As Betsy reaches her 18th birthday, how do you think she's feeling? Is she ready to be 18, does she feel all grown up?
I think it's an interesting one, because it’s a milestone birthday, it obviously brings up a lot of emotions. She doesn't have her other mum with her to celebrate and because of that she’s had to do a lot of growing up quite quickly. Part of her feels like, I've gone out, I've drunk, I've dated boys, I’ve done this whole thing already. So as much as it's exciting and she does want that freedom I think it's probably a bit of a shock that this big birthday is here. She's officially an adult but she feels like she's missing what should be quite a big part of her life in her other mum and Mason, and I don't think she really knows how to handle that.
Do you think she is feeling more settled now in the sense of her mum and Carla being together or do you think there’s still a yearning for her past life that she's craving?
I think there's a lot of love for the family dynamic that she has going on. Obviously, it's still very new, it's still very fresh. They lived together at the flat, but this is a house and it all feels very real now and I think she's very grateful for that. Carla's come into her life and has started to fill this missing gap that was there. No one's going to replace her mum and Betsy knows that but
I don't think it's something she necessarily holds against Carla anymore. She's still so young and she’s trying to figure it all out and it is a tricky one, but I think she's very grateful for the dynamic that she's in now. I think it's just a case of navigating her emotions when milestone birthdays come round like this, getting used to that this is the new normal. I think she's grateful but still trying to navigate it.
She does have a few words with her mum on her birthday, over Dylan and her drinking, but she reminds Lisa that she's no longer a little girl and stomps off. Tell us a bit about Betsy’s thinking here?
She lost her mum a few years ago, then at the beginning of this year she lost Mason, so she's dealt with a huge amount of grief already in her life. They go for a meal the week before, and Mason's brought up, it's a bit of a shock reminder that that was her life and now maybe it's time to just go out and live a little. You don't know what's going to happen, you never know what's around the corner, it’s almost a wake up call to grow up and get out there. I think she’s been seeing people and maybe not telling her mum about it because she doesn't want to be treated like a kid. It's a really interesting dynamic with her mum, in that they're so bad at communicating with each other, because Lisa just wants to protect her baby. But at the same time, because of a job, she's very controlling in the way she does it and I think Betsy finds that quite intrusive. For Lisa it's coming from a place of caring but for Betsy it feels quite overbearing, it feels more like a detective asking questions rather than a concerned mum.
So I think Betsy's first response is to shut off and obviously Lisa finds that heart-breaking because she feels as though she's losing a little girl after already losing such a big part of her life in who she thought was her lifelong partner.
Could this push Betsy away?
Lisa doesn't want to push her little girl so far that she's going to branch out and not want to come home. For Betsy she just wants her mum to stop smothering her. She’s 18 now, she wants to move on and start to live her own life. She's trying to navigate starting to see someone new after losing someone and when her mum is asking so many questions she just doesn't know how to deal with all her feelings yet. She’s raging with hormones and she's just trying to figure it all out. She's trying to put across that she's figured it all out but she's not. She's still young, she still needs her mum and she still needs to rely on the family dynamic, but sometimes she lashes out at them because it's easier to lash out than explain yourself.
Then in true Betsy style, she lashes out and ends up in trouble at the scene of a car crash. Does her life flash before her eyes as she sees this car coming towards her?
On the morning of her 18th we see this nice family dynamic, then as the days goes on we see this very teenage side. She goes out, she's had a bit of a mard, she's got herself a bit drunk, she's just upset, and then all of a sudden, in the same place that she lost Mason, there’s a car hurtling towards her. I think it's the wake up call that she needs her mum, she needs Carla, she needs Ryan, and she needs this family unit. Although grief is such a horrible emotion, you can rely on the people around you, it doesn't make you weak, it doesn't make you a child. She needs to see they’re not trying to treat her like a child, they're just trying to understand her. Just before the crash it was her mum that she was reaching for, it was her mum that she was leaving a voicemail for. She is grateful to her mum and for Carla for stepping into this motherly role now. This is a wake up call that life can be taken away in a split second.
How does she feel about Dylan? Is she just trying to fill a gap or do you think she does have genuine feelings for him?
They've obviously been through a lot together, they both lost Mason and they both had to explore those emotions together, so they have that history there. We see her a little bit with Brody and a bit with Dylan and how different the dynamic is between the two boys. It’s been really interesting to play because one's quite fiery and one's quite calm. I think with Dylan, he's obviously been raised well, he's a gentleman and he's very sweet with her and maybe she's not quite used to that. Often with teenagers it's all fiery hormones and arguments but I think she likes the calm. I think there'll always be that desire for a bit of a bad boy, but I think she feels safe with Dylan. It's always nice to do scenes with Liam, because we have a very nice, sweet chemistry that I think works well on screen. I think she genuinely does care about him and I think he's very important in her life. But she's also very protective of herself, she lost two people at a really young age, so she's also very guarded and wants to protect herself at the same time.
And finally, how are you enjoying the family dynamic with Betsy, Lisa, Carla and Ryan all now living together?
I love it, I just love filming on that set. I love thex domesticated scenes and there are some really good scenes coming up with Ryan, they have this kind of brotherly sisterly dynamic that I've been dying to play. I love being able to represent this blended family on screen because there are so many blended families out there from all different backgrounds. My favourite scenes to film are just us all having breakfast all together because that's real and it's real lives and I think that's what Corrie does so well. It represents a realness where not everything's perfect, but at the end of the day, you have your family, whatever shape or form that comes in. I'm really enjoying it.
Glenda Young
Bestselling novelist published by Headline
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2 comments:
So much repetition in this "interview" and jargon I doubt the actress would use.
These "interviews" are basically just press releases from the ITV press office. The actors concerned have nothing to do with them. The exact same interview will appear in the various TV listings and soap mags.
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