Coronation Street’s Samia Longchambon admits difficulty of filming bullying story due to real-life daughter, 14
The Coronation Street storyline that has seen Liam Connor (Charlie Wrenshall) mercilessly bullied by vile Mason Radcliffe (Luca Toolan) takes a dramatic turn in upcoming episodes when poor Liam reaches breaking point.
His mum Maria (Samia Longchambon) eventually finds out how bad the online cyberbullying has become – but it could be too late for her son as she discovers that Liam has been researching ways to end his life.
Samia Longchambon is full of praise for young actor Charlie Wrenshall as he tackled this difficult storyline.
‘Charlie’s just been incredible,’ she told us. ‘He’s only 14. And it’s lovely, because he’s played Liam since he was three. So we do have a really close relationship, I’ve known him pretty much all his life, which makes those scenes easier and harder at the same time, because we do have an emotional connection to each other.’
She also revealed that filming the bullying storyline had been gruelling for Charlie and for herself.
‘It’s not a nice thing to think about, and having to act it and go through it. Your body doesn’t know, when we’re making ourselves cry, and going through that, it is exhausting. Because your body doesn’t know that it’s not real, what you’re crying about.
‘So me and Charlie have had days where we’ve just been crying all day to each other. We’re exhausted at the end of the day.’
As a mum, Samia has found the scenes particularly challenging.
‘It is hard, because my daughter is 14, same age as Charlie,’ she explained. ‘And also I’ve got a son. And to think that either of them could go through something like that, and any child in the whole country, you hear of it on the news, when kids have ended their life because of bullying, it’s a real thing. And as a parent, it’s horrible.’
As difficult as the story has been to depict, Samia told us she was hopeful that somebody watching the show could be helped by seeing it.
‘It’s good to think that hopefully, this storyline might help other kids who are going through it – and even the bullies to a certain extent, I hope that it might make them think twice about what they’re doing to other kids, and how it might affect them in ways that they don’t realise,’ the actress stated.
‘If I’m completely honest, I was bullied, throughout my childhood at different times, I was bullied a little bit in primary school, and then I was bullied at high school as well. So I can go off how it was for me.
‘And I think that it’s important to talk to people to, to not bottle things up, and to tell. You know, as much as people are scared of being a snitch, or that kind of stigma attached to that, the bigger picture is that you need to tell an adult, you need to tell your friends, you need to just keep talking.’
