Freitag, 26. März 2010
Statements auf www.people.co.uk
"Emmerdale actor Danny tells of gay heartbreak scenes"
Emmerdale badboy Aaron Livesy breaks down in tears when he confesses to being gay this week. But actor Danny Miller admits he cried so much during filming that when the director shouted "Cut", he couldn't turn off the tears. To make the emotional scenes convincing, 19-year-old Danny forced himself to think of terrible things happening to his own family.

"Unfortunately I have to put these horrible thoughts into my head," he explains. "I think about terrible things happening to my family and imagine how I'd feel. I also prepared by making sure I didn't have too much sleep the night before, so I was a bit grouchier and maybe a bit more emotional. The sad thoughts got mixed with the words I was saying in the script and then I cried for real. The first couple of times it was hard to switch off straightaway and I carried on crying a little bit after we'd finished the scene. It was emotionally exhausting and it does drain you."

Danny, currently single, is not gay and admits he was apprehensive when Emmerdale bosses approached him last summer and told him they were thinking of making Aaron gay. "The producer called me in to discuss the direction he wanted to take the character," Danny recalls. "Being a straight actor and having to kiss another lad, I'm not going to lie, I was a bit worried about it, because it's a great test of your acting skills. And I wasn't expecting it. I'd never thought Aaron could be gay - he's probably the most unlikely person in the village to be gay. I saw it as a challenge and said yes, but I was still quite anxious about it."



Kiss

Viewers have already seen Aaron try to kiss his best friend Adam Barton and then be rejected. But in coming weeks he is about to grow closer to Jackson Walsh, played by ex-Hollyoaks actor Marc Silcock. The couple have already met in a gay bar and will have their first kiss next month. "I was nervous, but I'd only done a couple of scenes with Marc before we had to kiss, which I think was better really," Danny says. "It meant I hadn't had a chance to get to know him and become friends with him first. I found it a lot easier not knowing him that well. I think it would have been hard if we'd become mates and then had to kiss."

Emmerdale viewers have seen Aaron struggling with his sexuality for several months and this week sees him still in denial as his friend and landlord Paddy Kirk (Dominic Brunt) tries to get him to open up. He reacts with fury when Paddy presses him about his secret and angrily beats him to a pulp. Paddy is left battered and bleeding on the floor but refuses to give up and in the end Aaron breaks down in tears. "He's in such turmoil because he worries about what people in the village will think," Danny says. "It's also very hard for him to come to terms with, because he's homophobic. He claims he kicked a kid's head in at school for being gay and he's quite prejudiced. He's a tough lad from a rough background and he's trying to convince himself and Paddy that he's not gay. At the moment he doesn't want to accept the fact that he is."

Danny, who shares a flat in Leeds with his Emmerdale co-star Adam Thomas (Adam Barton) says he hopes the viewers' reaction to his character's situation will be sympathetic, but is prepared for some hostility. Danny says: "I already get the odd shout of 'Oi, gay boy', which isn't nice, regardless of whether you are gay or not. But you just have to keep your head down, because the minute you react to them or retaliate that's what they want. Unfortunately because Aaron is a bit of a thug, there are people who want to have a go at me when I'm out. Someone took a swing at me in a club, which isn't the best thing when you're just trying to have a laugh with your mates. I've learnt which clubs are fine to go to and which I should avoid, but I do always watch where I go."



Danny joined Emmerdale when he was 17. Violent, angry and always in trouble, his character quickly established himself as the baddest of bad boys in the village. But Danny says: "Recently he's changed and he's now someone I've created. Some of the crew at work are gay and I questioned them about what it was like when they were coming out and one of the directors is gay and we had a long discussion over a beer about what he went through. Now I know Aaron better than anyone and I actually feel very sorry for him. He pushes people away, even when he really needs someone to talk to."

Impression

Danny, who grew up in Stockport, Cheshire, is the son of comedian and compere Vince Miller and it was Vince who encouraged him to go into the entertainment business. His mum Andrea is a childminder and he has an older brother Paul, who works as a teacher and an older sister Lucy, a car company manager. Danny began acting when he was five in local theatre productions and was signed up by an agency at 14 after playing the Artful Dodger in a junior theatre production of Oliver in Manchester. The following year he landed the part of Kyle Brown in the BBC children's show Grange Hill. He successfully auditioned to play the wayward son of Emmerdale's feckless Chas Dingle in 2008 and has made such an impression that this year he has been nominated for Best Actor at the British Soap Awards.

Yet Danny admits if had he not landed the role he would have quit acting for good. "Between leaving Grange Hill and joining Emmerdale, I actually wished I'd never gone into acting," he reveals. "I was out of work for 18 months and living at home with Mum and Dad and auditioning for really small parts and then not getting them. It was a stressful time and it was knocking my confidence and I felt really down. I decided the Emmerdale audition was the last one and I was going to give up after that - I wasn't going to do anymore. So when I found out I'd got the part I couldn't believe it. It literally changed my life overnight. I think someone must have been looking down on me that day."
Quelle: www.people.co.uk

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