Jamie Borthwick gives honest statement on his EastEnders future ahead of Strictly Come Dancing run
EastEnders' Jamie Borthwick has opened up on his future on the soap - as he performs on this year’s Strictly Come Dancing. The 20-year-old actor has confirmed that he’ll be continuing to play Jay Brown on the Square while training for and performing on the dance show, meaning he’ll be an extremely busy boy for the next few months.
The actor, who has played character Jay Brown since 2006, will follow in the footsteps of several of his EastEnders colleagues including Scott Maslen, Kellie Bright and many other stars by talking both shows at once. "I'm not taking a break no," he said. "I'm still there so I'm doing both shows but we're lucky - EastEnders is literally filmed across the road, there's not far to go and I've just budgeted that I'm going to be a bit N/A for the next however long."
He added: "But again, I'm used to it all really, I've been doing it a long time so it's good, it's nothing scary."
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Speaking about advice he'd had from co-stars, Jamie added: "Scott Maslen did it back in 2010 I think - he just told me to eat everything, he was constantly eating all the time. So I'm taking that. But yeah, everyone who's done it has said it's just a fantastic experience and told me to just enjoy it , so I'm trying to enjoy every single second of it."
Jamie took part in the Strictly Christmas special last year, but as his training for only two weeks, he admits that he’s forgotten everything he had been taught back then. "I'll be honest, it feels like so much has happened since then I've kind of forgotten everything," he said.
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"I'm hoping it'll be like riding a bike and that it'll come back, but I've kind of forgot most of it. Although loads has happened since then it doesn't seem that long ago, how quickly six months go. We were there for two weeks [training], which is not long.
Jamie had been partnered up with Nancy Xu and impressed judges and viewers alike when he scored the highest possible mark of 40 in the Christmas show.
However, he could have appeared on the show earlier than that, having been approached in the past. "They have asked me actually," Jamie told OK! last year. "I can’t remember what year, 2018 I think. But it didn’t work out so I didn’t end up doing it.”