Fans were gutted when it was revealed that Millie Gibson would be leaving Coronation Street after three years. And in her first exit chat, the Kelly Neelan actress has revealed the reason behind her departure.
Millie will be bowing out of the ITV soap in an "explosive" storyline that is set to air this month. The 18-year-old has already filmed her final scenes and the 18-year-old was joined by her Corrie pals last month as they said farewell to their young co-star at her packed leaving bash on Salford Quays.
It was previously teased that Kelly could finally uncover the truth about killer Gary Windass, and the fact he allowed her dying mother Laura Neelan to take the blame for killing her dad, Rick. And earlier this month, the soap’s producer Iain MacLeod has revealed that the pair will enter into a ‘Corriewood’ showdown as part of a ‘super September’ week.
“We thought the fact that Millie is going and therefore Kelly’s going allows us to go really big and do something incredibly high stakes and to get these characters to stand on these landmines with buried for them over the years and will go off in one cataclysmic explosion,” Iain revealed to the Manchester Evening News and other press.
And now Millie has revealed more on the upcoming scenes after it was confirmed that she’ll discover the truth about Gary killing her dad and seeking revenge, she hires a hitman to get rid of her guardian for good. But things don’t quite go as planned and both Gary and Kelly end up in danger and their lives hanging in the balance over the Manchester skyline.
“It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for,” Millie told the M.E.N. and other media outlets about Kelly discovering the truth about Gary. “It’s a full arch of my whole storyline and her whole world just shatters before her. She thought that happened when her mum passed away but no, this is way worse.
“She doesn't know what to do with herself and you eventually see this cold… almost like her dad’s coming into her personality. You sort of see her starting to turn into Rick Neelan in that sense and it’s a completely new personality for her. It’s really bad.”
Corrie has gone all out for the scenes, heading out to RecodeXR Studio in Trafford Park to film with special equipment used for mega movies like Avengers and Disney+ series The Mandalorian. And Iain believes they are the first soap opera to use the incredible technology.
“The first day I stepped onto the volume wall I thought, ‘Oh my god, we’re in Hollywood!’ It’s just incredible,” Millie admitted. “It was really long days and I’ve been exhausted but the cast, crew and producers have all been so amazing and I don’t know what I could have done without them.”
But Millie became emotional whenever she spoke about leaving the soap. Sharing her reasons for bowing out of Corrie, the soap star said: “I think Corrie is… it’s a home. That’s the best way I can describe it and because I’m so young, I just thought I need to leave home for a bit and spread my wings and see what could happen.”
However, Millie, from Broadbottom, added: “I have no responsibilities. I don’t have kids, I don’t have a mortgage to pay or anything like that yet, I’m still grateful to be living at home. So I’ve just been a bit like I’m going to see what else the world has and if it does, it does. That would be quite good, wouldn’t it? But I thought I may as well see what happens while I’m still young. But I’m going to miss it so much.”
But Millie had to convince her parents she was making the right decision. “When I first thought, ‘This is going to be the year that I do it,’ my mum and dad were like, ‘Are you sure? It’s such a secure place, you’re doing great’.
“And I’m like, ‘I know but I’ve got to trust my gut, trust my instincts,’ and I went with it without them being on board at first, and as soon as I started to go with it and convinced them they were like, ‘Ok, fine. We’ll accept it’.
“But I just had to make the decision for myself, go with it and hope for the best.” And she’s already been making plans for her future. “I’m currently auditioning so I’m just going to see how that goes but I’m looking forward to just having a bit of a break.”
Asked about roles she has in mind, Millie admitted she has ‘so many’ and while she says she’s trying to ‘bet on herself’, the teen is also trying to keep herself ‘grounded’. “I always bang on about Jodie Comer but honestly, anything she’s played,” Millie laughed.
There is one place, however, you’ll never see her - and that’s another soap. When asked if she would move to a rival, she replied: “No,” before asking if she was Corrie ‘through and through’.
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