As multi-millionaire international singing stars go, Paul Potts is not exactly in the sex, drugs and rock’n’roll bracket.
This
week, for example, he has been waxing lyrical to friends about how his
latest car, a smart — if rather sensible — second-hand Mercedes diesel,
averaged 68.5 miles to the gallon on a trip to the Lake District from
his home in South Wales.
Having
passed his driving test only last month at the age of 42, he got it
second-hand because, he says, buying new means ‘giving away money’ when
you drive out of the showroom.
Centre stage: James Corden as Britain's Got
Talent winner Paul Potts in the new film One Chance produced by
Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein and directed by David Frankel, one of
Tinseltown's top directors
Likewise, his followers
on Twitter can hardly expect tales of celebrity excess. They are far
more likely to be treated to amateur photographer Paul’s pictures of
North
Yorkshire’s Ribblehead viaduct or his gripes about the cost of
phoning directory inquiries.
Nor
does he give the impression of riding the crest of the showbiz wave any
more. Six years after winning Britain’s Got Talent, his UK album sales
have dried up and he has long since been jettisoned by Simon Cowell’s
record label. A comeback tour planned for next month has been cancelled.
Which does rather beg the
question: why has one of Hollywood’s biggest moguls decided to turn the
life story of a mobile phone salesman-turned-opera singer into a biopic?
Unassuming: Paul Potts and his wife of ten years Julie-Ann
Harvey Weinstein, whose
previous blockbusters include Pulp Fiction, The Lord Of The Rings and
The King’s Speech, bought the rights to Potts’ tale of overnight
stardom, and on Monday One Chance, starring James Corden as the
snaggle-toothed tenor, premièred at the star-studded Toronto
International Film Festival.
Hollywood moment: Taylor Swift (L) and Paul
Potts at the Once Chance Premiere during the 2013 Toronto International
Film Festival at Winter Garden earlier this week
No one, it seems, was more surprised
than Potts to find himself and his wife of ten years, Julie-Ann, 33, on
the red carpet, rubbing shoulders with the assembled titans of the film
business.
The whole thing, he admits with a shrug of incredulity, is ‘mind-boggling’.
‘It is just astonishing that someone wanted to make a film about me at all,’ he says.
Yet
the movie’s makers, who have focused on Potts’ heart-warmingly close
relationship with his wife — who he calls Julz — were clearly confident
enough to hire one of Hollywood’s most successful directors, David
Frankel, to shoot the film. His previous hits include The Devil Wears
Prada and Marley & Me.
Likewise,
Gavin and Stacey actor Corden’s star is in the ascendency in Hollywood
thanks to his Tony-winning performance on Broadway last year in the
comedy One Man, Two Guvnors.
Frankel
says of the film: ‘It’s the Rocky story. I think most people were not
aware of the full extent of the adversity that Paul suffered, but it’s
also a love story.’
And it
is a love story that is set to make Potts a fortune. He has received a
substantial advance and will take a cut of the worldwide box-office
royalties.
Perhaps
surprisingly, given how his career has slumped at home, he doesn’t need
the money. In fact, thanks to his continuing popularity abroad,
down-to-earth Potts has amassed a £7million fortune.
He remains a huge draw in Germany, Japan and Korea, where he performs sell-out concerts to hordes of hysterical fans.
Certainly,
the film’s storyline has all the triumph-over-adversity ingredients so
beloved in Tinseltown. Bullied mercilessly at school in Bristol, Potts,
one of four children born to bus driver Roland and supermarket cashier
Yvonne — played on screen by Julie Walters — found solace from bullies
in his parents’ opera records.
He
sang in church choirs, became a verger at Bristol Cathedral and set his
heart on a career as an opera singer. But he was devastated when he
saved up to attend a masterclass given by Luciano Pavarotti in Venice,
only to be told by the world-famous tenor that he lacked the talent to
make it.
Potts got a job in
Waitrose and all but gave up his hopes of singing professionally. A
battle with adrenal cancer was followed by a near-fatal bicycle accident
in 2003. But it was his wife, who he met through an internet chatroom
in 2001, who persuaded him not to give up on his dream.
