Hollyoaks star Anna Passey gets into the psychology of why Sienna wants so badly to hurt boyfriend Warren... And reveals how she's spending the Christmas break
While most Hollyoaks residents will be focusing on eating, drinking and being merry this Christmas, Sienna Blake is contemplating serving cold revenge. She's on the case of boyfriend Warren for rescuing her rather than her daughter, Nico, from the Halloween fire, and decides the best way to do that is to target his son, Joel.
We caught up with star Anna Passey to get the lowdown on Sienna’s plot in the Channel 4 soap and discover her own (hopefully less vicious!) festive plans...
So what is Sienna’s revenge plan for Warren – does she want his son, Joel, dead? "It starts with her thinking 'I hate you; what is the meanest thing I can do to make you feel awful?'” and that is to go after the son. If Warren were to walk in and find the two of them together, that would break his heart. But as things progress and that plan doesn’t really work out, she starts to daydream and think: 'Maybe what Warren really needs to feel is what I feel, which is losing his child.'
"We see a scene where she’s dreaming about it, and the outcome is that Warren would come in and find them together and end up killing his own son in a rage."
Is there not a part of her that realises Warren faced a dilemma? He couldn’t rescue both her and Nico from the fire... "No. But I think deep down, even though she wouldn’t admit to it, she still really loves Warren, and the reason she’s blaming him is because she has to blame somebody. I think when she gets to the bottom of it all, she will realise that she blames herself.
"She’s got all this guilt and remorse for everything that happened in the Halloween Spooktacular and also everything that led up to Nico being the way she was. She doesn’t know what to do with it, and the easiest option is to have someone else to blame – and Warren is the soft target.
Warren discovers she has lied about her whereabouts, and also sees a photo of Sienna with another man – how does she explain herself? "Prince has a picture of her and a man in a Santa hat, but we don’t see who it is. Sienna’s been telling Warren that she’s been going to church as a way to deal with her grief, but actually, it’s been to impress Joel. So when Warren gets this photo, Sienna says it’s just a friend from the church.
"What happens after that is Sienna starts to receive threatening mail and these different things crop up, so the audience will be thinking, 'Has she met some nut job from the church, is it Sienna doing it herself, or is it Joel maybe?'"
What happens when Warren goes to a bar to try and track down the man Sienna says is stalking her? "Inadvertently, she ends up leading him to Joel, and that sparks up a conversation and talk of reuniting. He says, 'Me and my son are going to spend the day together; maybe we could have him over for Christmas.' Of course, that is Sienna’s worst nightmare.
"If Joel sees her and finds out who she really is, her plan is busted. They can’t all be in the same room at the same time, ever!"
Isn't Sienna not worried about her own safety? Warren’s a dangerous guy… "She’s really reckless right now; she doesn’t really care. In the past, her thought process would always come with, 'Well, my daughter will need me'. But she doesn’t care now – she’s out for revenge, and doesn’t care what happens to her. She’s willing to take the risk. It might be the end for her, but it’ll be worth it.
Could anything stop her plan? "In the past, we’ve seen her go to the brink of doing terrible things. She’s never killed anyone, to her credit; there’s something that will usually stop her, and I think deep down, she does have this conscience, and she does have these feelings for Warren. She gets to like Joel, she sees he’s a good guy and I think it’ll come down to a battle with herself as to whether she can actually go through with it."
It’s not long now until Christmas. How will the Hollyoaks cast be celebrating? "Jasmine Banks, who plays Esther, is organising our cast Secret Santa. We have a big Christmas tree in our green room and we do Secret Santa and then we have a party for the cast and crew. It’s a proper dressy up affair, and we normally have a band that do karaoke for us, because everyone’s a show-off here!
"Tam Wall (who plays Grace Black) is one to be stopped - she’s always like 'I’m not going to do it' and then five minutes in, she’s up. And I’ve heard a rumour that DFB (the cast’s nickname for Duncan James – 'Duncan from Blue') might do some singing, which would be a total treat for us all.
What are your own plans for Christmas? "I’m spending Christmas Eve in my own home with Nick (actor Nick Rhys, who played Lockie), my other half, then we’re going to our respective families on Christmas Day. We couldn’t come to a better conclusion – everybody wants to see Nick so we decided we’ll have our own Christmas Eve and then on Christmas morning, I’ll go to my mum and dad’s and he’ll go to his. I should arrive nicely in time for when lunch is ready!"
What’s on your Christmas list this year? "Kittens! But then you can’t get pets for Christmas. We found a stray cat recently and I was hoping we could keep her, but she’s been re-homed, so I’m more desperate than ever to get kittens. There’s a brilliant rescue centre in Liverpool and they’re always sending me these really sweet pictures. So far, common sense has prevailed, but I might lose it soon.
What present would you buy Sienna? "A family… Can you buy someone a family? She needs a family, she doesn’t have anybody. If she could buy her dad back and her daughter back, and Danny Mac back (who played Dodger) that would be good, but he’s too busy dancing."
What would you like for Sienna in 2017? "I’d like to see her be happy. I’d like to see her back with Warren. I think they’re a great couple. But it’s always hard in Hollyoaks; when characters find something that’s good, you never get to keep it for very long!"
