Reece Richards, Performer & Model

0:02Reece Richards: Welcome to the Business of Modelling, the podcast where we explore the fascinating world of the modelling industry. I'm Tessa Dewing, Managing Director of Sandra Reynolds, a commercial model agency celebrating its 50th year of business. So today we're recording in London in a beautiful part of London called Little Venice on a boat. It's a radio station. It's a really gorgeous little podcast studio. And my guest is performer and model Rhys Richards. Rhys trained at the London Studio Centre, establishing a strong foundation in musical theatre before going on to tour with productions such as Hairspray and Motown.

0:44Reece Richards: On screen, you'll know him as Eugene in Sex Education and Kenneth in You, alongside roles in campaigns for brands from BMW to JD Sports. Rhys, welcome and thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you for having me. So can you start by telling us a bit about where you grew up? So I grew up in Fulham, which is lovely, really, really lovely place, full of yummy mummy cafes and just gorgeous scenery. And I went to a primary school called Peterborough. And how I got into all of this was there was a scheme called Chance to Dance. They were basically a group, an organisation that was related to the Royal Opera House.

1:28And they would go around and audition young school kids to see if they wanted to be a part of ballet, which was incredible because their aim was to make it more diverse than it usually is. Because ballet can be quite elitist and hard to get into. But via Chance the Dance, it was just a lot more attainable. I had no idea about ballet at the time.

1:54Reece Richards: So you hadn't even thought about it at this point? How old were you? I was about nine, I think, just having a bit of fun. And they asked my mum if I'd think about doing it seriously. So it wasn't like I didn't think I want to be a ballet dancer. That was never the case. It was just fun. Well, ballet is amazing, isn't it? For all sorts of things. So your kind of strength and your posture. Yeah, it taught me a lot. It taught me discipline, taught me how to perform, taught me how to hold myself, poise, everything. I think it's still a great foundation for all dance, the hip hop, contemporary. It's great to have that as your go-to.

2:32Reece Richards: So many performers that I've spoken to saying that they were that kid putting on plays in the living room and things. That wasn't you then? No, no. I love playing football and I like playing games and I think that was about it. So how did your football mates, what did they think about you doing ballet? I got it. It was weird because I was a popular kid in school, but because I was fast and I had a good throw on me. And so it wasn't too bad. But I know there was another boy that wasn't as popular and he used to get bullied quite a lot. So I kind of took him under my wing when we were at school to try and like shield him from that.

3:12But there definitely was a stigma. I just don't know why I wasn't hit by it really. But yeah, it was very, very odd.

3:19Reece Richards: Were you good at school? Were you academic? oh horrendous not not not like horrendous but I was so towards the arts that school setup wasn't really for me I was okay and did okay but um my mom's an accountant okay so it's definitely not come from family background so I don't have her her smarts in that degree she's so good with money your numbers and i'm very good in an arts space um but i loved english english lit was amazing but everything else was i was like okay i'm not great but so that english lit with your books and plays and it's imagination right i wasn't good with the format of maths and sure science and geography yeah i didn't have an interest in it but history i liked english was great but other than that I just enjoyed sports yeah so so when did your drama kind of kick in when did that it might have been secondary school actually um I had a great drama teacher and it was the thing that he taught us to be free you didn't really have to think about the constraints of society there it was more so you can just be and imagine and I had a crazy imagination so I didn't feel like I was blocked by anything so um I think it would have been there that I first enjoyed the acting but I was always first it was dance dance was the first thing I think my mom took me to to Justin Timberlake's concert and I always liked Michael Jackson and NSYNC and uh every every song I perform with Beyonce I was a big fan of and I went to the concert and I saw the backing dancers and my jaw dropped and you're like I want to be up there yeah I was watching it was like two hours maybe longer and I was like yeah it was quiet I've never been so quiet in my life yeah so yeah that's when I took dance seriously that was probably like 13.

5:14Reece Richards: And so where where did you go from school what was your training? So I was still I was still with this chance to dance scheme but uh I had got a scholarship. Do you think without that you would have still followed the same path? Yeah I don't know because that it was expensive it was very very expensive i didn't know at the time but uh later on in life my mom divulged how much everything was and i was like i don't know how you afforded it so they shielded you from that to give you that chance exactly yeah um but yeah we we went to the place they had another scheme and get there called uh the cat scheme so a lot of some of the people from uh the chance to dance scheme were able to train at the place which was this amazing school for contemporary dance in Kings Cross.

