Suzanne Jackson plans to leave her ‘comfort zone’ far behind in DWTS

Jackson is a self-confessed “workaholic” and said she plans to devote herself to giving the show her all over the next few weeks.

Jackson initially put herself forward to host the show but Doireann Garrihy had already been selected as Jennifer Zamparelli’s co-host but Suzanne was then asked to be a dancer on the show.

"We've discussed it over the years and I just said, you know what, feck it, why not? I've just obviously recruited my CEO, Caroline Dalton. She started in October and then it kind of relieved me, and I just kind of thought the timing was right for me. I'm quite an obsessive person, so I need something to go full steam towards, and this is my new challenge,” Jackson told RTÉ in an interview.

"This is about pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. Also opening myself up, I suppose, a little bit more to my followers.

"This is a very vulnerable place to be in. And they're going to get to see an emotional side to me, which I don't think I've really revealed before. But that's part of the fun and the whole journey."

I want to go and train now for next week. But, yeah, that's just the way I am. It's a good and a bad thing because I don't switch off.

Jackson isn’t a complete newbie to the dancing world, having Irish danced in the past but said learning some other dancing styles has been “almost impossible”.

"I did a bit of Irish dancing years ago and that's all straight posture, elbows back. I'm very stiff and straight so to get into samba and get the hips and shoulders moving, which I found almost impossible, you really need to do that every single day to get to a stage of whatever I did right there on the screen.

"I bet it's not even half as much as I thought I was doing because I'm still like a pencil going around the floor,” Jackson said.

Another aspect of the show Suzanne loves is the glamour and the style, which she will be embracing wholeheartedly.

"I'm certainly no stranger to glam, but I'm loving stepping into a new character. I've never had my hair crimped like this before!

"But it's only one part of it. You don't even think about it when you're trying to go over your steps in your head and make sure you're bringing the sass."

Suzanne cautioned viewers that it may appear easy to pull off the routines while watching from the safety of the couch but the reality is far different.

"When you're watching it on TV it looks so easy but it's actually really difficult. I suppose you're shy, you don't want to come across too cocky either. I'm such a thinker and when I'm thinking the face automatically goes quite straight and plain.

"I can do [sultry] in front of the camera on my own with my makeup artist and my hairdresser there, but not for an audience of people. And also, I'm not like a cocky person by nature. There's a shy side to me.

"And then you've got to learn the steps. Remember the steps. Posture, arms, feet, hands, eye contact, sass. It's like my brain. I bullied my brain the last three weeks,” Suzanne said.