FORMER Hollyoaks star Sophie Porley has walked away from acting after she suffered a terrifying panic attacks.
The 31-year-old star, who portrayed Ellie Nightingale on the Channel 4 soap, blames putting “too much pressure” on herself to land a top job after leaving the series.
Quitting the show in 2018 after three years, Sophie hasn’t tried out for a new role for a few years, following the post-audition incident at a train station which left her struggling to breathe.
Speaking on The Muse podcast, Sophie explained: “I hadn’t intended to transition to social media stuff when I came off Hollyoaks. My intention was to continue acting.
“I don’t know if I’ve really spoken about this, but I’m not really acting anymore.
“Because I had a few auditions when I finished Hollyoaks and I think I put so much pressure on myself to go from that to another acting job I felt real pressure.
“My agency sent me an audition and there was pages and pages of dialogue to learn. I went into my agency to record the audition, and I put so much pressure on myself I walked out of their building and had a panic attack.”
“I was in the train station and I literally had to sit on the floor. I couldn’t breathe,” she detailed.
“At that moment, I was like, ‘I’m really putting too much pressure on myself to get another acting job,’ so I took a step back.”
Sophie added that while she was not ruling out a return to the soap, she is content if she never lands another role.
“It’s been a few years now, and I’ve not gone back to it,” she said.
“Sometimes I think I should try to pursue it again, but I found the whole thing really overwhelming.”
Asked if she would ever return to Hollyoaks, she added: “Never say never, but I don’t have any plans to.
“It’s not something on my radar.”
During the chat, Sophie also recalled a “traumatic” moment during her time on the soap when she was forced to cut her own hair off for a scene – against her own will.
