WHAT’S the difference between a good time girl and a sex worker?

No, we’re not looking at the life and personal times of Cabinet Ministers, we’re talking about Holly Golightly, Truman Capote’s iconic character from Breakfast At Tiffany’s.

Holly is coming to Glasgow, this time in a new theatre show, described as “a play with songs”, with former Inbetweeners star Emily Atack in the lead role. 

Audrey Hepburn played Holly in the 1961 movie, but her character was, well, ambiguous. 

Ms Golightly enjoyed being wined and dined by legions of gentlemen and accepted the occasional gift, and she did spend the night with some of her admirers.

But does this makeean Capote’s character a professional? What’s Emily’s take? 

“This is the first time I’ve ever really had to dig deep and research the layers of a character in this way, and find out why she is the way she is,” says the actress. 

“And it’s important for the story to get this across, because then audiences can then come on board with you.”

Yes, but does that mean she thinks Holly to be a lady who’s paid for her nights out – and nights in? 

“She is a very friendly girl, she’s good fun, and even though she doesn’t have all her s*** together, she’s the person everyone wants to hang about with.”

Emily adds with a giggle: “She’s never going to tell you off for having a glass of champagne at 11 in the morning. And I think everyone needs a mate like that.”

And Emily isn’t going to make an absolute declaration. But to be fair, the description of Golightly has divided opinion since the ‘60s. So let’s turn to the words of the writer himself. 

“Holly Golightly was not precisely a call girl,” Capote once declared in the New Yorker magazine. 

“She had no job, but accompanied expense-account men to the best restaurants and night clubs, with the understanding that her escort was obligated to give her some sort of gift, perhaps jewellery or a check.

“If she felt like it, she might take her escort home for the night. So these girls are the authentic American geishas, and they’re much more prevalent now than in 1943 or 1944, which was Holly’s era.”

Capote set his novella in the ‘40s, and while the movie was set in the ‘60s, this stage show returns to pre-war period. 
But are there Hollys out there today?

Oh, yeah,” says Emily in emphatic voice. “I don’t think that sort of thing will ever die out.

“There’s nothing wrong with that as such. And remember, the character Audrey Hepburn played somehow became a role model.”

It’s a certainly a real challenge to play the role, as indeed it was for Hepburn, “an introvert playing an extrovert.”

HoweverBut, Emily can rise to the challenge. Showbiz, she admits, is in her DNA. Her mum is actress, comedian, singer and songwriter Kate Robbins.

Last year, acting experience was layered on when she appeared in Dad’s Army, and even though the movie bombed, Emily came out of the shelter of criticism with her reputation intact. 

 “I started at 17 in the Inbetweeners and I’ve always worked,” says the actress of her role as Charlotte ‘Big Jugs’ Hinchcliffe. 

“I give it everything. When I was at school, I just wanted to leave to get into showbiz.” 

(She was bullied by other girls; “I wore make-up and fake tan so everyone called me a slapper and worse, even though I was really nice to everyone.”) 

What Emily has done remarkably well is work social media. She now has around 47,000 Instagram followers, and 110,000 Twitter fans.

Here’s the question, Emily; how does a gorgeous pneumatic blonde who posts countless racy underwear and bikini selfies manage to attract such a huge following? 

“It’s interesting,” she says, grinning. “Social media fascinates me, and you get to know what people ‘like’, online. 

“You can post a pic of a beautiful location or a sunset, but if I put up a pic of an avocado and a poached egg you get 500 Likes.”

So the avocado beats a sunset, but does it beat the bikini?
“Oh, god, well I’ve sort of steered away from that, sort of,” she says, giggling. 

“The bikini pics are now down to a minimum.”

But was it a useful promotional tool?

“With things like that you have to do what feels right at the time. At the time, it was something I was happy doing. 

“You go to a lovely photo shoot and wear beautiful clothes or lingerie so why not post it? 

“But I’m a little older, (she’s 26) so I do it less, but when I’m a grandmother will I regret it? Not at all.”

 There’s little doubt every heterosexual  schoolboy (and many of their dads) wanted to be Simon Bird’s character,  Will,  who drooled over her. 

“I just find it all hilarious,” she maintains. 

“I never went into the industry to be a pin-up. It’s not me.

I’m an ordinary girl who wears scruffy clothes, but it’s lovely that people have seen me in that way in the past.

“However, it’s a role, a part and it worked at the time. But you play other sorts of roles.”

And now her Holly will be less sexy, more naïve, yet still foxy? (Capote had hoped Marilyn Monroe would play Holly in the film).

“I’ve been working on her,” says Emily, “and because my mum does a lot of theatre she’s been giving me lots of tips on how to play the character.”

There’s little doubt Ms Atack will attack the role with tenacity, and intelligence. 

But here’s a final question, Emily. In the film, Holly and her friend-turned-lover Fred get together. 

In Capote’s novella, however the pair part and Holly is never seen nor heard of again. Which ending do we get in the new stage version? 

“I’m not going to spoil it for you,” Emily says in deliberate cutesy voice, as though speaking to a naughty schoolboy.

“You’ll just have to come and see me for yourself.”

Breakfast At Tiffany’s, the Theatre Royal, May 23 – 26.