Coronation Street star Mollie Gallagher has revealed the advice she received from her co-star David Neilson as she decided to leave the long-running ITV soap.
Gallagher is best known for playing Nina Lucas, who joined the show in 2019 as the niece of Weatherfield stalwart Roy Cropper, played by Neilson for more than 30 years. Her time on the cobbles included a horrifying hate crime storyline that claimed the life of Nina's boyfriend, Seb Franklin, with her performance earning her the National Television Award for Serial Drama Performance.
Nina's emotional exit from Weatherfield
During a rare episode of Corrie on Sunday, August 30, Nina was seen saying her goodbyes after deciding to move to Whitby to start a dream job at an art gallery. The exit comes after it was confirmed last month that Gallagher would bow out of the programme, having spent six and a half years on the famous cobbles, to make her stage debut as Clarice Starling in the UK and Ireland tour of The Silence of the Lambs.
Asked whether she was pleased with how Nina left the street, Gallagher said: "It feels true to her character. It is a really positive move for Nina, there is no tragedy and she was able to go off happily to this new life. She is sad to leave Roy and her friends but she knows it is the right thing to do."
Neilson's advice and the decision to leave
Gallagher also spoke about sharing the news with Neilson and revealed the support he gave her. "I had spoken to him about it anyway, and he told me to go with my gut," she recalled. "He's an intuitive person, and he agreed it was the right thing to do. I didn't want to leave, so it was a difficult decision, but he said I had to do what I felt was right for me."
Gallagher also opened up about joining Corrie without prior industry experience and how nervous she was about branching out into theatre.
She said: "I haven't really auditioned much before Corrie, I think it was just a commercial and one other little thing. When you're doing a professional job for TV, it's one thing, but getting your first professional job in theatre is different again. Casting directors have to trust you when you haven't got much to go on."
"As for how I felt? The first three days after I told Corrie I was leaving, I was like, 'Oh my God,' I felt like I was losing my mind. I thought, 'What have I done?' You always wonder, 'What if I'm not good? What if I'm terrible?' It's hard to step out of your comfort zone because I've got to know Nina so well for seven years. It wasn't like I was actively looking to leave; it came out of nowhere."
