Emmerdale’s Nicola Wheeler, Casualty’s Gabriella Leon and Holby City’s Jaye Jacobs have spoken about the challenges they’ve faced as actresses – and praised soaps for putting women front and centre.
Speaking to Digital Spy magazine, Nicola, who plays Nicola King in Emmerdale, weighed in on the matter, saying: ‘Soap definitely wasn’t afraid to say that females could take the central role. I think they realised their biggest audience was probably females!
‘Women, for some reason, cannot age and cannot put on weight. When men do that, they tend to be seen as more interesting by the industry and they get the interesting roles…
![Front and centre: Emmerdale's Nicola Wheeler, Casualty's Gabriella Leon and Holby City's Jaye Jacobs [pictured] have spoken about the challenges they've faced as actresses](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/03/03/16/40002774-9321871-Emmerdale_s_Nicola_Wheeler_Casualty_s_Gabriella_Leon_and_Holby_C-a-105_1614789821559.jpg)
Front and centre: Emmerdale’s Nicola Wheeler, Casualty’s Gabriella Leon and Holby City’s Jaye Jacobs [pictured] have spoken about the challenges they’ve faced as actresses
‘There seems to be an attitude that people don’t want to see older women on screen, and I’m not so sure that’s true.
‘I think it’s more to do with the attitudes of people who are making things! Maybe that will change as women take on more producer roles.’
Gabriella, who plays Jade Lovall in Casualty, added: ‘I think it’s great that the soap genre has given female characters the opportunity to take up more space, that is rightfully theirs, in their narratives…
‘We’re seeing more and more strong female roles take centre stage without being an accessory to a male character, or purely existing for the male gaze. More please! Keep it coming!’
Speaking to Digital Spy magazine , Nicola, who plays Nicola King in Emmerdale, weighed in on the matter, saying: ‘Soap definitely wasn’t afraid to say that females could take the central role. I think they realised their biggest audience was probably females’
Gabriella is a partially deaf actress, and said of this: ‘There are times where I have felt underestimated in the past, and, being a deaf woman, this has definitely added challenges’
Gabriella is a partially deaf actress, and said of this: ‘I think women can sometimes be underestimated in this industry. There are times where I have felt underestimated in the past, and, being a deaf woman, this has definitely added challenges as to how I’ve been perceived and treated.
‘The joy in being underestimated is proving people wrong and showing up for yourself. As an industry, we have to be careful of tokenism. We should steer far, far away from it.
‘There’s no point in having strong female leads if the point of having the character is just to show ‘oh look it’s a strong female lead’ and ticking boxes – we should just have strong female leads with their own juicy, complicated narratives because that’s what we want to see.’
Jaye, who plays Donna Jackson in Holby City, spoke about her experiences, adding: ‘Without doubt, my career has been totally affected by being a woman of colour.
Jaye, who plays Donna Jackson in Holby City, spoke about her experiences, adding: ‘Without doubt, my career has been totally affected by being a woman of colour’
Proving them wrong! ‘The joy in being underestimated is proving people wrong and showing up for yourself. As an industry, we have to be careful of tokenism. We should steer far, far away from it,’ Gabriella added
On the lack of opportunities as a young actress, Nicola added: ‘I remember that when I was at drama school, we were taken on in a ratio of 2:1. It would be two males to one female’
‘When I started out, even if it wasn’t verbalised, I knew I’d be auditioning for the only Black or dual heritage character to appear in whichever show I was up for. That seems to be changing now.
Out now: The full soap star interviews can be read in issue seven of Digital Spy magazine
‘As young women we were subconsciously conditioned to behave in a certain way to impress our male superiors. We just didn’t realise it.’
On the lack of opportunities as a young actress, Nicola added: ‘I remember that when I was at drama school, we were taken on in a ratio of 2:1. It would be two males to one female.
‘Our drama school wasn’t being sexist, they were just adamant that unfortunately that was the ratio of the roles available.
‘We were warned as young actresses that there just weren’t the roles out there. A lot of plays were centred around men, but there weren’t as many female roles in theatre. But I do think that is changing now.’
The full soap star interviews can be read in issue seven of Digital Spy magazine, available now exclusively on Apple News+