Dakota Fanning, Macaulay Culkin, Lindsay Lohan, Miley Cyrus… these are the child stars we have come to know and love. Nikki Webster is also part of this pantheon, but her status as a former child star is one often treated with contempt. After all, we as a nation seem to hate anyone who even remotely appears to be a tall poppy, and with her strawberry good looks, her outright luck and wholesome manner, Webster was a perfect candidate.

Not that she’s fallen from grace. It’s unlikely she ever well. But her media breeding seems to be her downfall – people complain that she’s too ‘nice’… whatever that means. But now that she’s grown up – or 22 at least – Webster seems all set to step into the role of a young woman making a name for herself… and how.

In the clip for her new song, Devilicious, Webster can be best described in one simple word: smoking. She’s part Christina via that Dirrrty faze and a whole lotta sassy siren. But the most surprising thing is not her new look – which is very eye catching – but her mature and incredibly developed voice. She may not look yet like a woman completely, but she sure sounds like one.

‘I worry that I’m not edgy enough, because it always seems to end up in the media that you’ve got to go to rehab to make it, which is just horrible,’ Webster told OUTinPerth in a moment of reflection. ‘I think people think I’m very, very nice or very media trained. But that’s just me: I’m real. I find it hard to lie about things. I’m quite open, straight up and off the ball. I am worried though about how the media is skewed and how the only thing that ends up on the front page are horrible images of artists.’

It’s the film clip that has everyone talking since it was leaked on YouTube a month ago, and with just cause too – it’s simply amazing. Not in a technical way, but in a party-happening-right-there-on-your-screen kinda way. ‘I think the good thing about the new film clip is that we never had a story line. So basically all I gave the director and the choreographer was that I wanted a huge warehouse with heaps and heaps of dancers and everybody hot and sweaty.

‘But I didn’t want a love interest and I want everybody mixing with everybody and it just to be full on about dancing. That was the only description and synopsis we had and it just grew from there. Of course my choreographer, William Forsythe, the genius that he is just threw in 120 dancers. It was really incredible to walk into that warehouse and see that many dancers there supporting me.’

So is it a secret ambition for Webster to see herself vying for the tiara as one of pop’s newest princesses? ‘Of course it’s a secret ambition. I want to dominate the music world! But more than anything I just want to have fun. I think I’ve learnt a lot being in the media for so long and being able to take a step back. I’ve learnt to appreciate a lot of things and learnt now to take so many things for granted and not get pushed around either.

‘I don’t know any different,’ she continued. ‘It’s been my life. I’ve been involved in musical theatre and performing since I was five and obviously thrown into the limelight at the age of 13. It is my life and I don’t know any different and I think that’s why I’m so determined to make it work, because I can’t see myself sitting behind a desk. There’s highs, there’s lows. I’ve thought about not coming back quite a few times. It’s been a tough couple of years but I think I’m in a really positive place at the moment. And it’s good and I’m going to run with it as long as I can.’

Scott-Patrick Mitchell

Quick questions with Nikki Webster.

Favourite destination?
Denmark.

Favourite designer?
I’ve been wearing a lot of Master / Slave lately. They make a lot of one offs for me.

Who would your ‘lesbian love lock’ be with?
I think I would have to say that it’s a toss-up between Lady Gaga and Katy Perry.

Maybe both at the same time?
Why not! Let’s do a threesome I say.

Source: Out In Perth