Aedan Duckworth is glad to have helped people through his ‘Hollyoaks’ sexual abuse storyline.
The soap star’s teen alter ego Ollie Morgan was abused by coach Buster Smith (Nathan Sussex), with the latter being found guilty this week – and viewers have praised the show for the way it handled such a sensitive subject during the on-screen trial.
Speaking to Digital Spy, Aedan said: "The main reaction, which is the reason we do it, is that there’s been a spike in people coming forward. We’ve been working with Survivors Manchester and I know they’d back me up on that.
"The wider reaction from viewers is that they’ve loved the storyline. They’ve liked how real it’s been – and I really hope they’ve liked the outcome in the end."
Meanwhile Aedan revealed he didn’t want to know the verdict of the trial until he received the scripts for that week of filming.
Explaining how it helped his performance, he added: "To be honest, I only found out – and only wanted to find out – when we received the scripts for the trial week episodes.
"I liked that, because Ollie didn’t know what the outcome would be himself. It could have gone either way – Buster could have been found guilty or not guilty – so for me it was better to act out the storyline not knowing either."
The star also opened up on how the storyline had changed his perspective after he initially just thought about the "cool" side of joining a soap, such as impressing his friends and learning "new things".
However, he admitted: "Through my journey at ‘Hollyoaks’, I’ve realised that it’s about more than just being on screen. If you’re giving someone the confidence to come forward, it’s surreal and different in its own way. If I could do that again with another storyline in the future, I’d absolutely love to do it."
Aedan Duckworth is glad Hollyoaks storyline helped people speak out
