Strictly Come Dancing star Layton Williams has called out trolls who say he is too experienced to be competing on the BBC show.
The Bad Education star is hoping to beat fellow celebs Ellie Leach and Bobby Brazier to lift the coveted Mirrorball during this Saturday’s final.
However, the 29-year-old’s Strictly journey hasn’t been easy, as he has been accused of having an advantage over his competitors due to his musical theatre experience.
In his youth, Williams was awarded a scholarship to train at the prestigious Sylvia Young Theatre School and Italia Conti.
He then made his West End debut, aged 12, playing the title character in Billy Elliot the Musical- and has starred in musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.
Williams said he understood his performance history might make “some noise” but was blind sighted by how much scrutiny he has come under.
Speaking to press ahead of Saturday’s final, he said: “Of course I’m not the only person that’s been in this position, so I don’t understand why it’s shock horror news, because I’m not the first and I won’t be the last.
“The way that we’ve been able to manage it has been my favourite part and it’s not defined my journey [on Strictly].”
Adding: “What’s defined my journey has been what we’ve been able to do and who we’ve been able to inspire, not people that are keyboard warriors.
“Because they’re just a percentage and, I’d like to say, a small percentage of people out there.”
Despite this trolling, Williams has remained positive, and insisted the claims made about his dance background have motivated him to rise above expectations.
He said: “If people are going to expect a certain level, then let’s give them that momentum, and I feel like hopefully we’ve managed to rise to people’s expectations and then some, and really push it to a a place where actually, if that’s what you thought then we’re really going to do our best.
“It has been hard, the pressure of feeling like you have to do well, because this is the kind of thing where no one is going hard and moaning or complaining when I’m rubbish.”
Recalling their Viennese Waltz in Movie Week, in which they received 28 points, he continued: “Didn’t get many tweets that week did I? It’s only when you’re doing cute that people want to drag you down, which is fine and we’ve managed to get around that.”
His professional dance partner, Nikita Kuzmin, was quick to defend Williams amid the furore and insisted that it takes “hours” for his partner to make it look “very easy”.
Kuzmin shared: “I would like people just to realise that I know he makes it seem very easy … but we are putting in the hours.
“The choreography is really hard and it is nothing even similar technically or even choreographically to what he has done before. So, we are working really hard and I hope that people will just appreciate it.”
