Yahoo News Coronation Street star James Craven confirms exit from Aaron role
Note: This story discusses topics including rape and sexual assault.
Coronation Street spoilers follow from Friday's episode (June 16).
Coronation Street aired Aaron Sandford's final scenes on Friday evening, as he decided to leave Weatherfield after dropping his libel case against Amy Barlow.
Aaron recently started legal proceedings against Amy after she exposed him as a rapist in an online blog post.
In this week's episodes, Amy feared the financial implications of fighting the case and offered to write a public retraction, even though she has only ever told the truth about her ordeal with Aaron.
During tense conversations over what the retraction should say, Aaron started to subtly acknowledge his own guilt and ultimately dropped the legal case in shame, before leaving the Street.
Here, James Craven – who played Aaron – discusses the outcome of the storyline.
When did Aaron start to have these doubts?
"Aaron started to have slight doubts about the court case prior to this, because when he had that first meeting with the solicitor, he was told that even if there's a 51% chance that they are leaning in Amy's favour, then it would go to her.
"So that was already concerning him and he was already starting to have doubts about how reliable the outcome was going to be.
"Then when he found out that Amy's family were selling the businesses [to fund the legal fight] it was really the guilt at that point. It was almost overwhelming for Aaron what he was putting them through.
"Since his dad has come back into the picture, he's felt a tremendous amount of guilt about that too because he's not had money in the past and suddenly it was all going on this court case, that Aaron was starting to think he might be fighting a losing battle with."
When Aaron read Amy's planned retraction and realised that it didn't make sense, was that a wake-up call that his own story wasn't true?
"To him, it made it obvious that Amy was just writing the retraction to make it all go away. Obviously Aaron wanted and needed something that was concrete and solid that would 'prove his innocence'.
"It wasn't until he went to write it himself that he actually struggled to put it into words and started to realise that what he believed was the truth maybe wasn't the truth.
"At that point, he was still trying to really push it out of his mind, these thoughts that maybe he's actually not innocent. But definitely when he tried to go through it, I think that's the first time he'd actually sat down and tried to think it all through logically. He also tried to think about it from Amy's point of view and add perspective.
"Then when it came to it, he just couldn't seem to string it all together, in a way that outrightly proved that he was innocent. When he started to write it down, he realised that the truth may not be what he thought it was."
How did Aaron feel in those scenes?
"The realisation that he might have done this was really devastating for him. And also, the realisation that he is the one who's put Amy through all of this is awful. I do think it came from a lack of education, a lack of awareness to stop and check in with her rather than malice, but nevertheless it's just as devastating."
How was it to film the scene where Aaron told Amy that he was dropping the libel case?
"It was a really nice scene – not nice in the sense of the context, but in terms of filming something that ever since I read it I'd thought about quite a lot, because I knew that it was one of the most important scenes of the story.
"So it was something I had slight apprehensions about, but then when we did it, we just really let the scene breathe and really took our time with it. We used all the pauses and then when it came to it, we just let it happen and we did it in one take. We probably couldn't have done any more with it, because what came just came naturally.
"When Aaron arrived, he was hoping that he could just tell Amy that he was dropping the libel case and leave. Then when she started to break it down for him and started to go through everything, he was still trying to push it out of his mind the whole time.
"He didn't really want to get to the end of that story, because he knows that when she gets to the end of it, that's when the realisation comes in for him. The whole thing is building up to that but he never quite admits it because he can't admit it.
"Amy knows that Aaron knows what he's done is wrong, even though he never quite admits it, and the fact that he does run away highlights that. But I think for Amy, it was just so overwhelming because whilst it's not necessarily the closure that she wanted, in some respects it's possibly as much closure as she needed. Although definitely not the closure she deserves."
How did you feel about this being the end of the storyline?
"I think I was always hoping that Aaron would admit it or have some sort of admittance. I liked that there wasn't anything particularly overly dramatic about it. I think unfortunately that is quite realistic, because there are so many of these cases in real life where people don't face justice and people aren't prosecuted for it.
"So I think whilst that's obviously quite a hard thing to come to terms with for Amy, it is sadly quite realistic. I never wanted him to get away with it, but I think it's one of those things that he's now got to live with it, knowing what he's done."
How do you feel to be leaving the show?
"It's obviously very sad, it's been a lot of fun and I've really, really loved my time there. I met so many great people and I've made so many good friends for life. But I'm excited – I'm really, really excited to get on and go on and do other things."
Do you have any plans you can share yet?
"There's a couple of things I've got coming out but I can't really say too much at the moment."
What sort of reaction have you had from the public?
"Anyone who's come up to me in public has been very positive about the story and congratulated me on the storyline. I think overall the reaction to it has been quite mixed, it's definitely done what we hoped it would and it sparked a conversation for sure."
Have you found that people want to talk to you about the issue the show has raised?
"Yeah, definitely. I've even had the conversation with friends and family friends and people have said to me that they've looked at the situation differently. I think that's particularly something people of an older generation have said to me, that it has made them look at situations like this slightly differently, and I think that's a really positive thing."
Are you proud to have been involved in the story?
"Yes, I do feel very proud. From the beginning, I knew how much work I was going to put into it and I knew how much work everyone at Corrie has put into it. As soon as we got started, I knew it was going to be a really positive storyline in the long run so it's something that I feel very proud of. It's something that I hope the fans have enjoyed, and more than anything have started to think about."
Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.
Read more Coronation Street spoilers on our dedicated homepage
Coronation Street has been working with the Schools Consent Project on Amy's storyline.
If you've been affected by the issues raised in this story, you can access more information from Rape Crisis England and Wales, who work towards the elimination of all forms of sexual violence and sexual misconduct, on their website or by calling the National Rape Crisis Helpline on 0808 802 9999. Rape Crisis Scotland’s helpline number is 08088 01 03 02.
Readers in the US are encouraged to contact RAINN, or the National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800-656-4673.
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