Hollyoaks star Annie Wallace shares behind-the-scenes role in special episode
Hollyoaks star Annie Wallace has revealed her important behind-the-scenes role for the show's upcoming special episode, which will explore solidarity and the LGBTQ+ community.
The episode premiering this evening (November 10) on Channel 4 streaming will contrast the joy of a number of the show's LGBTQ+ characters against a dark storyline in which John Paul McQueen discovers Carter Shepherd wants to practice conversion therapy on him.
Annie, who plays Sally St Claire, made history when she joined the soap in 2015, becoming the first transgender person to play a regular transgender role on a British soap.
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The actress has now revealed how she was involved in the writing of the new episode, explaining that she shared a powerful monologue with writer Alanna Hallum off the top of her head that made it into the script.
"She said she had this one scene where Sally talks about the trans flag and what it means to her and she wanted my input," Annie recalled. "Ultimately she thought it would be authentic coming from me and asked if I could give her any ideas. I just said I can tell you a monologue off the top of my head right now, so I did it!
"Pretty much what came off the top of my head went into the script. Obviously she finessed it and did her professional writer work but it was a good opportunity to get a little ten pence in which was nice."
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Elaborating on the speech, the star said: "It also explained a lot of my own philosophies about being trans and a lot of it is not reflected in today’s world. I don’t often fit in with what is commercially thought of as being trans and that being out and proud and fabulous and shopping and makeup it’s just not me I don’t feel it.
"The only person who ever represented me on television was [Coronation Street's] Hayley Cropper because so much of her came from me, apart from of course the fabulous writing and the fabulous performances which are the important part, but Hayley was just an ordinary person.
"I feel that there are not enough ordinary trans people in the public eye at the moment, so it was nice to put my aspect over in that way."
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Opening up further about filming the scene, Annie revealed: "It was great it was really nice it wasn’t raining for a change.
"It was nice because it gave us a little bit of reflection and we tweaked it a little bit to make it sound more empathic," she added. "It was just a really nice little reflection scene. It stuck out, I was very proud of it."
Annie also reflected on the importance of showing the conversion therapy storyline against the joy of other LGBTQ+ characters, noting: "The bottom line is that the LGBTQ+ community is automatically drawn together because we have the same enemies and that is predominantly people who are cisgendered heterosexual which accounts for 90% of the human race.
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"You can understand that ultimately, we are all a part of a small minority. Even though there’s people who go, ‘I’m sick and tired of seeing all this queer stuff on my TV screen,’ well you know what, this is a redress of a balance that has been lacking for decades.
"Yes there is a lot of it on television now and that’s because there’s a lot of queer people involved with making television whether it be writing or behind the scenes or working in sound or direction or acting or whatever," she continued.
"It’s good that these stories are being told rather than just boy meets girl proposes gets married and has two children, that has been the never ending story in soap it's love triangles and pregnancy.
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"Those are pretty much stock and trade of every soap opera since 1960 and it’s interesting that trans people have a very different journey because children and marriage and everything sometimes doesn’t work out because of the minority aspect."
The star also praised how the scenes show "that actually when it comes down to it and queer people sit down and talk about their experiences, the amount of common ground there is is absolutely stark and plain to see".
"Although sexuality and gender identity are very different things, the gender non-conformist aspect of it is what gets focussed upon," she added. "It's what’s used to hammer the community into submission as it were.
"It’s been particularly appalling for the past few years led by the anti-trans movement so yeah we stick together and we’re stronger together."
Hollyoaks streams first online via Channel 4 each weekday at 7.30pm. Episodes then air on E4 the following day, before getting their YouTube premiere a week after that.
Selected omnibus episodes are available via Prime Video.
Read more Hollyoaks spoilers on our dedicated homepage
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