It was such an emotional scene. Sanj was crying. I was bawling my eyes out. And then we had to film it
I was sitting weeping on the set then got the flight home
Dawn Steele finished work at River City and sat sobbing her heart out on a couch with all the lights off.
It followed on from going off-script and swearing at her co- star Sanjeev Kohli, leaving him in utter shock.
That, she says with a smile, was a good day at work. She’s not kidding either.
The actress has found her feet in Shieldinch in ways she didn’t expect and her character – hard-nosed doctor Annie Jandhu – is about to go to the dark side.
An affair with Alex McAllister, played by Jordan Young, goes public and leaves husband AJ (Still Game star Sanjeev) devastated.
Dawn is delighted, although still hopes Sanjeev can forgive her for making him cry.
She said: “We had to go through the break-up scene the other day and I was being too nice to him.
“The director took me aside and said to be really horrible to him and don’t even do the lines – just shout at him, ‘Will you just **** off? I don’t love you any more!’” “He just wanted Sanj to look bewildered. Well, I did it and poor Sanj didn’t know what had hit him. He was like, ‘Can you just give me a hug, please?’ I had to say, ‘Sorry, the director made me do it.’ “He was so brilliant in the scene and was just bawling his eyes out. So I was hysterical,y crying too, a nndd t th he e director said, ‘ Dawn, maybe save it until the camercamera is on you.’ “When we filmedfilm my scenes, we were right up against time. I had a flight to go home, it wawas almost 7pm, it was Friday night, everyoneeve was like, ‘Right, let’s get this done.’don “Sanj gave me everything, we got it done, then all tthe studio lights went out, the camercameramen left and I was sitting weeping on the couch on our set. And then youyo go and get the flight home. It’s such a weird job at times.” Ironically, it is also the most normal job the actressactres has ever had. Her character, a wwoman frustrated with life and borebored in her marriage, is everything DDawn is not. She isisgetgetting married next year and her hushusband-to-be, actor Paul Blair, looklooks after their daughter Coco at hhome in Whitstable, Kent, whwhile Dawn commutes to Glasgow.Glasgo They are regular visitors to see her but she also has set blocks of time when she is not filminfilming to be at home. At 40, she is settled and embembracing the routine ShieShieldinch has allowed her. DDawn said: “That’s why RivRiver City works. I know it’s away from home but yoyou know when you finish, you know you have that block of time off, you know when you start again, unless they kill you off, obviously. You have summer and you have Christmas.
“River City, weirdly, feels like a normal job. I’ve got a car parking space. You’re in a studio that’s like an office and you have a canteen and a dressing room.
“It’s the first job I have ever had like this where it is not a Winnebago or a shack in Africa. It is a proper set-up, it feels like nine to five, even though it is not nine to five.
“I drive myself to work – we never really get to do that but they trust us to get to work on time.
“It is a big change from what I am used to and I like it. You get some head space, get to go over your lines.
“That is why I enjoy it so much. It has a sense of permanency in a way and you really shouldn’t feel like that as an actor because you have no idea what they are going to do with you next.
“But when I started here, I knew all the crew and half the actors so I felt I had come home. I was nervous but, after a while, I just thought, ‘ This feels right.’”
Of course, she still has ambitions and is looking to see what is out there but that’s the natural instincts of a freelance worker who has been used to making her own way. In her case, she