With Sir Trevor Nunn’s The Wars of the Roses delighting audiences in Kingston, television presenter and Surrey Comet’s Mum About Town Angellica Bell went down the Rose Theatre to chat to one of its stars, her friend Rufus Hound.

So this is all a bit different from TV...

Yes I know. TV is all about turning up get it on and get it done, but with theatre, it’s a bit more real and a bit more honest.

Every day you apply yourself to the task and every day you’re trying to be better than the day before, giving you that room to hone something and that to me is just much more pleasing. TV is more about the moment but theatre is about a real commitment and a real discipline to the storytelling.

I guess you could say there is no camera to mask or dilute the emotion?

I’ve been dwelling on this a lot lately. If you like thinking or chewing things over, the best way to receive ideas is through stories.

I don’t think  there is a more deeply human and resonate way of telling stories than human beings sharing stories with other human beings in the same space at the same time without it being filtered.

So tell me how did you catch the acting bug?

I have always wanted to be an actor since I was young but knew I was too lazy to go to acting school so ventured out into the big bad world to see what would happen.

Eventually I ended up doing stand-up comedy and things gained momentum from there. My professional acting debut was a CBBC show called Hounded in 2010.

Basically, I was in a pilot for a sketch show for BBC3, and although that programme didn’t get picked up, it was shown internally and someone from CBBC saw it said they wanted me to be in Hounded.

Now I get teenagers coming up to me asking what happened to the show which is very pleasing.

Surrey Comet:

Since then you’ve had a variety of acting roles in films such as Big Fat Gypsy Gangster, on TV in Cucumber and also in the West End in One Man and Two Guvnors to name but a few, but how did you make that transition to Shakespeare?

It’s not such a big leap as you might think. There’s a perception that if you’re famous you’re somebody who has power and the truth is that just isn’t the case.

You can say there are things you’d like to do and maybe they are more likely to happen because more people are listening.

I mean, I did Shakespeare at school and I’ve always loved Shakespeare and one day my agent asked me what I wanted to do next and I said the RSC. Ultimately I just want to be part of the stories I love most.

I really want to be on Doctor Who. I really want to be on Game of Thrones. I want to be part of other stories too.

Have you found that because you are a well-known face, there’s a perception already limiting what you can or can’t do?

To a certain extent, but it’s about what you’re prepared to do to show you’re serious.

What I was able to do was a little play at the Soho Theatre and from that show prove I had enough chops that when the National Theatre were re-casting One Man and Two Guvnors they saw I had done theatre and also stand up and that balance of skills was what the part required.

From that it meant Chichester festival Theatre were interested so I went and performed in Neville’s Island there and then Dirty Rotten Scoundrels came up and there was a year of doing that. I finished Scoundrel in October then did bits and pieces and here I am now.

Surrey Comet:

How did Trevor Nunn get you on board?

I don’t know and it’s not something I needed to know. I got a call from my agent saying I had been offered something without an audition.

The offer was always to be a company member so essentially I’m filling in, but it was an opportunity to really stretch myself being different characters. I just wanted to be part of this and the company rather than needing to be the star.

It was about learning and being around some truly brilliant actors.

So what parts are you playing?

Across the three shows I play the Duke of Bedford, a wizard called Bolingbroke so have the chance to do wizardry things, Jack Cade an uneducated brash character and Rivers who’s a nice middle class gentleman. It’s a good mix of roles.

Do you ever get nervous?

No, not really. I’ve seen nerves do worse things to people than you’d care to imagine. Once you start overthinking it or get a hang up about a certain moment, it will tire you in the most insidious and poisonous way so overtime with stand-up, I learned not to be nervous.

Nobody dies. The worst thing that can happen is that you look like a tool.

Our readers will be pleased to hear you were raised in Surrey and now live locally to Kingston.

I was born in Essex but moved to Woking when I was seven then a while later we moved to West Byfleet. I didn’t hang out in Kingston that much growing up but remember my mum occasionally saying we had to get to John Lewis.

I love Kingston and my family and I are always in town on a weekly basis and now I get to visit John Lewis all the time.

Surrey Comet:

Performing at the Rose Theatre must feel extra special seeing as its located so close to home?

I first performed on this stage as a stand-up comedian as part of the Comedy Store and now I’m back as part of this incredible trilogy.

The Rose is a producing theatre so obviously I want to support it and believe the stuff they make is brilliant. To bring this massive production here and attract the talent they have attracted speaks volumes.

So can you tell us what’s next for Rufus?

Well I’ve literally just signed up to do Don Quixote with David Trelfall for the RSC. He’ll be playing Don Quixote and I’ll be playing Sancho Panza.

We did workshops together earlier in the year and by the end of it I was on my knees tugging at his belt begging him to do it as he is just incredible. You never know if these things will materialise but I can safely say that last week it was all signed off so we’re going to be performing in Stratford upon Avon from February to May next year.

Well you’ve made it to the RSC! It’s an exciting time for you.

Yes it's incredible and if you’d have told me at the age of fifteen all this would be happening I’d have to pinch myself.

However if your job is showing off, it can be a recipe for insecurity, but If you try and build into your life the philosophy that the things that matter, matter, and know that list is very short, then the rest of it can roll off you.

At the end of the day we all just want to wake up every morning and be proud of who we are.

The Wars of the Roses is at the Rose Theatre, Kingston, until October 31. Go to rosetheatrekingston.org