Actress Lauren Crace tells Roz Laws the road to success began here in Birmingham.

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It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the daughter of best-selling Birmingham novelist Jim Crace is so articulate.

You might expect the 22-year-old actress to have a way with words like her father and not be afraid to voice her opinions.

It’s just that ten million television viewers are used to seeing Lauren Crace as a timid mouse who has trouble stringing a sentence together.

She plays Danielle Jones in EastEnders, the shy cleaner who has been keeping a big secret for months – that she is the long-lost daughter of Ronnie Mitchell, put up for adoption as a baby.

The storyline is finally reaching fruition, much to Lauren’s relief. For more than six months, fans have been clamouring to know when Ronnie will discover Danielle’s true identity.

Lauren, who was brought up in Moseley where her family still live, says: “The thing most people ask me in the street is ‘When does Ronnie find out?’.

“I’ve just had to tell people to be patient, but they won’t have long to go now, and it will be worth the wait!

“It has been such a slow-burner and people are getting frustrated and bored of it.

“A lot of fans weren’t sure about Danielle at first. She’s not an archetypal EastEnder, she’s not ballsy and loud. That’s what people want and they’re thrown by her.

“I try not to read the internet forums, because some people do slag you off. It’s upsetting if they are mean, but you have to become thick skinned. It’s impossible for all the millions of viewers to like you.

“I had my doubts myself. It got really boring for me when I kept reading in the script ‘Danielle says shyly’ or ‘Danielle acts naively’.

“She doesn’t do much, people do things to her. She’s very passive, and it can be quite depressing to play that five days a week.

“I told the producer she should stand up for herself more – she is a Mitchell, after all! – and that’s just starting to happen. I’ve got some great scenes coming up when she has really good arguments. She’s not a little mouse any more.”

Lauren went to Swanshurst School in Billesley and Cadbury Sixth Form College, where she took a GCSE and A level in drama. She joined the Stage2 youth theatre at 11.

“The founder, Liz Light, is amazing. She’s produced a lot of young talent.”

Lauren’s rise to fame has been remarkably rapid. She found an agent in her third year at RADA, then EastEnders came along before she’d even graduated.

“I couldn’t believe it when I got the audition. It’s not what I expected, especially as I don’t come from London.

“It all happened so quickly. I had a couple of auditions and then the next week I started work, back in June. For the first week of filming I was still appearing in my final show for RADA.”

It’s taken her longer to get used to the attention from viewers.

“I was recognised as soon as my photo was published, before I’d even appeared on screen. It was very strange.

“Now I can’t go out at all without people saying something.

“It can be quite daunting, especially if I’m on my own and a group of school kids all want to take my photo. For some reason, buses are the worst!

“You are in people’s living rooms four or five days a week and audiences know your character inside out. When people see you in the street, they don’t always realise you are an actor and not that character.

“It’s something very particular about soaps. When people encounter film stars, for example, they can step back a bit more and see the person rather than the role.”

Lauren, who’s been dating her actor boyfriend Tom for three years, lives in London but often returns to Birmingham to see her friends and family – brother Tom and parents Pam and Jim.

Jim, 62, won Whitbread Novel of the Year and has twice been shortlisted for the Booker prize for his novels, including Continent and Quarantine.

Has her father’s career helped Lauren in hers?

“He has a cult following, especially in America, but people don’t recognise him in the street,” she says. “So in that way it hasn’t prepared me.

“But he is self-employed too and has an agent, and it’s been useful to talk to him about that. He also understands about public criticism, when his new books come out.

“He’s very pragmatic about things and that’s rubbed off on me. When I read something bad about myself, I tell myself not to dwell on it.

“My parents have been nothing but supportive. There can’t be many parents who encourage their children to audition for drama school, knowing they’ll probably find it hard to get work.

“They are looking forward to me leaving EastEnders, though, because it’s taken over their lives! They’ve become addicted to it and watch every episode, even if I’m not in it.

“I’m very proud of being a Brummie, though I don’t sound as much like one as I used to. I didn’t think I had an accent but when I got to RADA everyone thought I was a complete ‘yam yam’!

“I’ve never tried to lose it, but I spent so much time doing Shakespeare and practising the Queen’s English that I’ve lost it a bit. Still, viewers may notice it coming through more with Danielle when she starts rowing!”