Martine arrives in the village
ETERNAL STAR KÉLLÉ BRYAN IS DELIGHTED TO BE JOINING THE CAST OF HOLLYOAKS…
I’m very happy now that the cat’s finally out of the bag!” giggles former pop star Kéllé Bryan, as we chat to her about landing her first big acting role on Hollyoaks. “I actually started filming here in July, so it’s been difficult keeping it quiet. One time, I was on the train home from Liverpool and I didn’t know I still had my work pass on – someone asked me for a selfie, and when I realised I still had my lanyard round my neck I had to ask if we could take the picture again!”
The secret is well and truly out in the open now – Kéllé arrives on our screens this week as Martine, the younger sister of village resident Simone. And she makes quite an entrance!
“My first scene is me turning up on the doorstep, and dropping a huge bombshell!” she teases. “Martine is incredibly impulsive and driven, she’s fearless, and goes with her gut instinct. She much more free-spirited than Simone.
“Would I call Martine a soap bitch?” ponders Kéllé. “I think I’d use a much stronger word than that! She says and does things that I would never dream of doing in real life. I definitely wouldn’t be friends with her!”
Kéllé may be best known to the viewers as one-quarter of 1990s girl group Eternal – who recently celebrated their 25th anniversary – but she tells us that acting was always her first love.
“Most people don’t know this, but before I was in Eternal, I was a child actor, and I did things like The Bill and
Eastenders,” explains the former singer. “Acting was always my strong point. I never really rated myself as a singer – that was just my fall-back plan. When Eternal came along, I just thought it would be four girls having a bit of a sing-song. We didn’t know we’d become as big as we did!”
Fast-forward 25 years, and Kéllé’s finally getting to live out her acting dream as feisty Martine. And despite having found fame around the world as a pop star, she admits that starting a new job is still as terrifying for her as it would be for anyone else.
“A new job is the same for anybody – you still don’t know anyone or anything when you first start,” says Kéllé. “I’m completely green! Just today, we were filming a take, and I thought it was just a rehearsal until someone shouted ‘Cut!’
I’m messing up and doing lots of silly things, but that’s just what you do in a new job.”
Luckily for Kéllé, she’s had a few old pals on set to help her out.
“I did The Big Reunion with Adam [Rickitt, who plays Kyle],” she reminds us. “So when we met on set, we were laughing and joking in the make-up chairs, sharing old memories about everything we did on that show.
“Everyone I’ve spoken to from the cast has told me that I’m going to have the best time, and that everyone here is lovely,” adds Kéllé.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, okay, whatever’.
But I’ve been here three months now, and I can honestly say that everyone is lovely – and
I’m having the best time ever!”
I was a child actor, and did things like The Bill and Eastenders!