Emmerdale fans stop me in bars and tell me I shouldn’t be drinking after pregnancy storyline, says Daisy Campbell
IN Emmerdale she plays a quiet, church-going teen mum – but this really is an act.
In real life Daisy Campbell is the wildest of her soap friends and thinks nothing of dancing on club tables when they go out.
Bizarrely, fans of the ITV show have even approached the actress, who plays Amelia Spencer, in bars to ask why she is not at home with her character’s daughter, Esther.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun on Sunday, Daisy, 20, said: “It’s so funny. When people see me on a night out, they’re like, ‘Where’s your baby?’.
“And when Amelia was pregnant in the show, I’d get people coming up saying, ‘Oh so you’re not pregnant in real life then?’.
“Or they’d tell me I shouldn’t be drinking in ‘my condition’.”
Daisy has formed a close bond with her fellow young co-stars since joining the show at seven years old.
She says: “There’s a really lovely group of us that have all grown up together on the show. We’re similar ages and all love a night out, especially in Leeds where Emmerdale is filmed.
“I’m the wildest on a night out! I’m the most likely to get up on a table and start dancing.”
‘A little starstruck’
Despite Daisy juggling school work with filming one of the most popular TV shows, her school pals were largely unaware of her acting career.
She said: “We were only aged seven so not many of my friends watched it, but when I got to senior school they were like, ‘Oh my God, you’re in Emmerdale!’.
“There wasn’t any jealousy at all but a few would be a little starstruck because their parents watched the show.”
It is thanks to her dance teacher that she landed a role on Emmerdale.
Daisy said: “It’s crazy when I look back. I’d always loved dancing since I was really little and my dance teacher told my mum that she should take me to drama school.
“A year later I got Emmerdale and I have been there ever since.
“Everyone was supportive and I surrounded myself with a really nice group of girls, who I’m still great friends with.
“I went to performing arts college after my GCSEs but quickly realised that all I wanted to do was work at Emmerdale full-time, so I decided to give it up.
“There’s no better experience than working on the job so I decided to make it my priority — and I’ve not looked back.”
And Daisy won’t be disappearing from our screens any time soon as she has signed a deal that will keep her in the village for another year.
She says: “I’d love to stay on it for as long as I can.
“I recently signed for another year and couldn’t be happier. But I never take it for granted because you never know when they might kill you off. It can happen to anyone.”
It comes after Daisy had a starring role in Emmerdale’s 50th anniversary episodes in October, which saw her character go into premature labour while stuck in a barn during a deadly storm.
It was revealed earlier in the year that Amelia had lost her virginity at 15 years old to troublesome teen Samson Dingle. He then vowed to have nothing to do with their baby if she went ahead with the pregnancy.
In dramatic scenes during the soap’s month-long celebrations, Amelia was rescued from the devastating winds just in time to give birth in hospital. It was the type of meaty storyline Daisy had been hoping for.
She says: “When I was first told Amelia was having a baby, I couldn’t believe it because it was a storyline I’d always wanted for my character.
“And then for it to be part of the 50th . . . I felt really honoured.
“I was in the show for the big 40th when we did the live episode but I was only nine.
“Still being in the show ten years later is just amazing.”
To prepare for the “labour”, Daisy tuned in to another popular TV show.
She explains: “A few weeks before we were due to film the birth, I watched pretty much every episode of One Born Every Minute that featured a teen birth. I just wanted to get that scream and the feeling across.
“I also read every article I could on teen birth to work out how it feels.
“We had an adviser on set so I asked her a lot of questions and made notes.”
The actress has had the full support of her parents — dad Rory, an oil rig worker, and mum Alison, an NHS co-ordinator who works with cancer patients — who she lives with in a village near Leeds.
But she admits Rory struggled to watch the labour.
She says: “My mum was really happy for me because she always knew it was a storyline I wanted to do. But my dad was like, ‘I don’t know if I can watch that’. He did end up watching, though.
“It felt like a real milestone for me, having been this kid on the show and then becoming an adult and actually playing such an important storyline. I wanted to get it right.
“I got a lot of lovely messages about it all, which was really nice as it means that I did my job well.
“And working with baby Florence, who plays Esther, has been so lovely.
“She was only a week old when she started. It was scary at first because we don’t have any babies in my family so I didn’t know what to do.
“I had to ask her mum how to hold her but I’ve got used to it now. I was working with her the other week and she can hold her head up now.
“I just love her so much, she’s so cute. It’s weird because she actually looks like me when I was a baby.”
One thing is clear, Daisy is in no rush for a child of her own. She is too focused on her career and having fun with co-stars Rosie Bentham, 21, and Katie Hill, 20, who play Gabby Thomas and Sarah Sugden.
They are also close to Sam Hall, 18, Jack Downham, 21, and Joe-Warren Plant, 20, who play Samson Dingle, Noah Tate and Jacob Gallagher.
Together, they have been dubbed the Emmerdale “Brat Pack”.
Daisy says: “I’m single. I do get a few boys chatting me up, I think everyone does when you’re out with your friends. And it’s a natural thing to worry that they’re only coming up to you because you’re on the TV.
“But I just want to concentrate on work at the minute, that’s my main focus. I’m a bit of a workaholic.”
And Daisy will be keeping very busy as Amelia is at the centre of several storylines. She is in a messy love triangle after getting together with Samson’s cousin, Noah.
And Samson is blackmailing Noah by pretending he now wants to be in Esther’s life.
Amelia has also landed a job at the village beauty salon, PampaManda, with Mandy Dingle, played by Dales legend Lisa Riley, 46.
She says: “Lisa brings so much positive energy to everything she does. They call her ‘Nana’ at work because she’s always there for the advice.
“She’s been my go-to recently. But everyone there is so inspirational. Growing up on the show, they helped me learn lines and gave me advice. We really are such a big family.”