Smash's Davenport not a musical fan

Jack Davenport has admitted he hated musicals before starring in his new TV show, Smash.

The British actor plays a stage director in the US series, which is about the staging of a show about Marilyn Monroe, but revealed he has never been a fan of musicals in real life.

He confessed: "I quite like the silly ones, like Little Shop Of Horrors, but as soon as it veers, in my opinion, into quite pompous territory, I sit there and think, 'Why are you singing? Just say it!'

"I've started to get it now, although I would still give Les Mis a miss. The sound broke down when I saw it, which was the best thing that could have happened!"

One of Smash's big selling points is that it's co-produced by Steven Spielberg. But Jack admitted he was grateful he didn't have to audition in front of the filmmaker.

"I know he saw my tape, but if I'd had to audition in front of him, I think I'd have cried," he said.

Although he now has This Life, The Talented Mr Ripley and the Pirates Of The Caribbean films on his CV, the 39-year-old still remembers the hell of his early auditions.

"I remember auditioning for adverts. They're looking for a 'type' and you can see it in their cold, dead, advertising industry eyes when they're like, 'No!' but still make you do the humiliating stuff!

"Once, I was asked to writhe around on a piano with an invisible woman - which I'd done lots of in my adolescence. I asked them to show me and they couldn't, so I thought, 'If you can't show me, I won't do it' and walked out."

:: Smash begins on Sky Atlantic tonight (April 21).