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ARTICULATE, intelligent, mature. . . these aren't words you expect to associate with Adam Rickitt.
Since he first walked on to the cobbles of Coronation Street, he has been labelled a himbo, all floppy blond hair, rippling six-pack, dodgy pop career and the acting ability of a plank of wood.
But when he tells you he turned down a place at Oxford to study law to follow his heart and that he walked away from a six-album record deal because he wasn't enjoying it, you feel you should give the guy a chance.
"What I learned very quickly is that people, rightly or wrongly, like to stick you in a pigeon-hole," he says. "As soon as I appeared as Nicky Tilsley on Coronation Street, I can guarantee people thought right, he's blonde and he's thick as a brick.
"You can bang your head against a wall as much as you like but people will still make their own minds up about you. Take somebody like Melinda Messenger. She's a clever girl but because she's done topless modelling and is blonde lots of people think shecan't count past two. It happens in any industry, but particularly this one. You've just got to learn from it and get on with your own thing."
He's just 22, but Adam is in the process of re-inventing himself. The hair has been cropped, the muscles are covered up and his singing is confined to the stage for his latest role as the narrator in the lauded musical, Rent.
It's a show with a message, telling the story of Aids coming to New York and, in particular, the characters in the show. He sings on 36 of the show's 43 songs.
It's a major part and a huge test for any actor, especially one who learned his trade on a TV soap rather than treading the boards.
When he won the part of the new, improved Nicky...