Hayley's cancer storyline - Julie Hesmondhalgh reveals all (SPOILER!!!)

(This post was originally posted by Flaming Nora on the Coronation Street Blog July 2013, reposted to this blog with permission.)

THERE ARE STORYLINE SPOILERS BEYOND THE FACT THAT WE KNOW THAT HAYLEY HAS CANCER

There's a good interview in this week's Inside Soap magazine with Julie Hesmondhalgh, who plays Coronation Street's Hayley Cropper.  Julie talks about Hayley's cancer storyline. I think we're all dreading this storyline and it would have been very hard to say goodbye to Hayley under any circumstances, but especially with a cancer storyline.

Julie says this about acting through Hayley's cancer plotline: "I remember one night at home walking up the stairs slightly stooped, and I had to remind myself that it wasn't me who was ill.  To play a part well sometimes you have to trick your body into thinking that's how you're feeling but then you have to remind your body that you're just acting.  You have to have a word with yourself because when you play a storyline like this, it can be quite hard to shake off."

Julie reveals that it's Carla who supports Hayley and that there's a lovely scene when they are in hospital and Carla holds Hayley's hand, with Hayley loooking really uncomfortable about it.

And then of course, there's Roy and how this will affect him. "He becomes an immediate nightmare," says Julie. "He starts researching her illness and makes her drink herbal tea and eat broccoli. She gets really fed up with him, but that's his way of coping."

But when Roy finds Hayley at Audrey's birthday party at the Bistro, he isn't best pleased as he thinks she should be at home looking after herself.  Julie says: "He manages to announce to everyone what's happened to Hayley. This isn't what she wanted, she didn't want to feel different or pitied."

After 15 years of playing Hayley Cropper, Julie says: "Hayley's issues of being transgendered offered a grat opportunity to bring an unusual issue into people's living rooms.  But this cancer storyline is something that affects pretty much evryone in one way or another - and I feel very honoured to be playing it."

For Corrie fans, it's not going to be an easy few months as we begin to say goodbye to Hayley.  Indeed, I think this could be one of the hardest storylines to watch in my 40 years of being a Coronation Street fan - and I still haven't got over Alma's death yet!

I wonder what'll happen to Hayley's iconic red anorak when Julie Hesmondhalgh leaves the show?



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