ANOTHER CORO LOSS!
THE POPULAR STAR REVEALS WHY SHE’S LEAVING THE SHOW
Why Lucy had to leave
Life could have been very different for Lucy Fallon had she not received the call from Coronation Street that would change her life.
She was just a teen at the time and “going through a stage”, when her life suddenly took a different direction that the now 24-year-old couldn’t be more grateful for.
As the young actress bids farewell to Coro – one of several big name actresses to leave the show lately − she says taking on the role of Bethany Platt has been a wonderful ride.
“I’ll miss her; I kind of merge with her,” says Lucy, looking so fresh faced she could easily pass for 17. “She is fun and cocky and annoying, but also vulnerable and came out the other side of her experiences really strong. She’s not just a pintin-the-Rovers sort of person.”
Lucy isn’t kidding. Far from being a slightly wayward teen whose most scandalous storyline could well have been skiving off school to get chips, Bethany was involved in a shocking narrative where she was groomed and raped by older boyfriend Nathan, not to mention becoming a lap dancer, falling in love with her mum’s boyfriend, and now her controversial relationship with Daniel, whose wife Sinead has only recently passed away.
She’s packed a lot into her time, and Lucy is now ready (as she’ll ever be) for new pastures.
When we meet, she’s recently filmed her final scenes. Only time will tell whether she follows in the footsteps of the likes of Suranne Jones, Katherine Kelly and Michelle Keegan to go on to great things, but she’s a cracking actor and is going to give it a damned good go.
Lucy, who lives with boyfriend Tom Leech in her hometown of Blackpool, talks about being too scared to talk to anyone on set at first, terrible jobs and how getting the part on Coro straightened her out when she went off the rails..
It’s a bold move leaving a show like Coro…
“When the time came for my last day on set, it was awful.
I felt ill. I was so upset, I thought ‘What am I doing?’ But if you never try then you never know. I’ve been really comfortable here, I love it, but I hadn’t done anything else before Coro, so I feel like I’ve got to try now or I’ll stay here forever. As hard and sad as it is, it’s the right thing for me to do. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out, but I’d be annoyed with myself if I didn’t give it a go.”
It must be scary though...
“I’m most scared about not being able to pay my mortgage. I don’t know what to expect from life beyond Coro, which is probably a good thing;
I’m just going for it. It feels weird, the thought of working with new people. I know everybody here, I’m good friends with the crew, but when I joined it took me six months to come out of my dressing room and actually talk to people − I was too scared! I shared with Tisha Merry (who played Steph) and
I’d go into the green room and if she left I’d be like, ‘Oh my gosh, why has she left? I’m going to have to talk to somebody!’ I’m not so shy now, but I get really nervous about ridiculous things.” Such as?
“Like, if I go somewhere new, I’ll ring my mum and ask her whether she thinks the door is going to be push or pull. I really panic about stupid stuff. I was getting a train on my own recently with a big suitcase and I was like, ‘How will I get it on the train? Where will I put it? What if it won’t fit anywhere, how embarrassing will that be?’ I get it from my mum; she’s a proper panicker, a real flapper. It holds me back – I really work myself up.”
You must have been daunted by your famous co-stars…
“I was so star-struck by Gail Platt [portrayed by Helen Worth]. On my first day I was told to get some food and go sit with her, so I just got
‘I don’t know what to expect from life beyond Coro, which is probably a good thing; I’m just going for it’
myself the tiniest amount of soup because I couldn’t eat and I texted my mum saying, ‘I’m sat next to Gail Platt having soup.’ That was a moment!”
What are you hoping comes next?
“I want to do something very different. I like indie dramas – I couldn’t go up for a detective or something, I don’t look old enough! A casting director told me she wouldn’t cast me in a part over 20.”
How different would life be if Coro hadn’t come calling?
“I’d auditioned to go to drama school and it was £13,000 a year [more than $26,000] and no funding, so I couldn’t afford to do that. I think I’d have been a midwife. I need a part in Call
The Midwife, don’t I? Oh my God, someone ring them!”
What’s the worst job you’ve ever done?
“I worked at the Merrie
England bar at the end of Blackpool Pier. I’ve also worked in another bar as a glass collector, where they made me clean the sick on the stairs on my first shift. I was like, ‘I’m really sorry, I can’t do it, I don’t care enough about this job,’ and never went back. I liked working at Subway though, I had loads of fun. So Plan A is actor, Plan B is midwife, Plan C is making foot-longs in Subway.”
Were you a bit of a teen rebel until Coro came along then?
“My mum would say yes, definitely. I went through a stage in sixth form where I had a bit of a bad boyfriend and I just didn’t turn up to class. My mum would get calls every day. When I got told about auditioning for Coro I was like, ‘I’m not going to get it, what’s the point in even trying?’ Crazy to think I might never have done it. Coro straightened me out.”
How would you describe yourself in three words?
“Un-em-ployed! And upfor-laughs.”
Do you have any bad habits?
“My boyfriend Tom would say so. He says I leave all the lights on, and I kind of do. I’m pretty messy, I leave stuff and he will pick it up. I’ll take my towel off my head and drop it on the floor. We are completely the other way round from gender stereotypes.”
What are the perks and pitfalls of fame?
“Being invited to things and the free stuff is really good. People being mean online isn’t. Although I try not to read the comments. I don’t mind getting recognised. I feel like I know everyone in Blackpool anyway and I don’t go shopping, I do everything online. Tom notices it a lot more than I do. He’ll feel conscious and look at other people to see if they’re looking at me, but I just ignore it.”
He’s not in the business, is he?
“Tom’s an internet manager.
And no, I don’t understand what he does either. I don’t think he really likes the red-carpet stuff, but he’s good to take to parties – he’s a really good talker.” When did you first realise you were famous?
“When people started making fan accounts on social media. They were waiting outside for me with gifts and balloons on my last day. One girl’s mum had driven her for two-and-a-half hours just for that 10 minutes!”