5:57I think it's still there. And I trained there on a Saturday and a Thursday. It was my mum and my auntie would drive me there after school and then early in the mornings on the weekend to go and train. And at the time I didn't realise how lucky I was to do it. I just know I really enjoyed it. It was really, really fun.

6:17Reece Richards: And then you ended up going to London Studio Centre. After training so long in Ballet and Contemporary I didn't want to go to play. So I thought I was going to I didn't want to go to London Studio Centre. I thought the place would have been where my destiny would be because I've been there for so long. And I trained in ballet and contemporary for so long. I didn't understand anything else. So I auditioned and I didn't get in. Didn't get in. And I remember my teacher said to me, we feel that you can do other things. And at the time I didn't understand it because I was like, I've done contemporary and ballet for my entire life.

6:55I don't understand.

6:56Reece Richards: Wow. So how did that make you feel? I took a year out. I was like, yep, I'm done with dancing. Let's leave this alone. It clearly isn't for me. I didn't get accepted. So looking back, why do you think you didn't get in? I was good at singing and acting. I think the teachers could see that. But it was just a bit of fun for me. But the ballet and contemporary, I thought, was serious. But I also don't think they thought I was ready mature-wise. I don't think I had been taken to this. that decision now yeah most definitely definitely I've been taken to these classes a lot by my mom and stuff and I did go but I'd never had that thing of like fighting for that other than that first audition at the school so so what did you do then in your year out oh I thought I was going to go to Bali and find myself I thought I was going to have this beautiful uh astounding uh experience and I ended up working for a year at Topshop.

7:54Reece Richards: Not in Bali I assume. Not in Bali at all at all and I remember my mum being like you're gonna regret that and I was like mum I need to. But actually you learned skills there didn't you? You learned customer service dealing with people. Yeah how to work in in a team in a different aspect and also what it means to be out in the big wide world you're not covered by education or schools you're there earning money yeah you suddenly see that your money's coming in every month and that is that kind of makes you go oh okay doesn't it yeah it's a great feeling and then you're like okay you've got bills to pay yeah so did you have an agency for your dancing at this point is this way before all of that yeah no way before all of that and then I took the year out yeah finished with Topshop and started to apply to schools uh london studio center was one of them i think ardang was the other and there was another one i don't remember what it was um and i went to london studio center and i couldn't believe it i was so shocked this is before i even got into the auditions i was just peering my head into the windows seeing everyone do different styles everyone was hip-hop or i saw an acting lesson or sort of singing lesson and i was like oh this is great this is me yeah it reminded me of uh the film fame oh yeah and i was like minus the leg warmers right yeah exactly exactly you know they probably still had leg warmers when i was studying um but yeah it was great it was great i think one of the things i'm always interested in is obviously i've i've met actors very successful sort of actors and performers some that did go through the drama school route and some that didn't so it's always good to to hear the pros and cons of that yeah for me those three years at that school it was heavily dance um because i again thought i was gonna be a backing dancer for justin timberlake um and i didn't see anything else but being there you get pushed into areas that you don't think you could succeed in and we had a singing teacher and he was very very instrumental in how in just opening my eyes to everything and not being so tunnel visioned into what you've done for the past 10 years of training he said to me that you can do everything that that you feel like you can and I was kind of embarrassed about singing because it wasn't something that you were because it wasn't in your comfort zone right I would shower sing and I'd give you a couple riffs to an Usher album in my shower but I didn't think that I could that you could do it professionally right yeah and there was people that had joined the school that had done it before joining uni so they were miles ahead I had a feeling for things but I didn't understand technically how to sing especially musical theater I hadn't I never watched a show up until then um but it was something that I gravitated to but again I had a bit of fear because these guys could out sing me and they knew every single criteria about musical theater um but I guess everybody coming into there would have had their strengths and weaknesses so So there'd have been other people that felt very comfortable singing, but they didn't feel comfortable dancing like you did.

11:01Reece Richards: Right, yeah, exactly. So yeah, it was a lot of building and a lot of understanding. And also being a dancer, I'm so used to using my body. Singing is so internal. And if you sing a wrong note and everyone hears, the reaction is not nice. You could maybe fall on the floor and dance it and no one knows. You get back up and go for it again. But yeah, singing always felt a little bit more personal. But I'm glad that I went to the school because I was able to make mistakes there. And being at a drama school versus being outside and trying to do it, which I respect so much, and people do have the drive to do that.

11:39But for me, it was the connections. And even the dancers and the people that I met there, I'm still friends with them today. So I have that. And I know how to navigate certain spaces from that.

