Bodyguard star Richard Madden was taunted for taking acting lessons and work colleagues ‘thought he was gay’
BODYGUARD star Richard Madden was tormented and bullied over acting lessons he took as a teenager.
And the hunk, expected to be watched by up to 15million people in tonight’s nerve-shredding finale, was so flamboyant, work colleagues thought he was gay.
Richard, now 32 and dating actress Ellie Bamber, 21, went to school in a tough Glasgow suburb.
He went to drama lessons twice a week and made an early film breakthrough at 11.
But uncle Gerry Mulholland, 70, said: “It was difficult for him getting all that adulation and then going back to the rigmarole of the school day.
"A few of them were jealous and would have been trying to take him down a peg or two but that’s where his character comes in.”
Later, as he honed his acting skills at Paisley Arts Centre, sixth-former Richard worked in a call centre selling kitchens.
His former colleague Billy McDougall said: “People from the theatre group were perfect for the call-centre job because they were flamboyant and attention-seeking.
“I thought he might be gay because he was so theatrical, wore a bandana back then and had a bleach stripe through his hair.”
Richard was brought up by dad Dick, a former senior fire officer and his teaching assistant mum Patricia in the relatively affluent village of Elderslie.
His school Paisley Grammar did not have a drama department, meaning he had to take a taxi to another school twice a week for lessons.
He appeared in the movie Complicity, based on an Iain Banks novel, in which his character was raped “by a big 50-year-old ginger Scotsman”.
He also enjoyed early success alongside Toyah Wilcox in the CBBC TV series Barmy Aunt Boomerang.
But Richard has said he endured hatefulness from peers, who taunted him over the male rape and acting lessons.
At Paisley Arts Centre he said he found “something I was passionate about and really enjoyed”.
And the centre’s then artistic director, Jenni Mason, thought the young actor had something special.
She said: “In acting terms he seemed to have a maturity beyond his years that allowed him to connect emotionally to the characters he played.”
It also made him very good at selling kitchens, according to ex-workmate Billy, now 35.
He said: “He was outgoing and enthusiastic — and you can be anyone you want to be at the end of a phone.”
But Billy said Richard, who has dated Jenna Coleman, Caroline Flack and Laura Whitmore, was not an obvious ladies’ man.
He added: “He was a wee bit camp. He wasn’t a heart-throb. But now he’s a handsome fella and doing all right.”
Richard hit the big time as Rob Stark in Game of Thrones before his role as DS Dave Budd in Bodyguard made him TV’s hottest property.
However, his relatives say he remains a family man, doting on five-year-old niece Eilidh.
Uncle Gerry said: “She is his biggest fan. She follows him everywhere and her little brother Callum follows her.
“We’ve never had any actors in the family. I play bowls, his dad plays golf but now when I see the lassies he’s running around with I tell myself, it has not done him any harm.”
Another uncle, Peter Madden, said: “There’s no danger of him getting big-headed. He has his family background at the forefront all the time.”
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