Darius World

Fame And Fortune? Frankly I Don't Give A Damn

By John Dingwall Daily Record 14 April 2008

Exclusive Father's Cancer Battle Convinced Scots Hunk Darius That The Trappings Of Success Mean Nothing Gone With The Wind Star Has Made Being A Fantastic Stepdad His Top Priority

DARIUS Danesh has a new ambition in life - he wants to be the perfect role model to Canadian girlfriend Natasha Henstridge's two kids.

The singer - who once correctly boasted that he would have a No.1 single and platinum-selling album by the time he was 25 - has shifted his priorities after seeing his dad, Dr.

Booth Danesh, successfully battle cancer.

And Darius says being stepdad to Species star Henstridge's sons Tristan, nine, and Asher, six, is more important than fame.

Darius, 27, said: "I have befriended some very famous and wealthy people and the vast majority of them aren't happy. Most of them are miserable and focused on the next step in their career. They've lost sight of what's important.

"What I realised after my dad's trials and tribulations was that it is important to be with the people you love and to create a family that is stable, loving and nurturing.

"The biggest challenge now isn't to do with my career.

It is to do with trying to live up to the image of my father, who is the most consistent, patient and loving father and the most loyal and dignified husband.

"My biggest challenge is not financial or career goals.

What is often most important is being with family or kids and spending quality time together.

"My focus now is being the best partner I can be, the best brother I can be, the best son and the best role model for the two children in my life."

He added: "I have learned that my goals are not material.

A career is something that happens if you work hard.

My grandfather worked at the Glasgow docks from the age of 14 and supported a family.

"Coming from that you would be ashamed if you didn't work hard.

That's my focus now, but one day I would love to get married."

The Scots singer-turned the spian is working harder than ever after landing the role of Rhett Butler in director Trevor Nunn's West End musical adaptation of Margaret Mitchell's 1937 Pulitzer Prize winning novel Gone With The Wind.

Many were surprised when Darius landed the role and he admits the audition process was tougher than anything he endured on Popstars or Pop Idol.

"The auditions had been going for six months on both sides of the Atlantic before I was asked to audition," Darius said. "I flew to LA and I didn't have any lines when I auditioned because Trevor was trying to keep the script a secret.

"I hadn't even read the book, but I got the call.

I did six auditions and that was the toughest audition process I've ever gone through.

It put both the Popstars and Pop Idol auditions in the shade.

"Trevor Nunn never gave anything away.

Then I got a letter from him saying he had no doubt I was Rhett Butler.

It was like having a platinum record and a No.1 all over again."

Showing nightly at the New London Theatre, Drury Lane, London, Darius shines as Butler, originally played by Clark Gable in the 1939 movie.

Sporting a moustache, the dashing Glaswegian towers over his leading lady Jill Paice.

She plays Scarlett O' Hara, the fiesty heroine who struggles to keep her Georgia plantation from the carpet baggers after the American Civil War.

The actress bears an uncanny resemblance to Vivien Leigh, who starred opposite Gable, and the musical is a heady mix of drama, song and romance.

But Darius says his very convincing love scenes with Paice are nothing less than the performance of a lifetime.

He laughed: "I assure you it is purely a professional relationship.

If we can't make you feel the characters care for each other, we're not enjoying our job.

It's absolutely within the remit of the characters.

"Trevor made it clear he wanted to take the stage production from the novel.

So I deliberately didn't watch the film, although I saw it years ago.

It's an incredibly well known film.

Even people who haven't seen the movie know the characters."

After a preview performance last week, Darius explained just how seriously he is taking his latest acting role.

"I didn't get my accent from Clark Gable.

I got my accent from recordings of confederate gentlemen from the British library, where they have some of the earliest ever recordings," he said.

"I worked with a voice coach on the idea that Rhett was not just a Southerner, but a man who had travelled to the North.

"He would have been clearer and would say the ends of words that normal Southerners wouldn't have done.

"It's been fun learning about different cultures and about the way people spoke."

And Darius believes he has much in common with Rhett Bulter.

It's a popular misconception that the character is the cad in the story, when Ashley Wilkes - Scarlett's original love interest - encourages her to love him while married and joins the Ku Klux Klan after the slaves have been freed.

"I have grown to identify with Rhett a lot through reading the book," Darius admitted.

"He has some qualities that I associate with being Scottish. He is a very passionate man and a deep thinker.

We are a country of deep thinkers with a sense of passion and we identify with the land we are from.

"Rhett would rather sit down and have a cigar and a whisky and work it out rather than take up arms. I feel honored to portray him. He is not just a rough diamond but someone who has a lot of substance.

"At the beginning of the story, Rhett is accused of being a number of things but by the end we realise he was making anonymous donations and giving black families a chance to have their own farms. He also saves Tara."

Darius added: "Gone With The Wind is a timely piece of literature.

"It ties in the futility of war with the idea of freedom for the black slaves and also features the first female heroine in Scarlett.

"There is now a woman and a black man in the running to be US President. We are also going through a war which has many of us scratching our heads."

A key turning point in the story comes when Rhett's daughter Bonnie dies and, again, Darius feels he can relate.

He said: "I am lucky because of the experiences I've had over the last five years, particularly facing the loss of my father and the idea of facing the death of a loved one. Thank God he is alive and well.

"Subsequently, nurturing the lives of Natasha's children and taking on the role of a protector, I'm proud to be in that role and have found a sense of fatherly duty.

"You get upset if they fall and hurt their knee. If someone touched a hair on their head, you'd kill them.

"All those emotions I'd never had before. All of that has gone a long way toward informing me as a man and an actor for this role of Rhett Butler, who has a child he is incredibly fond of and, ironically, two stepchildren.

"Life has a funny way of helping you along. Nothing happens by chance."

'My focus is on being the best role model for the two children in my life'