw it as a way of getting me away from playing (computer) games and watching TV in my room all the time, to get me out and active and involved with life.

Where did you train?

At the Masters College in Rayleigh. My teacher knew Wendy Headford, who runs it, and said that was the place to be.

And she was right. It was just fantastic, man. The training was brilliant.

You hit the ground running after graduation, didn’t you?

Yeah, I got the role of Tyrone Jackson in the touring production of Fame. We went all over Germany and Finland with it.

I was amazed. It was just the original production, in English, they didn’t change it, but we got big audiences in all these foreign cities, and they loved it and, you know, they really understood it all.

I got a lot of freedom to do my own thing, dance-wise. It was a fantastic way to start out. I just didn’t realise that there was this big market for English shows in Europe.

You haven’t been around in the business that long, but have you had any of those really embarrassing moments yet?

You bet, man. It was in Fame and I was kind of jumping up, and jumping down, doing my own thing, and then in mid-air there was this great ripping noise and my trousers split open. You could see everything, man.

I had to carry on as if nothing had happened, but I could see the faces of the other members of the cast.

They carried on, too, as if nothing had happened, but there was this glint in their eyes...

Tell us about your current production, the Bodyguard?

I went along to the audition and got the part. Simple as that really.

I hadn’t seen the show. But when I was younger my mum made me watch the film. What can I say? The stage version is much better than the film. Much tighter story, great music. It’s just a great show to be in.

What part would you really like to play?

I’d like to be in the Scottsboro Boys, the musical based on a true incident in 1931 when a group of African-American boys were accused, on not much evidence, of raping white girls on a train in Alabama. I’d really like to do some serious acting, and the Scottsboro Boys has got that – lots of it.