11:55Reece Richards: so you performed in some huge west end shows like hairspray what was it like stepping onto that stage for the first time what was the first show you did what was it when you came it would have been hairspray was that the first one yeah yeah yeah it would have been hairspray amazing i mean that's an amazing first gig when i booked hairspray it just felt right in the final year of studies i had to pick a company and i thought i was going to be a dancer up until the final year and then the final year came and I decided to do musical theatre and just the training was great my voice was still ropey still didn't understand it properly at all but I could dance and no one could I was I was a really good dancer and they employed me as a swing and I didn't really know what that was and what they entailed until my agent told me and said you're going to be covering three people I was like oh that's fine if it's dancing and then he said no you have to learn the harmonies as well that's where I was like can I do this and I remember being at a piano when they were going through certain things and just thinking this is not gonna work out for me I hope they don't put my mic on um but yeah Hairspray is beautiful and being on that stage for the first time there's there's nothing like it I think if everyone got an applause at the end of their job they would just be a lot happier it's that appreciation from the audience I remember seeing Hairspray when it first came out it's such a high energy show.

13:19Reece Richards: I remember actually we took everyone for one of our Christmas parties or whatever. We went to see Hairspray. And it was incredible. I mean, did you ever get one of those like, oh my God, am I really here moments, like standing on the stage? Yeah. And I think I got that when I first covered the lead role. Right. I think that's what it was for me. I didn't... So you did swing for how long? That was a year. Okay. I did that for a year. And then I... And I didn't have enough education in musical theatre. So I went to a school called Associated Studios to, I think it was about a year part time, just to understand it more because everyone had a lot more ahead of me.

14:01I knew dance stuff. No one could touch me the dance stuff, but the history of musical theatre, I had no idea. um i could only learn so much being on that job and asking people but i i needed to actually do the studying properly so i took a year out um went to associate studios learned everything and then went back in i was at a time where musical theater has changed a lot now you can be a cover or swing and go on the first night back when i was doing it no one wanted to give up their shows or give up their job or go off sick so in the first year of me doing musical theatre I only went on about three or four times just because there was a different people would just get through it if you were ill injured or whatever they would just be like I'm doing this that was the the method and how they

14:50Reece Richards: would work how did seaweed roll come about oh seaweed I always had my eye on seaweed Brenda edwards was integral in my development and just understanding of voice singing and also saying baby if you want to do this you can but you have to acknowledge it and accept it and i don't know where where it comes from the the feeling of not thinking you can do something but it used to be a massive thing for me and she taught me how to sing really um she made me just practice and practice and practice and practice and go over it and do things like this and if I was wrong she would let me know very very firmly um and if things were right she would let me know too so I think without her I wouldn't have been able to get seaweed just because I couldn't see it for myself I was very very very very scared yeah and and do you remember your first performance yeah I remember because first of all uh it would be it was Bournemouth because they got my mom to come okay I was so nervous so nervous I remember speaking the lines and it it wasn't supposed to sound like this but it sounded like a rap I remember just having dialogue with people and being like just because I need to get out and I remember singing the song and just struggling just struggling but to have that moment to realize that you can actually do this and I remember going out and seeing my mom and it was such a supportive and beautiful company very grateful and also it was a point where the work ethic was different so seeing that as a first time made me realise how I carry myself in this industry what the challenges people might not see I think you know the stamina you need must be huge how do you kind of keep that fresh how do you manage that it's maintenance you really have to look after your body really have to look after your body and your voice and everything and I think that's why I like musical theatre because it's so hard I like a challenge um it's just being aware and also you're you're doing weekly touring as well that's difficult in itself so every sunday you're traveling to a different destination you set up on the sunday you might be traveling from newcastle to glasgow that's a very long journey luckily we were able to have our suitcases on the coach so they they would travel that around but um it's just you're doing eight shows a week you're starting warm up at one o 'clock if you're doing a double show that's early if you haven't recovered from the night before because you finish at like 10.30 and then trying to get to sleep is difficult because you have an adrenaline rush from the show so you don't really go to bed until like 12 maybe 1 and then you're having to drink a whole bunch of water to make sure that your vocal folds are hydrated for the next show you really have to be responsible for yourself because no one else will look after you they really won't um but but i guess there's no feeling like it as well it's such a high it's incredible like to to start off and the audience cheer because haresbury is such a well-known musical and also it's a great like intro musical because it's it's got nuances of pop and r &b and it's just it's a great story it's a just good um yeah but yeah to be on top form is you're like an athlete you have to treat yourself like an athlete you have to make sure you stretch I got um injured one time when I was younger I had a slip disc in my lower back and I was out for about two or three months after that I was I said to myself okay you can manage the risk of this right yes you think this can happen and yeah yeah because I had no up until something like that happens to you you don't yeah you think you're young and you can just jump around and do whatever and do split jumps and be fine and all that stuff and when that hit me it just made me realize that there is a fragility in this if you don't look after yourself yeah so um it changed my mindset yeah and then because of the way the industry is if you can't work you don't get paid right there's that too so you're back in top shop right yeah right and i've never wanted to go back as as great as it was at the time yeah yeah it's not how does performing live theater compared to working on like tv commercial for instance gosh they're both fun just in different respects musical theater you've got that adrenaline right you don't know it's life you don't know if you could mess up also you're with them for a year so you become you get a bond and they almost become like a family um you're just around them so much with commercials when i graduated a few people went straight into musical theater and they booked their jobs and i was out for a bit doing the odd commercial here there and everywhere a bit more transient isn't it yeah you're not there for long i guess what you what you to go back to what you were saying earlier you know on stage you've got that instant feedback from the audience whereas tv i mean you know sometimes you're waiting months aren't you to kind of even see anything if you even see it at all sometimes there's that um but i i do like the there's fun in it being so quick as well it's like you have to be ready yeah you can't really dilly dally you go into a space and you say hello to everyone and then sometimes it take a bit of a while to to shoot but they're quite on it so you have to figure out the space and the energy of people You work with some directors that are a little bit more, we need this done, Reese.

