SIMON COWELL called him corny and he was laughed off the Popstars stage for his hide-behind-a-cushion execution of Britney Spears’s Hit Me Baby One More Time, but Darius Danesh has forged successes to mute even his staunchest critics.
He’s had five top 10 hits, a best-selling book, owns homes in LA and London and his current live-in girlfriend is Hollywood actress Natasha Henstridge.
In 2005, he was the youngest person ever to play Billy Flynn in the West End production of Chicago, and he is currently preparing to star as Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls which premieres in Liverpool next month.
Now 26, he appears to have grown up, settled down and chilled out.
The goatee and ponytail have both disappeared, and so has the unrelenting cheesiness which inspired half the nation to balk.
And it just so happens that the most convenient place to interview this 6ft 4ins Glaswegian giant is the tiny changing room of a shop he has been doing a fashion shoot for.
He’s been modelling clothes all afternoon, and it’s apparent that Danesh has been on a charm offensive during the shoot – even the men seem impressed.
The two of us just about squeeze into the cubicle and, as we sit down with our legs virtually touching, he flashes me his trademark dental dazzle.
Love him or hate him, he is disarmingly good looking – the cream jacket he’s wearing emphasises his massive brown eyes and half-Iranian comp-lexion.
Rehearsals for Guys and Dolls are going well, apparently.
“The dancing has been the biggest challenge – I’m learning lots of new moves that I never knew were in me. Surprisingly, my profession as a performer has never included 1940s dancing so that’s been a wonderful new hurdle to conquer,” he laughs.
He is clearly enjoying taking on another character, though.
“I think, as an actor, you have to find those attributes you can most identify with within the character you are playing,” he says.
