Holding star talks Evelyn's affair with teenager
Holding episode 1 spoilers follow.
Bloodlands star Charlene McKenna has opened up about her Holding character Evelyn's affair with a teenager.
The four-part drama based on Graham Norton's darkly comic novel kicked off on ITV on Monday (March 14) with police sergeant PJ Collins (Game of Thrones' Conleth Hill) uncovering uncomfortable secrets about his rural village while investigating a murder.
One of the secrets hiding under the village's underbelly is that 17-year-old Stephen Chen (Halo's Sky Yang) has been having an illicit affair with mid-30s townswoman Evelyn.
When Digital Spy spoke with Charlene McKenna about this plot strand, she spoke about how she came to empathise with Evelyn even though her actions are controversial.
"When I first read it, I was like, 'Oh, God'," she admitted. "Because I feel like that side of Evelyn is everything that I was terrified I'd ever become. You know, it's Blanche DuBois, albeit younger, but like the woman who had an armour when she was young, with men being the thing that validated her existence. And to get older and older, and to keep chasing that?
"It's different with Evelyn, because obviously I think when you have a trauma when you’re young, and Evelyn had two, which becomes more apparent – her motivations become more apparent – I think it’s sort of a psychological stunt. And I do think that Evelyn is very much psychologically stunted somewhere in the teens.
"So on some level, Stephen is right for her. But obviously she’s a woman approaching 40. It's just through your eyes – you’re like, 'No, Evelyn. No, no, no. Please stop this. That is not the answer'.”
McKenna stressed that Holding viewers shouldn't be looking for easy answers to explain Evelyn and Stephen's frequent trysts in the back of an ambulance.
"It's a learned behaviour. It's a validation. It's a momentary release of the pain, the inner pain – like, avoiding the void. It’s never going to work. We all know that. It’s like having an affair. This shit doesn’t work. Drinking a bottle of wine – it's not going to work. It's temporary. And Stephen is temporary," she pointed out.
"I felt for her. I felt sorry for her. I was like, 'Oh, she's there. She's not left the town, and she's not gone out of her own way at all. She's entrenched in her bullshit. And now she's having a fling with a teenager who’s just about legal. Oh, God.'
"So, yeah, as we'd say over here: Scarlet for her. Just mortified for her. But I understand it. And Sky Yang, who played him, is in his 20s, so, you know… And I love him. He’s an absolute sweetheart. A complete sweetheart. Everyone felt very safe. Very, very safe. So it was absolutely fine and fun to film. But, yeah, the reality of it, you know…"
She added: "We so often see it in reverse onscreen, and kind of don’t bat an eyelid. So it’s interesting: how often do you see an older man with a younger woman? No one bats an eyelid. But when you see an older woman with a younger man, it's like: what’s this vaniness?
"So I like that they've kind of done that. It happens, you know? It's just about understanding where she's coming from."
Holding continues weekly on Mondays on ITV.
If you've been affected by the issues raised in this story, organisations who can offer support include Samaritans on 116 123 (www.samaritans.org) or Mind on 0300 123 3393 (www.mind.org.uk). Readers in the US are encouraged to visit mentalhealth.gov.
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