Serving up success
Emmerdale’s Amy Walsh has come a long way.
Amy Walsh is savouring every moment of her high-flying success in Emmerdale – after fearing she may have to give up her acting dream.
Amy, sister of former Girls Aloud star Kimberley, is enjoying lots of screen time as Tracy Metcalfe in the award-winning ITV soap.
But she’s told iN10 how she could have been serving up dishes, not delivering killer lines.
She initially appeared briefly back in 2014 but then found acting jobs so hard to come by, she thought she might have to quit.
“I was auditioning but also doing waitressing and promotion work, handing things out in the street,” said Amy, 31.
“I got quite close to another big job and when I didn’t get it I didn’t know if I had it in me to do it any more. The highs were too high and the lows were too low.
“Being self-employed in general isn’t easy and acting is even harder in a lot of respects.
“I nearly gave up a few times. I was working at a restaurant and I remember having a chat with my brother and saying that I was good with people.
“I wondered whether I might try to be a restaurant manager.
“And I was thinking about being a nanny as I liked looking after kids.
“Those are definitely things I could have taken up but I don’t think I would ever have felt like I was doing what I was meant to do.”
But just a couple of days later she got the call from ITV about a return that was to change everything.
“When Emmerdale asked me back it was like a sign that you shouldn’t give up.
“I’d say to anyone that if there’s something that’s all that you know and love then you should try to keep going.”
And if Amy had needed any extra motivation in keeping going then the experiences and advice of Kimberley and her other older sister Sally, who previously starred in Emmerdale, was invaluable.
“Sally initially didn’t want me to pursue this as a career,” confides Amy.
“When I was applying to drama school she was asking my mum not to let me do it because it was so hard.
“But my mum said she couldn’t stop me following my dream and they’d just have to support me, which they did.
“Before Kimberley got in the band she really had to slog at it. She had about five jobs at one time.
“So, having grown up with it we’re under no illusion that you get this job and you’re sorted for life. It will come to an end.” Amy has had plenty to get her teeth into with drama following her shop assistant character ever since her arrival, especially since her seedy past has come to light.
Husband David, played by Matthew Wolfenden, has admitted to Priya that he has cheated on Tracy.
And this week Jacob’s efforts to get Priya to leave only adds to the turmoil and tension.
Amy says it’s all been a heck of a ride but one that the public have supported.
“I think people have been really disappointed in David and I’m glad it’s not been a case of just Tracy messing up again.
“Relationships are hard and it’s good that it’s been shown that he’s flawed, too.
“People make mistakes. I know that everyone in the building here keeps saying they can’t believe Tracy and David have been split up.” While there’s plenty angst and recriminations on screen, Amy and Matthew are good mates off it.
So much so that she was invited to what turned out to be his surprise wedding to co-star Charley Webb.
“We thought it was a party for Charley’s 30th birthday,” explains Amy, who got engaged to fellow actor Bradley Jaden last year.
“I’m glad I could make it, I’d have been devastated to miss it.
“I cried on the day because it was really emotional and I’m so close to them both.
“Charley and myself share a dressing room and obviously Matthew and I work together such a lot.
“It was lovely to see them so happy and for it to happen so spontaneously.”
Emmerdale, ITV, Monday-Friday, 7pm.