Strictly finalist Danny Mac is "bothered" by criticism of his previous dance training
The actor believes all credit for his impressive Strictly Come Dancing performance should go to pro partner Oti Mabuse
With three years of drama school under his belt, Strictly Come Dancing finalist Danny Mac has taken plenty of flak this year for not being a total amateur on the dance floor – but the former Hollyoaks actor has had enough of the criticism.
"The thing that bothers me the most is, I know what I came into the competition with," he told journalists at a Strictly press conference in London.
"Anything I've achieved being attributed to that would take credit away from Oti [Mabuse] and that wouldn't be fair, because it's completely 100% down to her.
"I was never going to be a dancer, I was never dancing, that was never going to happen, I've never been employed as one. It was part of my training at drama school. But if people want to believe that because they don't want to vote for me, then so be it.
"There's nothing I can really do about it, but I give 100% credit to what i've achieved in this show to this girl next to me."
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But the girl next to him on the Strictly stage, his pro partner Oti, didn't cut him any slack when it came to revealing his nastiest habit.
"We love lunch. We absolutely love lunch," she said. "The only problem is when lunch comes out of the body as burping all the time.
"It's like, 'Oh Danny, really? I'm trying to count - why? why?' You end up just tasting a bit of the burp."
But while Danny looked unrepentant, Oti tried to find the silver lining: "I think it's absolutely cute, because you look at him and you think, 'Something like that? Danny Mac would never do something like that.' And it makes him human and more adorable."
Each to their own, Oti.
The couple have chosen their steamy Samba to Magalenha as their Favourite Dance for the final on Saturday, followed by a Showdance to Adele's Set Fire To The Rain – and they are looking forward to putting on a show.
"The final's what you dream of at the start of the competition, but you only ever take it one week at a time," Danny said,
"It's such a great experience, it really is the best thing I've ever done."
The Strictly Come Dancing final airs at 6.40pm on Saturday on BBC1
