Tuesday, 27 August 2024

Jane Danson interview: Will Leanne discover the truth about Rowan?



How does Leanne feel about Amy’s plan to sue the institute? Does she find herself in a tough place where she feels for Amy after the malware session but she still has that loyalty to Rowan when he’s telling her to fix this?

The cracks are starting to appear, Leanne's still got this self belief that the institute is good for her, it’s making her happy, however the malware session, which she found quite difficult, felt a worse for Amy when was actually looking in on it. Watching Amy crumble and seeing that she's a little bit more vulnerable than Leanne anticipated was hard. Afterwards Rowan says to Leanne this is all your fault because she wasn't ready for this emotionally, which Leanne knows has an element of truth in it, she kind of fast forwarded the levels to get Amy there, whereas Leanne's journey was a little bit more coercive over a longer period of time. Now she’s thinking maybe it wasn’t the right thing for Amy but let’s take the positives and focus on the Resource Center and how it’s really going to help other people. The way Leanne sees it is Amy didn't give people the chance to build her back up again in the way they did her, she felt amazing so she's clinging onto that even though deep down maybe she’s having doubts.

Do you think she feels quite a bit of guilt about what's happened to Amy after she introduced her to the Institute? 

We start to see everything falling down around her. Her relationship with Nick has become extremely strained, her relationship with Rowan is not quite what it was. He's not quite as nice with her as he has been and she’s reacting differently to him than she has done previously. She's still holding onto the fact that the institute is a good thing but deep inside she knows that something's a bit off. Amy's a really young, vulnerable kid, she's connected to Leanne by family, by Oliver, so she feels an added layer of protection. Amy is Oliver sister so this feels wrong. There's quite a few layers to it.

Leanne then meets up with Rowan and ends up looking through his laptop. What makes her start to see through him a little bit? 

It’s Amy who starts to question her first, she says she’s found all these files, he recorded her upload session, which Leanne knew and was uncomfortable with, but the fact that he kept the files unnerves her a little bit. Leanne thinks if she wipes it clean then he's not got anything on Amy and her conscience is slightly clearer. But by doing that, that's when she discovers the bigger picture and all the other things that are kept on Rowan’s computer on her. It becomes a question of how’s he going to worm his way out of this, given that she finds he has things on her too. 

How does she react when she finds a file named Leanne and a file named Nick and Toyah?

I think the penny just drops, she thinks oh my God, Toyah was right, Toyah’s been chomping at the bit for months saying Rowan’s dodgy, there’s something off, and Leanne has just put it down to Toyah always wanting a campaign and a fight. For a moment she’s truly sorry, it looks like Toyah was right and she's been blinded to it all. She feels awful for the way she’s treated her but then she opens the file and that changes everything. 

Where does Leanne’s mind go when she sees the file marked Nick and Toyah? 

Initially she just thinks I’ve found this file, Toyah was right, he has been following us all. She’s about to delete them with the intention of getting rid of everything and then curiosity gets the better of her. She’s one click away from finding out everything but Rowan’s also on his way back into the room. One click could cause everything to come crashing down but it’s whether he gets to her first.

Rowan has really turned her life upside down. When she starts to realise he’s not who she thought he was, then how do you think she’ll come out of this?

Leanne is such a strong character, she's so opinionated, so feisty and streetwise, that at first it was hard to believe that she would get sucked into this. But all the research that I've done proves that it does happen to these sorts of people who get the promise of something, and often nobody really tells you what that promise is. They just say it's going to be better and your life is going to be more enriched and feel positive, and all these things that have happened to you in the past fade away and you can go on a different path to happiness. Leanne craved that but actually, there's nothing physically they can give to you to make all that better. It's just the idea of it, the idea of having a better life and the Institute have brainwashed her into thinking that it's the suggestions they're making will help her have a better life.

If Rowan is unmasked, do you think this will make Leanne question everything moving forward?

I genuinely don't know. I would definitely say there's trouble ahead, because you can't go through all that and then just be okay. There's got to be some scars from what she's been through. I imagine she’ll feel a bit of a fool as well, because she's invested in a friendship that she thought was real and that will obviously have some sort of psychological effect later.

How are you enjoying working with Emrhys on uncovering these different sides to Rowan?

It's just an absolute joy. He's just the sweetest person and I think it's really important when you've worked on something for a long time to work with new people and learn new things. Exploring different sides of a character has been great. Emrhys has got quite an advanced knowledge of this kind of thing through personal experiences, so we’ve found ourselves watching podcasts and documentaries and seeing how this really does happen to people. So that's been really interesting to explore.

Glenda Young
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