Yahoo News EastEnders' Gillian Wright on real-life connection to Jean's cancer storyline
EastEnders star Gillian Wright has opened up about Jean Slater's cancer storyline.
The character was diagnosed with stage three ovarian cancer earlier this year, and in recent emotional scenes had her son Sean (Rob Kazinsky) shave her hair off.
However, Gillian admitted on today's (May 16) Lorraine that a personal connection was part of the reason why she elected to have prosthetics done for her bald head rather than shave it for real.
"I did give that a lot of thought, but there were two main reasons I didn't go down that path," she explained. "One was logistics. Rob Kazinsky, who plays my son, his availability meant that we had to shoot that week's storyline well early in the year.
"So all the stuff I did with climbing the O2, all of that was done afterwards, which meant I would have had to have worn a wig to look like me, which was a bit risky on top of the O2!"
On the more personal reason, she added: "Secondly, I have dear friends and family who are going through or have gone through treatment for cancer, and some of them have lost their hair – and it just didn't sit right with me as a game of pretend."
In the interview, Gillian also admitted that learning of the storyline in the first place felt like she had been "punched in the stomach" given the "huge responsibility".
Later on, Lorraine also pressed her on Adrian Edmondson joining the cast as Jean's new love interest Daniel Cook, though the actress revealed she didn't know much about the storyline at this stage.
"It will be news for me as well!" she said.
EastEnders airs on BBC One.
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