Hollyoaks legends can’t help but watch as the soap delivers powerful TV moments | Soap

Hollyoaks hasn’t pulled any punches since jumping into a new era after the time jump.

With three shorter episodes replacing the full five, the soap has less running time and really gets going when it comes to important and impactful episodes.

And, in one of the most powerful TV scenes and streaming platforms of the year, Jennifer Metcalfe has given her best performance – possibly the best of her career to date – as Mercedes McQueen’s cancer battle continues.

We know Mercedes is often a feisty character who lurches from one romantic disaster to another – often losing her love interest to grisly outcomes along the way.

But she has entered the most vulnerable territory of all time, with real pain and fear after her diagnosis became apparent.

Alone, Mercedes listened tearfully to a recorded message of support from her loved one, and danced in her underwear with no wig and stoma bag on display.

With the extraordinary acting of Jennifer paired with impactful writing, production and direction, not to mention the careful details in the prosthetics, the scene hit many, many emotions ranging from sorrow and empathy for the character through pride and strength towards him.

Since he has been at the center of the show for 18 years, viewers have Mercedes close to their hearts and, of course, as the statistics will tell, many of them will be able to relate to the hard rollercoaster of physical and emotional turmoil that he went through. .

When we sat down with the Hollyoaks team to screen the scene, there wasn’t a dry eye as everyone was captivated by the silence.

We did not expect the scene to air because it came in isolation and even hit some of the cast hard, who left emotional after viewed for the first time together with us in Metro.co.uk.

But there was one person who could not watch – Jennifer herself. While in the room and lavished with well-deserved praise, he said that he did not look at the screen while playing.

‘To approach the scene, I had to dig into my personal experiences. It’s a bit too much for me to deal with in the room. I will watch it myself. I have not seen how it looks – obviously I know how it felt,’ he reflected.

‘The way they came in and the way they lit up the kindergarten and played the lullabies too… The music really got to me and I thought, “Not today.”

‘So I just looked at the floor. I’m glad it’s getting a response, and I hope it raises awareness.’

Working on the scene clearly took the iconic star to places she wouldn’t normally go, and she threw it all away, to incredible effect.

‘In the past when I had finished a big story I did not “method” at all. I’m not one of those actors who’s trained to tap into different things, “I have to do this to be happy, I have to do this to be sad, give me a minute and I’ll get there.”

‘With this one is a complete “method” of acting. I was like, “I didn’t even know I had this on me until today.”

‘I went to a completely different zone I have never been in before and I enjoyed being in it. It’s very draining and really rewarding. At the end of the day, I’m just sitting at home thinking, “I don’t know what I’ve done. It could be the worst thing I’ve seen on television or the best thing. I just don’t know.” I hope it’s what I feel.’

Looking back, she continued: ‘It feels beautiful, bad, weak, amazing, special, fun, sad, disturbing. Like, everything. Every emotion you can feel, I do.

‘When he gave me the script, I thought, “How am I going to do this?” Because I go from OK, I look at myself in the mirror, I take it, then I get emotional, then I look at my children, then I get some strength and play this CD. Then my friends told me some nice words that made me laugh, and I said, “The words you say are really annoying, but you play this amazing music and dance freely.” And I thought, “Wow. How am I going to do this?”

‘My dad died of colon cancer when I was 15, so there was a real raw trauma for me that I’ve probably never dealt with, so I thought, “Let’s see what happens when I walk into this room, and I know if that music is playing it’s going to be triggered something in me. I believe that whatever will happen if I go in there will happen.’ Apparently it’s a good thing and hopefully we can raise awareness if we want to.’

And there’s still a long way to go for Mercedes’ journey, with Hollyoaks boss Hannah Cheers proudly telling the character’s most important story.

He told me: ‘I think Mercedes is now in the most original and bravest story I’ve ever told her, coming from the character. He has only been a year, without romantic hope, from the eternal search for love, for the right person for him and it has not worked out.

‘But she was the most important mother of two girls and she couldn’t make that mistake again. Then what happens gets out of control and takes over your life, and how it affects your decision making.

‘The Mercedes we all know has always been a reckless, headstrong character who doesn’t give a *** about consequences, acts first and thinks later. How can cancer change? Does it make you even more reckless and less afraid of life, or is it the opposite?’

Teasing even further down, he added: “There will be a love story that will begin where we will see Mercedes in a position that she has never seen in the story before. Again, how much cancer changes and I think that a new beginning for Mercedes is important and we will get a lot of fresh energy.’

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