Former Hollyoaks star Sarah Jayne Dunn says the female cast was “pitted against each other”.
Sarah Jayne Dunn has claimed that the female cast members were “pitted against each other” throughout their time on the show Hollyoaks.
Actor Mandy Richardson starred in the Channel 4 soap opera from 1996 to 2011 before returning in 2017.
Dunn, 41, split from the show in 2021 after producers objected to her appearing on personalized content subscription site OnlyFans.
In a new interview, Dunn spoke about the “pressure” she felt being part of the cast Hollyoaks was considered “the sexy soap”.
“The girls were pitted against each other,” she said on the show The Matt Haycox Show podcast. “I didn’t realize at the time how much it touched me and the other actresses on the show.
“We were under a lot of pressure, there were many expectations and no care package was put together.”
Dunn recalled doing calendar and photo shoots for the show with her female co-stars and being told it was “part of the contract.”
She added, “Some of the girls were really upset, didn’t want to be in the photo shoots, didn’t want to be there and were really uncomfortable with what was expected of us.”
“Some of the girls said, ‘I don’t want to be there.’ “We’re not models, we’re actors – we don’t want to wear bikinis and be photographed on the beach.”
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“Basically they were told, ‘As part of the contract, you have to do these things,’ and ‘If you don’t do this recording, you won’t get any other opportunities.'”
She added: “I think we were made to feel disposable. It was about, “If you don’t do it, someone else will.”
In a statement, Lime Pictures stated that “no one was forced” to attend the photoshoots.
Her team message reads: “The duty of care to our cast and team is of the utmost importance to us. Hollyoaks follows strict protocols on set to protect and protect our team and we are not aware of any complaints from Sarah Jayne Dunn related to the time she describes on set Hollyoaks Sentence.
“The decision to quit Hollyoaks “Calendar” was recorded more than 10 years ago in 2013. Before 2013, no one was forced to take part in the calendar shooting. Hollyoaks Performers who wished to participate could do so on commercial terms.”
As Mandy, Dunn was one of them HollyoaksThe most famous faces. However, she left the show after creating an OnlyFans account, which gives paid subscribers access to exclusive content – some of which is adult in nature.
Shortly after joining the site in October 2021, Hollyoaks The cast were told they weren’t allowed “to be active on certain 18+ websites.” It was then confirmed that Dunn would be leaving the soap.
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Dunn claimed to have spoken to the series’ production company, Lime Pictures, “which they have denied,” but received no response before opening the account.
“I didn’t want to jeopardize my job,” she said on the podcast. After being told her participation would be “approved” internally, Dunn received “an ultimatum” after her OnlyFans profile went live.
“I’ve been told to abolish this or there will be consequences,” she claimed. “The consequences were never made clear. It was like, “You take it off or else.”
“I said I wouldn’t take it off until they gave me a reason to. That was on Thursday and they said we all needed the weekend to think about it. The following week I received an e-mail with the immediate cancellation of my contract.”
She continued, “I couldn’t even go back to wrap up the storyline or give my character any closure. I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to people I’d known for years, they just cut the cord like that.”
At the time of Dunn’s departure, the soap released a statement explaining that their decision to split from the actor was because the show was “a youth drama with a lot of young viewers.”
The statement continued, “We take our responsibilities to our young audience very seriously and as such the show does not allow for any.” Hollyoaks Actors to be active on certain sites 18+.
“We had hoped that we could find a solution with Sarah that would allow her to remain in her role as Mandy, but we respect her decision to continue producing content on OnlyFans.”
Additional Press Association coverage