Jessie Buckley "wasn't well" during her stint on Andrew Lloyd Webber's "bonkers" TV talent show I’d Do Anything.
The 36-year-old actress/singer launched her career in 2008 as a contestant on the reality show which was a competition to win the role of Nancy in a West End production of hit musical Oliver! and she finished in second place behind winner Jodie Prenger - and Jessie has now admitted she struggled during her time on TV.
She told Vogue magazine: "It’s bonkers, in hindsight. I was just likeL 'Oh my God. I get to peek behind this curtain already. I get to sing. I get to be part of this industry that I really was hoping I could be part of.'
"And I look back at it and I feel like: 'God, you’re so brave.' I don’t know if I’d have that courage now. And I don’t know if that was kind of innocence or ignorance."
However, her mental health was suffering behind-the-scenes. She added: "[I] was not well fully. I was depressed and I – just wasn’t well.
"There was a lot that was really messed up."
Jessie went on to reveal she particularly suffered from "a lot of body shaming" adding: "And bringing me to femininity school. And I was growing into my body.
"I was 17. I was in a moment of discovery. As women, it’s such unfair objectification ... Back then, I was just trying to move into a space of myself.
"I really hope that a 15, 17, whatever-age woman never has to be brutalised quite like what happened on that show. But I didn’t recognise it fully at the time. I just felt it, which was difficult."
After coming second in the competition, she was offered the chance to be Prenger's understudy in Oliver! - and Jessie admits she turned the job down by walking into the office of famed theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh.
She explained: "I walked to his office, rang the bell and saidL 'Is Cameron Mackintosh here? Thank you, but I won’t be taking that job'."
Jessie went on to book plenty of theatre work and later moved into TV and movies making her film debut in 2017 thriller Beast.
