Danny Dyer has admitted he’s finding that a lot of the praise for his performance in the hit show Rivals is veiling something else.
The former EastEnders actor joins a star-studded cast that includes David Tennant, Aidan Turner and Alex Hassell in the hit Disney+ drama, based on the Jilly Cooper novel of the same name.
And while Danny’s performance as Freddie in Rivals has repeatedly been singled out for praise, he revealed he’s finding that some of the plaudits have come with a sting in their tail.
“Some people were alluding to the fact that, you know, I’m the one that [people have] come out of [Rivals saying], ‘Oh God, he’s a really good actor’,” he told daughter Dani Dyer on their podcast Live And Let Dyers.
“I’m getting this backhanded [praise] from these big, broadsheets – actually, there was a headline that went, ‘The biggest plot twist about Rivals is that Danny Dyer can act’. In a way, I’m going, ‘Oh thanks for the compliment’, at the same time going, ‘Well, fuck off!’.”
Danny went on to point out how he’d proved his detractors wrong, after some people questioned how he was cast in a big-budget show like Rivals in the first place.
“I remember when it first got announced, there were a few comments going, ‘Oh, you lost me at Danny Dyer,’” he recalled. “There was [some] right negative shit about me going, ‘Oh my God, what has happened to Disney? How can they hire him?’. How fucking wrong were they?”
Rivals marks the second collaboration between Danny and Rivals creator Dominic Treadwell-Collins, who was executive producer of EastEnders when the Mean Machine star was cast as Queen Vic landlord Mick Carter.
The show has been a huge hit for Disney+, although it’s yet to be revealed whether a second season is on the cards.