Coronation Street star James Craven has heaped praise on his co-star Elle Mulvaney as they tackle a harrowing non-consent storyline. It was revealed last week that his character, Aaron Sandford, will be accused of rape by Amy Barlow, played by Elle since 2010, after a drunken night together in upcoming scenes in the ITV soap.
Next week, viewers will see Aaron's girlfriend Summer Spellman discover he has been having late-night phone conversations with his ex, Mia, and it's fair to say she's less than impressed. When Summer confides in Amy about how she’s struggling to trust Aaron, Amy tells her she’s needy and insecure.
But this only leaves Summer hitting back with a jibe about Jacob Hay, Amy's ex who fled the cobbles last month with his former partner assuming he was still dealing drugs after being threatened by how own dad, drug lord, Damon Hay. Aaron will then be seen finding Amy upset after the row.
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Lifting the mood, he reveals that he's being promoted to mechanic after his probation at Kevin Webster's garage and Aaron's in the mood to celebrate and reminds everyone it's cocktail night at the Bistro. As Amy and Aaron get ready over a few drinks, the sexual chemistry is evident and they find themselves kissing.
Amy pulls away, clearly wracked with guilt, and struggling to watch Summer with Aaron at the Bistro, Amy heads home. As Aaron and Summer snipe at each other, ruining everyone's evening, he announces he's going too. Back at the flat, Amy and Aaron play drinking games, polishing off every drop of alcohol in the flat.
Viewers will then see Amy stumble into the bedroom to find more but declaring herself to be too drunk and feeling sick she falls into bed. Climbing into bed next to her and trying to kiss her, Amy's completely oblivious as to what Aaron does next as he makes the decision for her that they will have sex. It won't be until the next day that a horrified Amy discovers how far things went the night before.
Speaking about events before Amy kisses Aaron, James told the Manchester Evening News: "It goes without saying that him and Summer have had a lot of problems in their relationship in the past, some of them which have been out of their control, but I think he's always been there to support her previously and he's always stuck by her no matter what and try to help her through everything but I think this time, he feels this real sense of betrayal.
"Whilst he knows he's done something wrong, he tried to make amends for it and she tries to push him away. So I think this time, it's his last straw and he thinks what's the point in bothering with any of this. So you've got that going on but to contrast with that, he's just been promoted at the garage which is a huge thing for him but it's kind of bittersweet and he doesn't really know how to feel about it at first but he decides to celebrate that and be happy about that and then you've got to remember that him and Amy have spent all this time together in the flat."
He went on: "They've had Brian [Packham] there but it's mainly been them two so they've had all this time that we haven't seen on-screen for them to grow closer to each other and to really learn to care for each other and laugh with one and other and for their friendship to really become stronger so I think they've really learnt to rely on each other so in that moment I think all of these thoughts and emotions take hold."
Corrie fans will see it take time for what happened to sink in before Amy talks to anyone about what happened with Aaron. Addressing what Aaron first thinks when he wakes up the next day, James told us: "His immediate thoughts when he first wakes up are, 'Oh god, I've just slept with my ex's best mate' and he's worried about how he can approach that without it making it sound like it didn't mean anything and it was just a one-night thing.
"But initially, there's no thought in his mind that he's done anything wrong and I think he's also trying to piece together what happened and he's got this thing going on of, did that really happen? Because it was so out of nowhere for him and took him by surprise."
Upon speaking to Amy, who says their sexual encounter was non-consensual, James added of Aaron's thoughts: "I think he's definitely going to be shocked to hear that because, from his point of view, he believes that he hasn't done anything wrong so I think if someone told him that he'd be shocked to hear that and he'd be devastated and it'd be really stress-inducing.
"That was the hard part for me when we got this story was to find a way to justify why he reacts in the way that he does because me, as James, know that it's wrong but then to sort of find a way for the character to justify his actions was quite a hard thing."
Corrie and those involved in the storyline have worked closely with The Schools Consent Project, a charity dedicated to educating and empowering young people to understand and engage with the issues surrounding consent and sexual assault. "Doing something like this isn't particularly comfortable just because of the nature of what it is but luckily we have been so well supported," James said of taking on the important storyline.
"Elle's been amazing but working with The Schools Consent Project was great because while they filled us in with all the facts and figures, it was really interesting to hear about the work they are doing and how they approach the situation and what kind of situations they are dealing with. It also reaffirmed for us why we are doing the storyline in the first place because it does highlight the fact that unfortunately, this is something that is far too common and far too normalised. Hopefully, after something like this, we can try do something to help that."
Adding praise on to his co-star Elle, James added: "The crew were amazing and you could feel this energy on set and everyone felt really focussed and when you feel that everyone is locked in to something, it makes it a lot easier to do it because you feel like everyone's working towards one thing which was a great feeling. Everyone's going to see how good she [Elle] is in this. Elle's amazing."
