Keala Settle, best known for her barnstorming performance as the bearded lady in The Greatest Showman, is on the phone from Manchester, where she’s rehearsing for the musical Sister Act. The American will appear alongside Jennifer Saunders and Beverley Knight in a show she says is full of spirit, uplift and love. But more than a job, it’s something of a homecoming for the actor and singer, whose father is from Oldham. “This whole country, but specifically Manchester, feels like my people,” says Settle, who has moved from the US to London. “I live here. I’m going to die here and get cremated and dumped in the North Sea.”
Now 46, Settle has taken a while to find her home. She was born and raised in Hawaii, the eldest of five siblings. “We grew up with Cadbury’s chocolate coming in the post and Enid Blyton books and watching Are You Being Served?” Her mum, a native New Zealander, influenced them too. “From her, we were learning Te Reo, which is the Māori word for language, and the ways of life there. And none of it applied to the United States. So we walked out our door and couldn’t use any of it.” She saw her parents’ accents mocked and adjusted her own to sound American. But today she speaks to me with an impeccable English accent; “spongey” she calls herself, referring to her ability to soak up different cultures.
