Friday 25 May 2012

Hollyoaks' Kieron Richardson: I nearly killed myself in car crash


Hollyoaks' Kieron Richardson:

Ahead of Hollyoaks' Enchanted Forest festival special, we spoke to the charming Kieron Richardson, who plays Ste Hay in the Channel 4 soap.

Have you got any funny festival memories?

The only standout festival moment for me was when I went to Global Gathering a couple of years ago. I was really tired and driving back on the motorway. I fell asleep at the wheel, smashed my car up, nearly killed myself. So I tend not to go to festivals anymore.

Ouch! What if someone else drives you?

Oh – I went to Leeds Festival last year with everyone from work. I hated it - it wasn't my kind of music anyway, and the fact I just needed a poo. I can't do it in them toilets. I stayed for the Friday night, woke up the next morning and thought "I need a poo, I'm going home".

What's it like kissing boys on camera?

Because I'm gay anyway it doesn't really bother me. It's the same as kissing a girl. The only difference is you get really bad stubble rash. Everyone thinks that Emmett (Scanlan, who plays villain Brendan Brady), because he's got the 'tache, that it really hurts. But because it's so long it's quite soft! Recently, from kissing PJ (Brennan, who plays Doug Carter), by the time 5 o'clock comes, [our stubble has] grown back. Merging them together is not so nice.

Are you pleased that Ste's in a happy gay relationship?

For the past 18 months, we've been so dark – we've done gay domestic abuse. I'm really proud of that – no TV show has done that before – but it can get quite depressing when you're going home and you've been crying your eyes out all day. It's nice at the moment that we've got some lighthearted stuff. I still love the drama, though!

What's next for doug and Ste?

We're dealing with how Doug's coming out. It's important we explain that everybody's coming out story is completely different. PJ has got quite a lot of stick, people saying "This wouldn't have happened in real life, you wouldn't have had a girlfriend in the past". Well, I had a girlfriend, so it obviously does happen.

From personal experience, there were very limitied gay characters on TV shows. Coming from a council estate and going to a school were to even say the word "gay" you'd probably get beat up, it would've been great to have something on TV to say: "You know what? It's actually alright and if you do say the words 'I'm gay' you're not going to melt or disintegrate or anything. I'm proud that I'm kind of helping people.

The festival special of Hollyoaks will be on Channel 4 at 6.30pm on 8th June. Don't miss out!

0 comments:

Post a Comment