Shelley King, who plays Yasmeen Nazir in Coronation Street, has told how she cries real tears when filming her character’s traumatic abuse plot.
The actress has been at the centre of an horrific storyline which has seen Yasmeen’s husband Geoff Metcalfe becoming increasingly more and more controlling over every aspect of her life.
Appearing on ITV’s Loose Women, Shelley admitted things are “only going to get worse” and revealed the challenges of filming such an emotionally draining storyline.
Read more: Coronation Street SPOILERS: Geoff takes drastic action as he fears he’s losing control
“Things are only going to get worse,” she said.
“It’s been hard because soaps are a huge challenge to all of us who are in them because you don’t get a lot of rehearsal time.
“You have to recall on your own memory, you have to look at dark moments in your life to recreate, there’s only so much a tear stick can do and I don’t like to use them.
“It has been very difficult.”
You have to look at dark moments in your life to recreate.
But the actress feels her off-screen relationship with Ian Bartholomew is crucial to the impact of the story.
Shelley shared: “Ian is a wonderful, lovely man – he really, really is. We trust each other absolutely, otherwise I don’t think we could go to the places we have to go to.”
The actress has received advice and information about emotional abuse from Women’s Aid, a charity that aims to end domestic violence against women and children.
And Shelley explained that her on-screen storyline is actually “anodyne” compared to the real-life struggles of some women.
She said: “Women’s Aid have been helping us by introducing us to a number of people, we can talk to people who have survived these terrible times in their lives.
“And a lot of the stories… I have to say, some of the stuff that you see is anodyne compared to the things that have happened to people.
“But everything we show has been drawn from fact and from experience.”
Read more: Coronation Street SPOILERS: Fiz is furious as Jade and Tyrone kiss
This week will see Yasmeen in tears after Geoff rails at her for serving him vegetables for his dinner as he didn’t give her enough money to buy meat.
Gail overhears her crying outside by the chicken coop and reports back to Alya.
With Alya’s suspicions growing, could we finally be seeing the end of Geoff’s reign of terror?
Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 7.30pm and 8.30pm on ITV.
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