Emmerdale’s Amy Walsh discusses ‘snogging two different men everyday’ in candid look at set life
Emmerdale star Amy Walsh has candidly opened up about life behind the scenes of the iconic ITV soap as part of a brand new documentary series, Drama Queens. Lifting the lid on what it’s really like to work on one of Britain’s most beloved soaps, the Tracy Robinson actress dished the dirt on her day-to-day life on set during the recent affair storyline will Caleb Milligan.
“Tracy and I are similar really. I hate to say it, but we are,” began the actress during Wednesday’s (April 24) episode of the series. “We’ve both kind of got that love for life and people and fun. I’d like to say we also have good morals, but she’s just had an affair with her husband’s uncle so we’re not quite the same!”
As regular viewers will know, Amy’s character Tracy has recently been caught out in a steamy love affair with her husband Nate's uncle, with her marriage now left in tatters after the truth about their relationship came to light at Tom King and Belle Dingle’s wedding. Reflecting on the experience of filming those scenes in particular, Amy revealed: “It’s been pretty full on.”
She then continued: “I loved the affair stuff, and everyone’s like ‘Of course you did! You were coming to work and snogging two different men every day’, but that wasn’t why I was loving it!”
“Creatively I felt like I had to dig deeper than usual because of the deceit that was going on as well. The next bit that came after the breakup, the custody of the child stuff, I’m finding really emotional.”
When it comes to tapping into emotions for some of the more poignant scenes, Amy explained that she tries to keep her personal and professional life separate and makes a conscious effort not to imagine her own life playing out in a similar way to that of her character, in order to keep her emotions in check off set.
However, despite not drawing from personal experience, Amy did confess she’s a “sucker for a crying scene” and really enjoys working on grittier and more emotionally heavy story arcs.
She said: “I absolutely love an emotional storyline. I’ve always been a bit of a crier in real life so it’s kind of an excuse to get the tears out and not look like a drama queen!”
“In a way, it’s like free therapy. I get to let it all out, and then go home and I’m happy again it’s fine.”
Thankfully, as Amy is married to fellow actor Toby Alexander Smith, she also has plenty of support at home from someone that understand the pressures of on set life, even if it does make things awkward by her own admission, when she kissed him once she got home, without having first washed her face after a day of kissing her co-stars!
Awkwardness aside however, Toby couldn’t be prouder and even sweetly declared himself his wife’s “biggest fan” while praising her impressive skills on screen.
“I think Amy’s so amazing, honestly. Just seeing her do some amazing work with the postnatal depression storyline which was incredible and seeing her do this is just seeing her enter a whole new realm of acting. She’s so believable and raw and makes the most out of every scene she does. I love watching her on screen, I think she’s amazing. Yeah, biggest fan.”
Drama Queens continues every Wednesday at 9pm on ITVBe and ITVX