20:34You've only got so many takes. We have to work with other people. And you work with other directors that are a little bit more free reign and a bit more, yeah, just creatively free. And they're not so stressed on time. But I think with commercials, you don't know what you're going into. With musicals, initially you don't know what you're going into, but then you've got that year. And it's more or less the same thing. your weekly touring or monthly touring and you're doing the same thing day in day out you have to have a stamina with the commercials your blinkers need to be on a bit early but it's all fun and I think maybe I'm an adrenaline junkie

21:12Reece Richards: you've been also been in the press recently for more difficult reasons without going into details that you can't share how have you found navigating that public attention difficult very difficult because I'm quite a private person. So when I was doing hairspray at Milton Keynes, I was about to take a couple of weeks off and I was walking home from Hammersmith, where I live, and I got a kebab and I was talking to my friends on FaceTime that were part of the cast, just talking about how great the show was. And as I've crossed the road, this car has crashed into a lamppost that's right next to me so the debris of the car has flown towards me and i remember being startled and shocked because one minute i'm talking to my friends on facetime about food and the show just about to go in home and next minute i've got the debris of a car coming out as this car's crashed i've seen there was three white guys but i've only seen two white guys jump out of the car and run one of them have run towards me so as they've ran And I've thrown my bag off my back because I thought they were going to come and, I don't know, fight me or rob me or do something.

22:30I thought I was going to be in an altercation of some sorts. As they've come closer to me, he's not even registered. He's not seen me at all. He's just ran straight past me. So then I've looked and I hear shouting and it's the officers telling them to stop. And officers ran past me. and then I see another officer pull up in a car so I'm trying to figure out what I need to do everything's happening at like a snapshot every second something's changing an officer's coming or someone's there's just a lot of noise a lot of flashing lights I go to the officer to tell him where they've ran as I've gone towards the officer I shout officer he's ran down this way and the other one's ran down that way another officer's seen me and he's just shouted straight at me get on the floor you're under arrest and i've not really understood so i've just repeated what i've said no officer he's gone down there says get on the floor you're under arrest or i'll pepper spray you so the pepper sprays out and he's walking me back towards the shell garage where i've got i'm on my knees and i've got my hands up i'm just trying to explain trying to explain what's going on my suitcase is over there i'm not a part of any of this stuff then another two officers come they uh shout really aggressive at me um i'm explaining that i'm in a musical i'm an actor they're really not trying to hear what i say one officer picks me up he swipes my leg throws me on the floor the two officers then uh jump on me put my hands behind my back and um handcuff me another officer joins and they're like punching in my back and they punch it in like it's more they're trying to put my hands in the handcuffs i don't know why but they were just punching in my back with my hands and then the other officers pepper sprayed me and i'm out here just the constant thing that i'm saying on a loop is that i'm a performer my name's reese richards my mom's name uh telling them that i live here uh i'm just trying to dehumanize myself as best as possible because at the point i don't know how to get out of the situation i've got these three lads on top of me uh i'm still not understanding how i've ended up in this space just from telling you where the guys are i'm so i just don't know what's going on um so then my mom luckily comes out and she's just screaming um also i lost my dad the year before so i'm quite protective over her so my mom's come out and she's screaming and i'm like mom mom please she's got high blood pressure as well so i'm also like just please try and calm down uh as this is all happening there's other officers that are trying to more have like trying to understand the situation a lot better um but these officers that are on top of me they are so adamant that i am a burglar and that i was in the car they just they're just not hearing any reason and then my mom's going 100 miles per second trying to explain his name is reese he's just come from milton keen's didn't hairspray and all of this stuff.

