A SPOONFUL of sugar has worked wonders for Laura Michelle Kelly, who shot to fame in the West End musical Mary Poppins. Her starring role as the magical nanny won her critical acclaim and, in 2005, an Olivier Award for best actress.
She may be only 25, but her West End theatre credits include roles in Beauty and the Beast, Whistle Down The Wind, Les Miserables, Mamma Mia and My Fair Lady. She also appeared on Broadway in Fiddler on the Roof.
Last year she completed her debut album, The Storm Inside, on which she worked alongside Jamie Cullum and Robbie Williams’ former co-writer Guy Chambers.
In April she will appear in Nemesis, a Miss Marple drama for ITV1, and in the spring will begin work on Tim Burton’s movie based on Stephen Sondheim’s musical Sweeney Todd, alongside Johnny Depp, Alan Rickman and Helena Bonham Carter.
Kelly lives in Wapping, east London, with her husband, Nick Winston, 32, a choreographer.
How much money do you have in your wallet?
I have a button and about $3 in change from when I was in New York recently. My wallet was stolen twice in the same week when I was 17 and since then I don’t carry money if I can help it. Luckily, Starbucks now accepts debit cards.
Do you have any credit cards?
No. I don’t like using money that isn’t mine, although my accountants keep telling me about the advantages of using one. I’m 25 now, so perhaps I’m old enough to be responsible.
I do have debit cards, including one from an American bank because I travel there a lot for my film and theatre work.
Are you a saver or a spender?
I’m 50-50. When you’re self-employed, you can never forget that a lot of the money you have may not be with you for ever. You just learn to live within your means and put money away.
When I started work on Beauty and the Beast at 18, I had a good wage coming in, something like £1,000 a week. My accountant at the time said I should save for a house, so I did. I put the money away into a savings account and pretended that it wasn’t mine. I was able to buy my first house when I was 19.
But I find it easy to spend a lot of money on my work. If I’m researching a character, I can easily spend £40 on DVDs. I also find it helpful to buy clothes to look like a character, so I spend lots on costumes that I wouldn’t normally wear.
How much did you earn
last year?
I worry about saying for certain because it changes so much.
In a bad year I could earn nothing, but in a good year I could earn three wages, which is what happened last year — working on my album, theatre and TV work.
The basic wage for a lead actor in the West End is £900 a week — equivalent to £46,800 a year — and you negotiate up from there.
Have you ever been
really hard up?
I finished Les Miserables at the Palace Theatre in 2001, after appearing in it for six months. I then got married and didn’t have any work.
I was 20 at the time and I had a mortgage and bills to pay. I eventually got a job working in Soho House as a coat-check girl. That’s when I was really hard up. I was earning just a little more than what it cost to take the cab home every night. I got by on a miracle and my husband for those four or five months before I found work on Mamma Mia, which sorted things out.
What is the most lucrative work you have ever done? Did you use the fee for something special?
It was doing Mary Poppins. Half of the money was put away for savings, and I used the other half to set up a music studio at home.
Do you own a property?
I own a two-bedroom maisonette in Wapping. It’s spacious and has a balcony. I think it was built in the 1980s.
I bought it a year ago with my husband for £375,000. I don’t think it has risen in value by much in a year, but we’re looking to live there for the long term.
Do you invest in shares?
No, but I’ll probably look into it later on this year because I should be earning more money then. I’ll probably get my accountants to help me with this, but I would like to invest in businesses that work with or support artists.
Do you have Peps and Isas?
I have an Isa but, to be honest, I don’t really think about it too much. I rely on my accountants to deal with it.
Do you have a pension or other
retirement plan?
I’ve heard so many horror stories about pensions that it has put me off them completely. I’m relying on my property instead. Maybe I’ll buy some more properties in the future as investments.
Do you believe pensions are a good thing?
They probably are, but it’s not something I’d go for.
What has been your worst investment?
Buying a two-bedroom flat in Streatham, south London, in 2003. I bought it for £185,000 and sold it two years later for exactly the same price, but minus the £30,000 that I had spent on it.
The building had some problems with subsidence so it was difficult to sell.
And your best?
My first ever house in Beckton, east London, when I was 19. It got me on to the ladder and gave me some security. It was a four-bedroom house and it had a garden and garage.
I bought it to be near Nick, who’s now my husband. He had a flat on the opposite side of the road at the time. I bought it for £113,000 and sold it for £189,000 after about four years. I used the money to buy the Streatham property.
What aspect of our taxation system
would you change?
Make it less complicated to be self-employed, which would help young actors and actresses a lot. It would also be good to give tax breaks to people in the arts because we don’t necessarily earn a lot.
What is your financial priority?
I want to make sure that I invest in my business, but my family are the most important thing to me.
Do you have a money weakness?
I feel terribly guilty when I spend £150 on make-up, but it’s just so easy to do. I have eye-shadows, lip-glosses and moisturisers, but they don’t last very long.
I also love buying vintage clothes from Steinberg and Tolkien, a shop right next to Chelsea town hall on the King’s Road. It sells the oldest clothes that are really cool, and I just go in there and go mad.
I recently bought a 1920s purple velvet dress with cute little wrist sleeves and a zip all the way from the mid-dress to the top. It kind of clings round my body and makes me feel like a princess.
It has a big rip in it, but I love it. It cost me £400.
There’s also this Victorian outfit that I’ve been eyeing recently.
What is the most extravagant thing you
have ever bought?
I’m sure everything I buy is necessary, but the vintage dress I suppose. A dress for £400 which I’m probably going to wear only a couple of times seems extravagant.
What is the most important lesson you have
learnt about money?
That it’s not important to make you happy. I think financial success is not as important as prosperity in your relationships.
