After months of playing an integral part in one of Emmerdale's controversial storylines, actress Louisa Clein has spoken out about the mixed reaction it has received from fans. Louisa, 40, is currently playing teacher Maya Stepney, who has been grooming David Metcalfe's teenage son Jacob since last year. The sensitive subject caused 60 viewers to file complaints with Ofcom after certain scenes aired in February, and the actress has admitted that it's been "tough" to film the continuing story. "It has been tough, it's been a real challenge," she told Lorraine on Wednesday. "But it's exciting for me to play, even though I'm playing the baddie in this story I'm here to tell the story I'm here to get that word out there."
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Louisa speaking on Lorraine on Wednesday
Explaining why she thinks the soap has done a good job of exploring such a tough topic, Louisa said: "We've had a real mixed reaction, we've had people who are so incredibly shocked by the story, we don't want to tell a romantic titillating story. Emmerdale has done a good job in not to do that, and we've some people saying, 'Stop this now, this is enough already," and we've also had an enormous amount of people saying, "Thank you, this does happen.'"
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Louisa also revealed that the story will soon reach an end - but there's still a lot more of the story to tell before that happens. She added: "I think it's really important as an actor to try and look at why she's doing this, you can judge very quickly and say it's a terrible thing, but I've tried to get some sense of understanding of why she's behaved the way she has and what's going on with her."
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