25:34He's an actor. They're just not believing her. My other neighbors come out. They're not believing them. I tell my mom to phone Brenda, who is the director of Hairspray. She lives close to me in the area. She came. They saw her. And also because she's on the news, they were a little bit spooked. And then everything seemed to calm down. And they were able to look at their cameras and realize that I wasn't a part of this. I was just walking home. so yeah it's just been crazy because you see this stuff on the news but you kind of think it might happen to you being black but at the same time i've only been stopped and searched before so i've never thought i was going to get like manhuddled to this degree so uh yeah it's been it's been a very difficult thing to navigate it's not only affected me it's affected everyone expected my neighbours expected my mum uh everyone um also everyone that knows me um so yeah it's it's it's been a difficult difficult time it's ongoing um and I cannot wait for it to finish so I can just get my life back to not being known for you know I don't know this altercation with the police it's like the first thing that pops up when you tap my name in which is it's just I never envisioned myself getting caught up in such a situation but the good thing is that I think I'm able to to be very open with this and speak about it once the whole thing is done and and educate people on what the realities of of this process is and

27:12Reece Richards: it's it's not as easy as people think no I'm so sorry you you've this happened to you no thank Thank you. I don't know. It kind of makes you ashamed to, you know, I'm sitting here, you know, to sit and listen to this. Yeah. So at the end of the day, you were the only black person on the scene and they just assumed because you were black that you were the perpetrator. Most definitely. But you just said you've also been stopped and searched. Yeah. I've been stopped and searched a bunch. So that's the reality. Yeah. But I like, it's horrendous. This is the normality and it shouldn't be a normality, but it's, you just, you just, It's just, you just assume it.

27:51Reece Richards: And how, do you feel the media got the story right? Or was it distorted? No, they did, surprisingly. Because usually I'm quite sceptical of the media, but they did get the story right. And if I didn't have them, to be honest with you, I don't think this situation would have got the airtime or the attention that it did. So I'm very grateful for that in that respect. Has, well, it must have done, and the experience must have changed how you think about life. I mean, would you do the same again? What happens if you're faced with the same situation? It's so sad because my parents, my mum and my dad are always, they're very helpful people and they've taught me what's right and what's wrong.

28:33And in that situation, I really thought, okay, what would the right thing be? But then also you think being black, you know how these things play out. But I also didn't have enough time because you think, can you run? But you're like, no, that makes you look guilty. And then you stay and then you're like.

