Ollie is abused by evil Buster
HOLLYOAKS STAR AEDAN DUCKWORTH TELLS US ABOUT OLLIE’S HARROWING ABUSE PLOT…
Landing your first proper job is always a nerve-wracking prospect – but imagine if that job was working on Hollyoaks! Teenager Aedan Duckworth has been playing Luke Morgan’s son Ollie since January, and he admits that joining the soap has been quite a steep learning curve for him…
“It’s been absolutely terrifying!” he chuckles, as we sit down for our first proper chat with him since he joined the cast. “It’s been a roller-coaster ride. Sometimes I’ll have a really tough scene, and I’ll be worrying about it the week before. Then when I do it, somehow I do all right – and I’m on a massive high for the rest of the day. It’s amazing!”
And there are certainly a lot of intense and emotional scenes on the horizon for young Aedan, whose character Ollie will suffer abuse at the hands of his twisted football coach, Buster. However, the star reveals that he knew from the start what his first big role on telly would involve.
“I found out at the audition, so I knew what I was signing up for,” he tells us.
“It’s definitely a big responsibility, I’ve got to do it right for the people who’ve been through it themselves. But it’s such a gift to come in and have a storyline like this, instead of having little bits here and there.
It’s great to be given such a huge, powerful plot, and I couldn’t be happier.”
While viewers know that Buster also subjected his son’s best mate, Brody, to abuse when he was a teenager, Ollie has so far remained oblivious to what his football coach is really like. But he’s about to find out, as Buster makes his move this week.
“Up to this point, Ollie thinks Buster is brilliant – he thinks he’s his ticket to the Premier League,” explains Aedan. “He trusts him 100 per cent – he’s a role model, and in some ways is a better dad than Ollie’s own father, Luke. That’s why what happens next will be difficult to watch.”
After turning to Buster for support as his dad starts drinking again, Ollie is shocked when his football coach crosses the line.
The teenager is obviously really distressed by what’s happened, but sadly there’s nobody he can confide in about the incident.
“Ollie’s initial reaction is pure shock,” sighs Aedan. “Then afterwards, as he starts to come to terms with what’s happened, he decides to quit the team. His dad is putting a lot of pressure on him to do well on the football field, though, so that doesn’t help things.
“It would be very hard for Ollie to talk to his dad about what’s happened, especially with all the ups and downs they’ve had,” he adds. “Whenever Ollie has a problem, he normally goes to Buster. So if it’s a problem
with Buster, who does he go to?”
Poor Ollie may be struggling for support right now, though thankfully Aedan himself has had no such worries.
“I hang out with all the younger cast, because when you’re around a lot of adults, it can be quite daunting,” he admits. “Both Gary [Lucy, who plays Luke] and Sarah [Jayne Dunn, aka Mandy] have helped me out massively as well. But everyone here is just so lovely that there’s no point in getting worried about things!”