Amber Davies has insisted that she did not go on Love Island solely to further her stage career, hitting back at trolls who have criticised her journey from reality TV to musical theatre. The 29-year-old actress won the ITV2 dating show in 2017 alongside then-boyfriend Kem Cetinay, and has since starred in West End productions including 9 to 5, Back to the Future, Pretty Woman: The Musical, and The Great Gatsby.
Speaking on her Call To Stage podcast, Davies said: 'A lot of people ask me, “Oh, did you do that just to get on the West End?” No, I did it because I couldn’t get a bloody job! I didn’t want to work at a bar and Love Island were giving me a free holiday for six weeks.' She trained at the Urdang Academy before her reality TV fame and openly discussed her West End ambitions on the show.
Davies is currently touring the UK as Elle Woods in Legally Blonde: The Musical, a role she took over after recovering from a chest infection. She admitted that while she expected scrutiny from her TV career, the level of online hate directed at her stage work has been surprising. 'What I wasn’t prepared for was the trolling that was going to come with Elle,' she said, adding that mean comments often forget the human behind the performance.
Last year, Davies reached the final of Strictly Come Dancing with professional partner Nikita Kuzmin, having joined the show as a last-minute replacement for Dani Dyer. She described the experience as 'amazing' but noted that her team had prepared her for trolling during that time.
