Amber Davies has insisted she will be "starting from scratch" on Strictly Come Dancing, after her previous dancing experience was brought up.
The 28-year-old actress and former Love Island winner was drafted into the BBC show after contestant Dani Dyer fractured her ankle in training after the first week, and was partnered with Nikita Kuzmin.
Davies trained at the Urdang Academy in her youth and has appeared in multiple productions on the West End, including 9 to 5: The Musical, Pretty Woman: The Musical and The Great Gatsby.
Prior to even being officially announced for Strictly, Davies pre-empted some of the criticism that has come in for her prior dancing experience compared to the other contestants.
In the most recently-released episode of her episode of her Call To Stage podcast, recorded when she was yet to officially sign up, the star predicted this discussion.
She said: "I feel like I know there will be, like, [people saying] 'she's trained, she's trained'.
"Yes, I did train in musical theatre. However, I am a beginner when it comes to ballroom [and] latin dancing. So I feel like I will be starting from scratch. I will give it my all."
Davies also discussed the topic when appearing on It Takes Two with Janette Manrara and Fleur East this week.
East asked: "So you’ve obviously had some dance experience before but you’ve never done Latin or ballroom. How much do you think your musicality helped you through the routine?"
Davies replied: "Musicality helped a lot. I can hear the music, I can feel the music but it was the technical aspect, where we didn’t have time to think about heel and toe."
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She also admitted that she was actually finding the experience harder than she anticipated.
"Ballroom and Latin are worlds apart from what I’ve experienced on a west end stage. It’s a completely different technique and it’s a lot harder than I thought it was going to be," Davies shared.
Strictly Come Dancing continues at 6.18pm on BBC One on Saturday, October 4.
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