28:53Reece Richards: So that was a split second decision. Yeah, your mind literally races through every single opportunity. Yeah, you think about everything, how to avoid these situations. And in my case, I always think about what I could have done to avoid it. There was nothing. Oh, maybe I could have ordered more food and that could have taken longer and then I could have walked past it and missed the situation. but it's like I don't know I think when you're in those situations there's not much you can do eventually you did manage to get somebody to represent you and I understand it is going through the courts yeah it's going through the courts I've got some great lawyers um they're really really lovely and uh yeah it's I just can't wait for this to finish so I can talk about it properly and and educate people on what this process is and what the roadblocks are and the obstacles that you you get caught up in yeah well thank you I appreciate you talking about it no thank you for asking today a lot of people know you from your role in sex education you know how did that opportunity come about that was covid that was i was doing motown came back from motown and covid started and i didn't understand what to do so were you in the middle of Motown or had you finished Motown I had just finished we were auditioning for the next musical and then Covid hit and my agent was like Reece there's nothing and I was like no so I always thought I could do TV I just wasn't as interested then I wanted to do a couple more musicals and then go into it but I said to my agent look there's only so much model work that's going around I know I haven't trained at a school like Radar or done like acting consistently for three years at a school but I've got a good feel for things so please just trust me and let's see how what I can get from this situation but I remember my first audition was Emmerdale and I remember I started getting a lot of callbacks for the role and I was like great this is perfect my feelings make sense didn't end up getting it in the end I think I might have booked a commercial so I didn't wasn't able to go to the final of it but then sex education came around and at the time I was doing acting classes at a school called Identity and it was over Zoom because you weren't able to see because of COVID and that was very helpful too because you were in a Zoom group with Americans, people from Africa, UK, it was so many different types of people and so many different understandings of what it was to act and what acting meant and oh yeah sex education was great i had that was my second audition and then it went it went perfect from there so where did you shoot we shot in wales yeah yeah so what was that sort of like on set that must have been crazy yeah i can imagine that was a brilliant set to work on yeah it was great but it was during covid so it was really i didn't know what to expect anyway but i remember they were sending cabs from fulham to go to wales and then i had to stay in a hotel by myself for a little bit um and then get tested and then I was able to go in my trailer and then got tested again then was able to go into the scene and then I was working with the intimacy coordinator because we're doing a sex scene and it was just it was it was it was incredible I remember walking into the set to seeing these houses built up to be bedrooms and stuff and I'm talking to the other actor that I was working with and she was so lovely and calming and realized that it was my first time getting into this space and was really just really really so that's quite yeah doing a sex scene in covid yeah i do think i do think we were good here i think our industry got back on its feet quite quickly i think that we all brought like you know rules and regulations in and people kind of just got on with it yeah you know yeah and um but yeah what was that your first sex scene yes what was that like that must have been it was i'm quite comfortable in the space of kind of i think because maybe i'm a dancer i'm quite comfortable with my body and stuff so it wasn't it wasn't too bad the only thing that was weird it was just we were doing this and we had an intimacy coordinator so she made it really really comfortable for us that's quite a new thing isn't it quite a new role it's a really good thing yeah most definitely yeah because otherwise some people you're masking as well so you don't know if you are happy and you can't see what the camera's seeing and it's yeah you're also it's a it's a close we had a close set so we'd have the director there like zooming in close on us and i remember having this jockstrap and thinking what am i doing what do i like what is this how have i gone from singing and dancing on stage and now i'm in a jockstrap doing like a family musical right and i've never even prepped for any of this stuff before like no one what i'm doing a sex scene it's really really weird but um everyone was just really nice and very calm and very respectful as soon as we did the scenes and stuff they would like put dressing gowns on you immediately and ask if you're okay and if you need anything it was really it was a it was really lovely experience and the other actor we just got on so well it just she was great she was uh really good at improv-ing yeah during the scenes and you you could learn a lot from her professionalism and the way that she just navigated the space alongside sort of through all of this you've also worked as a model yeah so tell us about that tell us about your experience in modeling it was it was interesting because after i graduated i i i thought i could be a model and i remember going through central london going to all the agencies it was select premier models one everyone i'd be like hey the walk-ins and you know hey i've just graduated and i think i could be a model and they always just said no no's no's across the board and i remember seeing what's wrong with me yeah but you know at that age i wasn't really it didn't really sting me yeah i didn't really get caught up in my feelings of people's feedback i It was just like, okay, I can't get seen here.

35:04I'm just getting some other way. But yeah, they said no. And I was like, oh, fair. And I had other things on as well. I think. So you weren't just relying on it.

35:11Reece Richards: You weren't putting all your eggs in that basket. I think if you were just a model and that didn't work out for you, that's tough because that, yeah, you're only relying on that. But I had dancing and musicals and all the other stuff going on. And I didn't really, it didn't really hit me too hard. So yeah, I got nose across the board. It was about 12, 12 agencies. and then I remember getting a commercial and I don't know if it was through a website it might have been through a website and they were looking for dancers I didn't know what it was for um and then we had to freestyle and I could freestyle so I was I was really like happy to do it did the freestyling it was great and then they called me to do a JD commercial I didn't know it was I was like oh great this will be cool did the commercial lovely then they called me back to model for for their campaign i was like great lovely and at that time i had no fear so i just went and did that and then i used that job as a way to get an agent so i said look i'm with jd sports um i've heard really good things about you from um from people on the job that was signed to this agent and i said um could you represent me he was like yeah fine and this was i think it was sports of Seb since then I was able to get into that the model sphere so I think it's difficult it's it's a tough one everyone's got their own path into things some people just get scouted and whatnot and for me I had to do it that way to open up people's eyes to see me and then I started getting model agents tell us about some of your sort of standout you know memorable jobs that you've done kind of as a model or commercials oh I had a great commercial with with you guys it was with um cousin art which was really fun because they allowed me to cook a meal that was from my grandma's recipe which was lovely so we did that which was great and they gave me some stuff which was nice which you don't usually get in in jobs but they were lovely i think it's more so the people and the type of jobs but it was that cousin art was a great campaign i did uh you did bmw as well bmw that was lovely that was the first commercial that i did that i was able to do lines and speak my line it was great I was actually acting rather than just looking a certain type of way and what was the recipe that you did for your grandmother it was a gosh I don't remember now I think it was a brown stew chicken um and I remember I remember talking to Jemima because we were trying to get this recipe like 100 % down and my grandma's quite free in how she cooks so I was like granny like how do we yeah she's like I'll just sprinkle it I was like, no, I need exact measurements because of how the commercial is working.

