Interview with Susie Amy

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Amy likes to keep in shape but isn't a fan of dieting

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Pictured in Dublin yesterday

We caught up with Susie to talk to her about her Irish rugby player boyfriend Rob Kearney, her tips for keeping in shape, career ambitions and top beauty tips.

Sarah McIntyre: You're in Dublin to launch new Reebok's Easytone runners. Can you tell us, have you noticed a difference since you've started using them?

Susie Amy: Do you know what I think is great about this shoe - the amount of friends of mine who have said they don't have time to go to the gym, they've got their kids, it's too difficult. It's just a way to increase something that you do every day. And it makes you want to walk as well. Because you think, these work, these are going to help me, it makes you want to get out the door and do something.

SMI: So how do you keep in shape?

SA: I do a bit of running. I also just try and do simple things. If I'm in London in the Underground for example, I'll always use the escalators and walk, rather than just standing there. Or I always take the stairs, just little things like that. And then on top of that I try and do three sessions a week, which doesn't always happen. I go through phases where I'm really really good and then phases where I'm not so good, which I think is probably like most people. If I do a circuit training class it actually makes me do the full hour. Sometimes if I go to the gym on my own, and I'm tired and I think 'I've done half an hour it's better than nothing'. And really it's good to do the full hour if you can. But anything is better than nothing, that's what I think. And whether it's going for a long walk, or doing something like a circuit training class, or an aerobics class or swimming. Just keep moving and keep busy and it just makes you feel a lot better.

SMI: As someone in the public eye do you feel a bit more pressure to look good, and be groomed every day?

SA: I'm fairly relaxed with myself. I do know people in my industry who put a lot of pressure on themselves. More about diet than fitness, funnily enough. I've never heard of someone overly working out, I usually hear of people not eating carbs. I've never done that, I've never done any sort of extreme dieting. Sometimes I'll think 'I don't really need to eat desserts at the moment, I need to eat more of this' but I always eat three meals a day and a couple of snacks even if I was dieting. Well, in my mind dieting which isn't really a diet to anyone else! Just be aware of what you're eating, and there's kind of nothing more you can do than that. It's silly pushing yourself, everyone's got their own body shape and you can do the best with that or the worst with that. There's no point in somebody looking at Cheryl Cole and going 'I want her body' because you've got your own body and you can look after it as well as you want, but you can only work with the shape that you've got.

SMI: Do you think in your industry there's an unhealthy obsession with people being thin?

SA: Most of my friends aren't in the industry so maybe I wouldn't be the best person to ask, but I definitely think there's a pressure. I've come across things in the industry personally, certain comments that if you were sensitive about your weight you could take on board. I'd say there a lot of people who would experience that. I think you have got to be careful. Providing you're healthy and you're doing what you can, I think that it's important that people feel that they don't have to look ridiculously skinny. It's not a look that I think is particularly nice anyway and it's just good to stay in shape, be healthy and eat properly. Maybe I do eat too much sugar and all that I could improve on some things - I'm definitely not perfect in my diet but it's only so important. (Susie gets a hot chocolate!)

SMI: You're dating Irish rugby player Rob Kearney, do you split your time between Ireland and London?

SA: Yeah I'm here quite a lot now! I wouldn't say I split my time. If he's free he'll come to me and vice versa. It's working out quite well timing wise we're doing pretty well with it.

SMI: Do you think you keep out of the public eye; you're not a celebrity couple or anything like that?

SA: We accidentally went to one event. My friend Johnny Wilkes was in town doing a 'We Will Rock You'. And I said to Rob, 'Johnny's here I really want you to meet him, let's go'. And we didn't realise it was a press night, and I was mortified because he's very private. So that was funny! But yeah we're definitely very low key.

SMI: So do you have any beauty tips for our readers, are there any products that you always use?

SA: Well I love Dermalogica, I'm absolutely obsessed with their range in terms of my skin. I'm really into skincare and all of that. I'm also drinking a lot of Vitamin water at the moment, I try and drink one of them a day as well as Evian. I'm really into drinking enough water as I can get dehydrated and get headaches quite a lot. I like carrying cream blushes in my handbag, the Mac ones are great, they do a great range. I use their Zoom Lash mascara as well. I use the Dermalogica treatment foundation which is really good. I saw it and thought 'Would that really work?' and it's so lovely.

SMI: With regards shopping, are you more of a high street girl or do you like your designer buys?

SA: A little bit of a mixture. I wear quite a lot of Twelfth Street by Cynthia Vincent which is probably my favourite designer, they're LA based so I pick up some of their dresses if I'm out there. But yeah I love Topshop, I love Warehouse, I love River Island. I love department stores like Selfridges, Harvey Nichols. Love Urban Outfitters. So I'm a bit of an everything girl, whatever's working and fitting.

SMI: How would you describe your style?

SA: I'm pretty relaxed generally. Day-to-day I'd be quite casual, I wear flat shoes generally during the daytime. You do feel nice when make an effort and you get dressed up and put some heels on. When I was younger I wore heels all the time, when I was 16 or 17, then at 20 I was really relaxed. All of us were coming into 'Footballers Wives' wearing trainers, combats, little vest tops! And recently I wear a few more outlandish things, more peacock outfits, and you think 'Well in 20 years time I won't be able to wear this so do it now!'

SMI: So you got your career break on 'Footballers Wives', what was it like getting cast on the show?

SA: It was huge, I guess when we were making it we didn't realise it was going to be. You never know how a show's going to go. You can be involved in a project sometimes that you think is going to be huge and it does terribly and you have to let it go. People did like 'Footballers Wives'. It was a clever concept, it was forward thinking, footballers wives weren't so focused on back then as they are now, the term WAG hadn't been invented. It was clever and really fun and great to be involved with it.

SMI: What are your career ambitions moving forward from now?

SA: I've done a bit of theatre, film, TV over the years. I have been talking about doing some documentaries about various things. I've done a couple of road trips with one of my girlfriends Vicky, we did Route 66. And we made video documentaries, just for our own fun. They weren't documentaries as such, that's a stupid word to use - we videoed it and edited it together and we put it on YouTube so our friends and family could see it. And people seemed to really enjoy it and we got really good feedback, and more and more viewers. And I really love doing things like that, the roadtrips and exploring. So maybe something along those lines. Definitely more TV, I'm going to do more theatre hopefully later this year. Just keep mixing it up and do different things. That's what's so nice about this line of work - it might be unpredictable and it might be uncertain at times but it's always varied and it's always fun so I feel very lucky.