McQueen star Stephen Wight talks about meeting the designer's family and being befriended by Benedict Cumberbatch

“Sorry if there’s a bit of traffic noise,” he apologies, “I’m just on my way back after lunch, I had a butter bean and smoked cheddar cheese and red onion and thyme pie with mash potato- maybe don’t use that as your opening gambit for the piece,” he laughs.

But I have, because I think the mix of down-to-earth grub, transformed by a creative filling, with an added dash of humour, sums up the 35-year-old actor, who has been wowing audiences as fashion designer Lee Alexander McQueen, perfectly.

Born in Gidea Park in Romford, Stephen says he had a surprising journey from the working class East End to the stage and helped him identify with McQueen, who grew up in Stratford.

“I discovered a lot of similarities, I had a deep fascination with Jack the Ripper as well and strangely the first house he was born in was in Forest Hill where I now live. Also being an east London lad and working class and going into a creative industry that revolves a lot around money and a sense of people in privilege employing working class people was a definite thing.

“But I never felt, like with me, that he ever had a chip on his shoulder about that. That was what I liked about him really, he just got on with it and his talent propelled him to where he needed to be.”

Stephen’s first role after graduating from Drama Centre in Kings Cross was with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2001 and he has starred on stage in Don Juan in Soho in 2006 opposite Rhys Ifans “One of the most underrated actors this country has produced over the last 20 years” and in the Ladykillers at Gielgud Theatre in 2011 opposite Peter Capaldi “I’m a huge fan”.

He also had small roles in Hollywood blockbuster Thor and award-winning BBC series Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch: “I knew Benedict before that and met Martin a couple of times so to go on set and see those guys, who are so lovely and supportive was great.

“I had met Benedict at various parties before, he had sat at my table for the Evening Standards Awards when I had won outstanding newcomer. We were at another party and I was going to leave, because I’m not great at those events, and he saw me going and was just really lovely and took me under his wing and said ‘right come meet these people’. He really is an absolutely lovely bloke.”

But despite his accoldae and high profile theatre roles, Stephen is humble about his success and says he only ended up as an actor thanks to a happy accident.

“I grew up on the Isle of Wight and went to a school that had a theatre and great drama department but it was all weird fate dealing its hand that they had a mix up with my GCSE choices and put me down to do drama which was my last choice but being a lazy teenager I thought ‘sod it, I’ll do it’."

He auditioned for the school play to avoid detention and ended up being cast and the rest is history.

"Some guiding hand was pushing me towards this way of life and whatever that was I’m eternally grateful. It was a bizarre journey into it.”

He also landed the starring role in McQueen in a somewhat unorthodox manner as he was out in LA for his first ever pilot season, meeting directors and casting agents, when the script came through and he ended up auditioning with the director John Caird and writer James Phillips over Skype.

“That was an interesting experience, one that was new to all of us. Thankfully for me it was successful and then it was a mad rush to work out getting back early.

He adds: “I thought the opportunity to play Alexander Mc Queen was too good to miss.”

The play opened at St James Theatre earlier this year with American actress Dianna Agron co-starring as Dahlia, a girl who breaks into McQueen’s home and joins him on a strange journey through London, who Stephen describes as a ”sweet girl”, but is now transferring to Theatre royal Haymarket with Carly Bawden in the role.

It is a semi-biographical but fictionalised insight into the creative world of the fashion designer, who worked for Givenchy before founding his own label, and committed suicide on February 11, 2010.

Stephen says: “I knew what a lot of the general public knew about him, he was the bad boy fashion genius.

“I knew it was a big challenge to play him because of the circumstances of his death and the fact his family are around and it was only five years ago and once I saw the shows he had created it was rather daunting and I thought ‘what have I done? How am I going to portray this man?’

"It was a great voyage of discovering."

He adds: “I think there’s a lot of shocking elements to his life but I wasn’t surprised, I was fascinated by the man, seeing his clothes and what drove him was quite extraordinary.”

The south Londoner made a conscious decision not to meet MqQueen’s friends and family before the play opened explaining: “I felt he spoke about himself in kind of a schizophrenic nature and there was a quote that would always pop up that no one knew the real Lee and I think it was important for my sanity that I had to concentrate on the Lee we were portraying within the confines of the play and not beyond.

“When I met them eventually it was a profound moment and one I will never forget. That’s all I cared about, the pressure of doing it justice for them.

"That’s the only validation I was seeking, for the people who knew him best to feel there was a truth in what I was doing.”

Theatre Royal Haymarket, Suffolk Street, SW1Y 4HT, August 17 to November 7. Details: mcqueentheplay.com