37:49And I remember sending a bunch of recipes to Jemima and she was like, yeah.

37:53Reece Richards: Jemima is your booker at Sandra's house. Yeah, she was great. Absolutely great. And yeah, it was, it was wonderful. And your grandma's going, well, I don't know how much because I never weigh it. I just chuck it in. Yeah, exactly. And I was like, oh, this is going to be a long one. I need to put this job in. Oh, you need me to get your celebrity master chef, I think. Yeah, right. That'll be fun. Yeah.

38:18Reece Richards: do you think your stage and acting experience and sort of background gives you something extra as a model like does it help you yeah most definitely it it i think um a lot not a lot of models but some models certain jobs they do where they're they can be quite still the photographer will just work around them but there's other jobs where you have to bring a bit of a personality and I think I think generally modelling is like acting now isn't it you know it's a character that you're playing most definitely because you're not going to feel great all the time but you have to go into that space and you have to own it and you have to make sure that you are adhering to everything that that director or the photographer says and sometimes you have bad days but you have to make it work lots of people just think it's about looks what would you say the realities oh no I mean that's it's like 50 other stuff is personality how you carry yourself it's the confidence you could look as great as you want if you don't have that confidence it's it's not going to work we we uh we had a over fashion week they brought over the brazilian models down to cast and they will book they look great but it's their personality they're so happy and vibrant and flirtatious and clever it's it really works when the room when you're talking to the client and they're trying to get a gauge on how you are.

39:42If you're too reserved, it comes across shy and you might not be able to fill that requirement of that job.

39:53Reece Richards: What advice would you give to young performers or models on how to handle rejection? Because that's a big thing, isn't it? Yeah, for sure. I think it's just not seeing it as a finality. No isn't a no forever. and also a no is someone's opinion it's not a fact people are allowed to have their opinions of you I mean yeah so just don't try not take it too but it's hard to say it because what we being creative is personal like we're sharing our souls and bearing it on stage and just singing and that's that's coming from a personal place and if someone says they don't like it you feel you do feel that personally don't you and I was saying to my book is you know just you've got to be conscious that you know someone's on option for a big commercial for instance yeah that could be paying their rent for the next three months and then you suddenly just to ring them up and go no sorry you haven't got it yeah you've got to understand what they're going to feel like you've got to kind of be respectful of that news that you're delivering and how you deliver it it's a big thing isn't it if you haven't got anything else in the pipeline and that's you're thinking oh i really want to get that yeah it's it's tough having that one thing and not being able to do it it's it is tough but I try not to hold on to things so tightly anymore.

41:07Reece Richards: Yeah. It's just about having space. Does that come, do you think, with experience and knowledge? Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's experience. Seeing how the industry changes. I mean, I think even in trying to be a model, everyone's saying no, and then getting the campaign for JD Sports and then using everything's not as it is, how you think it is. Things change so much. Even how the industry's changed and how diverse it is now. Before when I was doing it, it wasn't as diverse at all. And now it's extremely, I mean, there could be way more improvements, but compared to how it was, God, it's a lot better. Sometimes I see things and I'm not entirely sure if people are doing it because it's trending or because they actually feel like there needs to be a change.

41:52So I think that's where the discussions and changes need to be had. I don't think, I think, yeah, you're seeing a lot more ethnic minorities in the modeling space. but I don't know how long this will last for.

42:06Reece Richards: So I remember going through and it was over one Christmas and it was, I remember just all of a sudden, it was like a switch at Flix. Every single one of our briefs was either for ethnic minorities or same-sex couples and families. Right. It's brilliant. Yeah. But then it's like, it almost felt like a tick box. It almost felt like a, oh God, we better do this. yeah we have to meet the diversity quota and it kind of felt just a little bit off it didn't feel as authentic as it should have done yeah i mean i go on asos and i see a lot a lot more ethnic diverse models than i used to and even going into the agencies and looking at the websites and seeing who they have i'm like okay cool there is there is space it's just the authenticity of it and what discussions are actually being had.

