Why I Was Cast As A TV Rape Victim!

Julie HesmondHalgH on Her role in tHe ‘twisted and weird’ new series of BroadcHurcH, and on life after corrie…

- Alison Gardner

JULIE HESMONDHALGH took a serious step into the unknown when she said an emotional goodbye to Coronation Street after more than 15 years playing loveable transsexual Hayley Cropper. Three years on, after playing a string of hard-hitting characters in dramas like Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster and Happy Valley, serious is what Julie does best. Here she tells us about her latest challenging role, playing rape victim Trish Winterman in the third series of award-winning ITV crime drama Broadchurch. ‘TV has this tendency to portray a rape victim as a young girl running through a wood – there’s often a slight titillating edge to it, which is really distasteful,’ she says. ‘Sexual violence is not an act of sex, it’s an act of violence. The programme makers were very keen to show that it can happen to absolutely anyone. I think that’s why they cast me – to show that an ordinary, middle-aged woman is as likely to be the victim of rape as anyone else.’ That and the fact that Julie is an incredibly talented actress…

Tells us more about your character in Broadchurch, Julie...

Trish is an average woman in her forties. She’s divorced with a grown-up daughter and she works in a farm shop, alongside her best mate, who’s played by Sarah Parrish. Lenny Henry plays her boss.

The series opens with Trish in a state of deep shock, having been raped… How did you get into that head-space?