Samantha Barks: 'Performing as myself is terrifying!'

Samantha Barks finds it "scary" to perform as a solo artist.

The 25-year-old actress and singer first shot to fame on U.K. talent search show I'd Do Anything before being cast as Eponine in 2012 movie Les Miserables. She is now showcasing her vocal skills with her self-titled new album, but admits that it's an entirely different experience taking to the stage as herself rather than as a character in a musical.

"I think it's a huge big shift for me - from doing shows where I've always had a cast around me and I'm always behind a costume..." Samantha said during an interview on British morning show Lorraine on Thursday (02Jun16). "But now going on tour as me and doing my album, it's very, very exciting but definitely scary too."

The record features tracks such as the catchy single Troublemaker as well as On My Own, the song Eponine is famous for in Les Miserables. Samantha sums up the album as representative of all she is about as a singer.

"I'm very excited - I'm at the point where I'm really excited for the album to come out now because I want people to know what I've been up to and share with everybody," she explained.

"Musically it's kind of everything that I'm about. So it has those musical theatre influences and then there's some sort of country to pop, that kind of sound."

While Samantha, who previously dated model David Gandy, had made a name for herself as a television and stage star, it was the Les Miserables movie which really saw her career take off. One amazing experience was being able to perform songs from the film adaptation alongside co-stars Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman, Eddie Redmayne and Amanda Seyfried at the Oscars in 2013 - and it's one Samantha frequently looks back upon.

"Whenever anything happens you kind of try and picture in your head how it's going to go and you never, ever picture those kinds of things happening," she smiled. "And singing at the Oscars, just stood there looking at so many of your idols, is just amazing. It was a real 'pinch me' moment."