Samantha Giles fears she may never work again.
The former ‘Emmerdale’ star – who played Bernice Blackstock on and off on the ITV soap from 1998 until last year – admitted she has been wondering if she will act again, and insisted this is a "common thought" among out of work actors.
She wrote on Twitter: "Don’t usually post gloomy tweets but today feels like a mammoth task ahead. Will I ever work again? (Common thought in out of work actors I’m afraid) (sic)"
Several of her followers tried to cheer Sam up including her former Dales co-star Natalie Anderson (Alicia Metcalfe), who described her pal as "amazing".
She wrote: "Sending big hugs Sam! Just remember you’ve written a best seller in the year of the pandemic!! You’re amazing!! (sic)"
After a wave of uplifting tweets, the 49-year-old star – who released her debut novel ‘Rosemary and the Witches of Pendle Hill’ last month – planned to "find some positives" for the rest of the day.
She tweeted: "Right! I’ve had a moan and a boo and now I’m moving on- there’s so many folk in worse situations. Thanks for all your lovely messages. I’m going to find some positives today. X (sic)"
Samantha recently admitted she likes to "take risks" in life, and said landing a literary agent was one of the "hardest things" she has done in her career.
The star explained: "It is, because I didn’t know if it would ever get published to be honest.
"When I’d written it first, I sent it round to agents, and getting a literary agent, oh my God! It’s one of the hardest things – getting an acting agent is pretty hard!
"I like taking risks sometimes. I think, ‘Come on, life’s short, let’s do something dangerous. Let’s take a risk’.
"Why not? What’s the worst that could happen? Oh, I won’t get any work? OK, well I’ll just have to find something else."