Hollyoaks stars Kieron Richardson and Oscar Curtis have confirmed high-octane scenes to come for Ste and Lucas Hay as a harrowing abuse storyline commences.
Ste, as viewers know, was attacked by son Lucas last week during a heated exchange between the father and son duo.
The scenes in question were the first in an emotional narrative as the Channel 4 soap highlights a common but under-recognised form of domestic abuse with the two popular characters.
‘Lucas has been brought up seeing abuse,’ Hollyoaks star Kieron Richardson told Metro in an exclusive chat. ‘Ste was abused by his stepfather then mirrored this behaviour with Amy [Barnes].
‘It got flipped and reversed when he was then in a relationship with Brendan [Brady], and Brendan was abusing Ste, so he’s seen abuse from all aspects. And Lucas has been brought up around that. Now, many years later, it’s happening again in a completely different way.’
The first instance of abuse took place after Lucas uncovered dad Ste’s role in the recent breakdown of his relationship with Dillon Ray (Nathaniel Dass).
Dillon, as fans are aware, was groomed by Rex Gallagher (Jonny Labey) and Grace Black (Tamara Wall) into a world of exploitation and criminality.
He intended on getting away from the manipulators by booking a holiday with Lucas, who had just been diagnosed with a brain tumour.
Ste, unaware of what Dillon was going through, urged him to break up with Lucas so that his son would stay in the village and get the surgery he needed.
‘I understand some of the audience were a bit upset with Ste keeping Dillon away from Lucas,’ reflected Kieron. ‘But in Ste’s mindset at that point, if Lucas went to Egypt with Dillon he wouldn’t have been able to have the surgery and there mightn’t be any more Lucas. It was quite critical.
‘So he was being, I think, a great father at that point by going: “I know Dillon’s the love of his life but he needs to stay away right now. He’s got stuff he needs to deal with, Lucas needs to get better.”
Wit the dust having settled and Dillon’s plight now public knowledge, Ste asked the teen to move in, in the hopes of both making amends with Dillon and to assist Lucas in his recovery.
However, Dillon’s presence at the Rowing Club Apartments flat where they reside ultimately makes things worse, with Lucas growing paranoid about what his dad and his boyfriend are up to.
‘Another layer of complication’
‘When Dillon moves in it just adds another layer of complication,’ said star Oscar Curtis, who plays Lucas. ‘Because there’s now this anger Lucas has got directed at Ste and he doesn’t want that to be seen by Dillon.
‘There are secrets kept from both sides. I think Lucas is all on edge now once he hears [a private conversation between Dillon and Ste] he just instantly sees red.’
The situation escalates quite dramatically from this moment onwards.
‘After the abuse starts at home and Dillon’s in the picture as well – and Lucas has jumped to conclusions – the next bit we get to is Lucas again getting quite frustrated,’ explained Kieron.
‘He wants to just take it out and hit Ste and he starts hitting himself. He’s got this huge scar on his head – it’s amazing what the makeup department have done – and you know when you’re getting so frustrated with yourself and you’re just hitting your head?
‘If this wound opens it’s so dangerous. Ste’s trying to say: “Stop, you’re going to hurt yourself, it’s dangerous,” and then just throws this line out: “Hit me, then. Take it out on me. I would rather you slap me, punch me, do whatever, than you do this really serious damage to yourself.”
‘I think it’s a parent/child thing, that visualisation and the parent begging him to hit him so he stops hurting himself. It seems quite harrowing.’
Oscar, meanwhile, branded the scene a ‘hard’ one to film. ‘I remember reading the scripts and thinking I don’t know if I can do this. How do I do it? But we did it!’
HayRay and the future
Lucas also remains angry with Ste over the fact that he didn’t see through ex-boyfriend Rex, who is largely to blame for Dillon’s ordeal.
Ste too is riddled with guilt over the fact that he didn’t know and it eats him up over how impacted both Lucas and Dillon are by Rex’s stint in the village.
‘Ste is no stranger to having the wool pulled over his eyes, it’s happened again and again,’ admitted Kieron.
‘So the realisation of what Rex was up to behind closed doors and what he was doing to these kids, it’s horrendous for him. Then it’s all about protecting Lucas and trying to make things up with Dillon.’
However, despite Rex having handed himself in to the police over the exploitation, Kieron confirmed that we will see him again. ‘Ste will have some scenes with Rex in the near future. That chapter, at the minute, has not fully closed. But whether that’s just to scream and shout at him…
Oscar also hinted that Ste’s failure to see through Rex becomes a sore point for Lucas moving forward, especially in the aftermath of discovering the extent of Dillon’s trauma.
‘We’ve done some scenes where Lucas blame Ste for it,’ said the star.
‘He takes a lot of his anger out on Rex, Clare and Grace, and he thinks it’s Ste’s fault – Ste brought him into the house.
‘I think Lucas has to get his head around [what Dillon went through]. Because it’s the love of his life and he’s been through this. The trauma on Dillon is going to leak into Lucas, really. It spills over.
‘Obviously Lucas just wants the best for Dillon and Dillon wants the best for Lucas, but somehow every time they cannot manage to get it together. I think he feels quite protective.’
The young star also revealed that fans can expect more drama for Lucas and Dillon in the scenes to come.
‘I think there will always be drama with any HayRay storyline, and that’s good!,’ he said with a smile but assured fans that there are some ‘nice part’s in there too.
And as for how the abuse escalates?
‘In three weeks time there’s something that happens in our family that was the moment my jaw dropped,’ said Kieron, who stated that this storyline has genuinely left him ‘a bit speechless’.
‘As in real life, if somebody is going through something like this, it’s not the only thing that they’re going through. So there will be other aspects of things that happen to our characters that take different directions.’
The storyline is the latest in a long line of powerful narratives that have had Lucas at the focus, with powerhouse star Oscar very grateful for the opportunity.
‘It’s nice to feel really trusted from upstairs, to be given a storyline like this,’ he said. ‘It’s also just amazing to explore different emotions and play different characters and storylines that are so opposite to your regular, normal life.’
