BROOKSIDE legend Claire Sweeney looks unrecognisable as she joins Coronation Street as a heroin addict.
The new role – as Tyrone Dobbs’ long thought dead birth mum Cassie Plummer – has come as a relief for Claire after she struggled for major acting work these last few years.
In her first chat since joining the soap, she told a Corrie press conference how working on the famous cobbles is a dream come true.
“I’ve spent the last few years doing littles bits – a little bit on Benidorm, Scarborough, a drama I filmed last year, not massive parts, but wanting to get back and do some really great acting,” she said.
“I never dreamed Corrie. Iain [Macleod, Corrie executive producer] has given me a chance.
“It just takes that one person to believe in you and go ‘yeah, you can do it. Give her a chance.’ And I’m so grateful for that.”
She added: “I’m a single mum, to my eight year old son Jackson and my decisions are not only based on the love of what I do, they are based on stability for me and my son.
“I’m 52 years of age now and for this, not only is it the best soap for me, not only is she a wonderful part, working with Maureen and Alan and all these wonderful people, the had for stability.
“I don’t know how long it will last. I never take anything for granted in this business. But just to have that stability for a while as well. It’s just come at the right time as well.
“I’ll get my full weekends with my boy now, which is lovely.”
But the change from glamorous West End star to a dowdy drug addict who overdoses during her first appearance in Weatherfield has not been without its challenges.
Claire said: “I’m not vain. I’m an actress, the first day filming on the cobbles one of the extras like you said to me ‘Oh, we didn’t we didn’t recognise you’ and a full ‘brilliant!’ that’s how I wanted to be, I want to I want her to be so far removed from me.
“The minute I get the clothes on, the leggings the converse and the cap, looking really rough, I kind of become that character.
“And it’d be interesting to see if she does end up a little bit glam if she sorts itself out, I don’t know that far yet.
“I think it’s absolutely brilliant as an actress, you just want to be quite removed from yourself. And she certainly is.”
She added: “Julita who’s done my makeup, she is wonderful. She was putting blue, blue on my face and purple and pink and she was kind of following my rosacea, and then the dark under the eyes.
“They’ve done a fantastic job. Also with my hair, she oiled it down she sprayed black on the roots. And also, I’ve got to get my nails off today – and as a Scouser getting the nails and the lashes off, that’s quite traumatic!
“So, she’s really, really stripped back. You know, the makeup design. They’ve done a fantastic job on just you know, making me look as rough as anything and is working what’s there with the rosacea and everything.”
Claire also teased how Cassie is going to shake things up on the cobbles and expose mum Evelyn’s long-standing lie that her daughter died in South Africa.
Viewers will come to realise that all of Evelyn’s unexplained absences will be connected to Cassie.
“I love Cassie and I hope the audience love her as well as much as I do,” Claire said.
“She’s vulnerable. She’s troubled. She’s got problems. She’s got major problems. And as I’m reading the scripts, I kind of want her to sort itself out because we all love Tyrone – it’s hard to because I’m a fan as well and as a fan, we all love Tyrone, and you don’t want anything to upset him do you?
“So, I’m reading the scripts and I’m thinking ‘Please sort yourself out Cassie sort itself out’. you know.
“It’s nice to see a different side to Evelyn as well as a mother as well – mind you, she does portray that with Tyrone as his grandmother.
“She’s troubled. She’s feisty. She’s gonna cause some trouble on the cobbles. She’s a loose cannon, but then she’s vulnerable as well.”
The actress added: “She’s an addict. And that’s what makes her so unpredictable, and a loose cannon and she really does have great intentions to get better and to be with the family but she’s an addict and it is quite sad really.
“Evelyn has had a relationship with Cassie for a while, and people don’t know about that. And Evelyn’s on and off support and helping her. And then she turns up, she wants to see Tyrone, she wants to get clean, she wants to be involved with the family, she needs some mum.
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“She’s a tough girl. She’s been around the block, she had problems. But there’s a vulnerability with her where she needs a mum, and her mum can help. So, she turns up for help.”
Claire will make her debut on Coronation Street on June 28.