43:05Reece Richards: Can we talk about your dad or would you rather? Yeah, yeah. Oh gosh, amazing man. I probably got, well no, my mum really went to do musical theatre. Her favourite show is Seven Brides for Seven Brothers but she ended up going down the accounting route so creativity in that respect wasn't kind of a career that she could have chased um so i got that from her but my dad oh god he watched uh films every every every day every weekend he he loved films just loved he loved the acting he loved the spectacle he loved massive action films he loved the deep intrinsic films so he was young presumably yeah it was he was 50 early 50s he he passed and he was such a strong character very uh gorgeous gorgeous man unbelievably gorgeous i remember as a dancer i had no fashion at all and he was the epitome of fashion and just looking good i used to come home sometimes with like these baggy uh uncoordinated tops and that holes in my socks from doing contemporary like for the long day he used to look at me and be like you just know style but when i would dress up and go out i'd copy i still to this day i copy what he would like the jacket that I've got he would wear that but um yeah he passed and yeah it may it puts everything into perspective because I remember that year I didn't really do as much work because I wanted to be by him and after he passed I was just like okay let's let's just collate your thoughts try and figure what this out because no one really teaches you what death is and how to deal with it and how long it stays with you and i think it was yeah because the day after i went to do the bmw shoot yeah it was crazy but i needed it like i needed to go away and do that because i couldn't deal with the the death it was crazy it was unbelievable yeah you had skin cancer and um it just makes you really value life and the people that you have around you

45:17Reece Richards: The industry can be really intense. How do you look after yourself and keep grounded? My mum's great for that. Her mum's really, really good for that. And my friends as well. They'll always knock me down a few. What we do is great. It's amazing. We're around so many beautiful things. We get to travel and whatnot. But I think I see it as a job. I do see it as a nine to five. And that's not to take away it from anything. It's just if I see it as a job and it's a way of earning money and it's a way of allowing me to do the things that I love, that's enough for me. I don't see it as a, you're here and someone else is above.

45:53I don't see levels in it. I know there are levels within it, but I don't see them. It's just, if you book a job, you book a job, great. No matter how little or small, it's something to add on to getting to your next step.

46:06Reece Richards: And do you do anything else other than performing? Or is this your soul? Yeah, this is my soul thing. um yeah i mean i've been i've done a lot of voiceovers with with sondra ronald which has been great yeah um but yeah modeling acting uh dancing and singing anything that is in that creative space i'll happily put my foot in and and so what do you see your career looking like in 10 years time i think i'm gonna be dancing less just because the knees in the back are feeling a little bit more is there anything on the other side that you're you've got your eye on that you're interested in and like directing or choreography or no i i teach i've been teaching a bit sometimes i go to italy and teach so maybe i could potentially see myself teaching but i want to try and do this for as long as i can i really do enjoy the versatility of it and the variety of it what advice would you give to young performers or you know that are just starting out Just to investigate and research.

47:11Do your research. Also follow a feeling. If you feel like you can do something, check it out and have fun with it and see where it can go. Because there's no real blueprint to this industry. And success looks different for everyone. So, yeah, have a look. I remember I was doing a play at the Clapham Omnibus Theatre. and a group of these kids came up to me and I remember one of the guys saying oh you know what there was a lot of poetry in it and whatnot and the wooden boys was like oh you know what I kind of like poetry you know but I don't really want to do it and I remember saying to him why and he was like oh you know it's like airy as I start with those words I'm like it is it is airy fairy in a positive way but like if that's something that you enjoy go and look into it it's it's beautiful language if you write a certain type of way that's not many people can do that so

48:11Reece Richards: investigate check it out you know children don't have that inhibition and then you see it coming in when they kind of get to that age because it can stop you i think following your dreams yeah most definitely i remember my mum being worried because she's an accountant and she's done her education so yeah it's very clear how to get to a route of money and success but with me i'm dancing here, there and everywhere and then acting here, then you don't know what your next job is. It's about just having faith, I think. What advice do you think your mum must have given to you? Save, save, save. My mum was saying save, save your money.

48:45Reece Richards: Yeah. But also making your, well, I like versatility. Some people don't. But my main reason for liking versatility was that if the modelling wasn't, because it's seasonal, if the modelling wasn't popular, I could go into a musical. if the musical isn't working I could do a voiceover if the voiceover isn't working then I can go and do a dance job I think being as versatile as possible really really helps you in these moments

49:16Reece Richards: Well Rhys it's been such a privilege talking to you Thank you for coming and being so honest and open and I feel a real privilege sitting here listening to your story so thank you I really really appreciate it Thank you so much, Therese, for joining us and sharing his story. And thank you for listening.