Even
so, after moving to Wales — where he got a job as manager of a Carphone
Warehouse shop — he had not sung for years when he auditioned for the
first series of Britain’s Got Talent in 2007.
Despite
being crippled by a lack of confidence, he wowed the BGT judges and won
a standing ovation from the audience with his spine-tingling version of
Nessun Dorma.
His performance became a YouTube hit around the world and has been viewed 115 million times.
Big role: Gavin and Stacey actor Corden as Potts
in his BGT audition. Corden's star is in the ascendency in Hollywood
thanks to his Tony-winning turn on Broadway last year in the
comedy One Man, Two Guvnors
MailOnline Exclusive preview of One Chance staring James Corden...
The big break, which saw Potts win BGT’s £100,000 first prize and a recording contract, could not have come at a better time.
He and his wife had run up debts of £30,000, and were just a month away from having their house in Port Talbot repossessed.
Understandably,
given their previous financial problems, he refuses to splash the cash
today, despite being a multi-millionaire.
Paul
says: ‘I remember how tough it was before winning the show. When we
went shopping, I used a calculator to see how much money we had left.
Sometimes it came down to pennies. I like to keep my feet firmly on the
ground.’
True love: Alexandra Roach plays Potts' wife, who encourages him to pursue his dream
Wedding night: The clip shows Potts and his wife on their wedding night
Rather than buying
the obligatory showbiz star’s palace, in 2009, Paul and Welsh-born Julz
upgraded from their modest, stone-clad terrace to a £450,000
five-bedroom house overlooking Swansea Bay.
They
have since bought a weekend cottage in the Lake District as an
investment because, Paul says, ‘you never know when things will dry up’.
As well as being a nest-egg, it is also somewhere for them to indulge their love of walking with their German shepherd, Caesar.
Meanwhile,
holidays are spent with their young nephews in basic hotels on the
Costa Brava (the couple have been unable to have children because Julz
has polycystic ovary syndrome, and are considering IVF).
One
thing Potts did shell out for was a £600 pair of Christian Louboutin
leopard-skin wedges for Julz to celebrate their tenth wedding
anniversary in May.
Legendary: Julie Walters and Colm Meaney play Potts' mother and father
From rags to riches: Potts' best friend, played
by Mackenzie Crook, was there with him from the very beginning, when he
worked in Carphone Warehouse
Even
so, they still shop at Tesco, and his only other notable extravagance
has been to have his famous broken-toothed smile fixed at a cost of
£100,000 by a top cosmetic dentist.
Potts
is hoping the film will give his career a boost at home, where his
popularity has fallen since the days when his 2007 debut album, also
called One Chance, went to No. 1, selling 3.5 million copies.
The
following year, he played to full houses in 23 countries. But a
follow-up CD only got to No. 5 here, and the ruthless Cowell axed him
from his Syco label in 2010.
His
long-planned comeback, in a stage show called Nights On Broadway, which
was to due to tour the UK at big venues such as London’s O2 next month,
was recently shelved, with promoters blaming ‘production problems’.
Who's laughing now? The clip shows Potts attempting to make a name for himself in a local club
Potts remains cripplingly shy.
When he and Julz were invited onto the set of the biopic, he was too
nervous to introduce himself to James Corden.
Hollywood
heavyweight Weinstein clearly believes in him, though — his publishing
company is planning to push out the singer’s autobiography in time for
Christmas.
The film’s
director David Frankel says: ‘It’s a story of this guy with no
confidence, still living at home with his parents and working in a
Carphone Warehouse, and he meets this woman who just believes in him.
Because she loves him, she won’t let him give up his dream.’
As
the real-life star of Hollywood’s unlikely new rags-to-riches
life-story mingled with the A-listers at Monday’s premiere, you suspect
Paul Potts was hoping that he never wakes up.
Star power: Paul Potts with, from left, actress
Alexandra Roach, actress Valeria Bilello, James Corden and Taylor Swift
during 2013 Toronto International Film Festival
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