By heck, isn’t our Fiz looking grown-up and glamorous with her fancy party frocks and loose, bouncy curls? We’re rather more used to seeing Corrie’s Jennie McAlpine stitching scanties in the factory, dressed in her best denim and lurid T-shirt combo, trademark frizzy curls scragged back and topped with a nice matchy-matchy hair band. Not today, though. Today, Jennie McAlpine is a laydee.
Which is quite a rarity, not just for her character, but for the 23-year-old actress herself.
‘I’m merging with Fiz a bit,’ she says. ‘I go in to a shop and buy clothes and I’m never sure if I’ve got me or Fiz in mind. I bought a top recently and when I went to work wearing it, everyone thought it was Fiz’s. I’m having a bit of an identity crisis.’
Unlike most soap stars who bemoan the dodgy garb the wardrobe department forces on them, Jennie loves Fiz’s clobber.
‘I like her to be kitsch and individual and I’m trying to get her to be a bit trendy at the moment – I like the headband look she’s sporting, although she was wearing them before they were trendy, so she was forecasting the fashion. She’s got all the right clothes, but she wears every trend together – the hair band, the wedges, the black and white. And I’m having something made for a party in the Rovers next week where I’ve got to look like a goth. It’s a black and purple velvet basque with lace over it and shoelaces down the front – it’s all good fun.’
Despite merging with Fizbomb (our favourite of Sean’s monickers for her) in some senses, Jennie is more of a wallflower than her alter ego.
‘I like fading in, I like black. I’m really shy in some ways. I don’t like to stand out and I’ll never be cutting edge. I’ve been looking in to getting some of those gladiator sandals. But I’ve been looking into it for a few months, and I’ll probably be looking into it for a few more months. And then I’ll buy some and they’ll be out of fashion,’ she laughs. ‘I’m dead casual. I’ve promised myself I’m going to start wearing skirts, but it never happens. I was going to wear one for the shoot today, but I cut my legs shaving this morning and have been bleeding, so that wouldn’t have been such a good look…’
They broke the mould, as they say, when they made Fiz. Unlike most young soap stars, from the identikit blondes of Hollyoaks to the likes of glossy fellow Street dwellers Tina O’Brien and Samia Smith, Jennie, with her bright red curls and curvy frame, stands out like a plate of sashimi in Roy’s Rolls. How does she feel about being, well, different?
‘Am I different? I guess I am, aren’t I? Well that’s the great thing about Corrie isn’t it? It’s about all kinds of different, characterful, people. That’s what its strength is, as a programme.’
Having joined the soap six years ago as a wayward teen taken in and nurtured by Roy and Hayley, Jennie’s life as Fiz has had its rollercoaster moments but has, for the most part, involved chastising her useless lump of a mother, making sure button-cute kid bro Chesney eats his greens, and having a relationship with dopey-drawers Kirk. Lately, though, Jennie has been getting stuck in to her biggest-ever storyline. Fiz has broken Kirk’s heart (how could she?) by dumping him and returned to her first love, John, who happens to be Chesney’s teacher and an official ‘older man’.
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‘I was a bit sad and nervous when they told me about Fiz splitting with Kirky, because I love Andy (Whyment, who plays him). We work together so well and you get used to the same person, so there was quite an adjustment period,’ she says. ‘I never thought they’d split Fiz and Kirk up, so that came as a bit of a shock. It’s all been quite emotional. I think there might be some heartbreak ahead, too. And Kirk will be there, waiting in the wings, of course…’
Jennie has had her first experience of gentle grief from the public over her character’s recent antics. ‘People have been coming up to me in the street saying, “Oh what have you done to our Kirky?” But then they’re also quite pleased for her because they think ultimately she made the right decision. She’s not being mean. She wouldn’t have planned it like that, but the greatest things that happen in life aren’t planned are they?’ explains Jennie. ‘It must be fun to play a horrific baddy, but I like playing a nice character because the Corrie cast are all part of people’s lives. It’s real to me – bloody hell, I don’t know the difference between Corrie and real life, honestly, sometimes I get really involved in the storylines. I’m like, “No way, how can he do that to her?”’
And how is she feeling about getting jiggy on-screen with her new beau (cos let’s face it, her relationship with Kirk seemed more about scoffing saveloys from the chippy than sucking each other’s faces off)? ‘Having to do snogging? It’s so unromantic – it’s all like, “Move your head this way, watch that light, watch that microphone”,’ she says. ‘But, going to work and snogging people? It’s great, brilliant, why not?’
Why not, indeed. Makes a change from getting close to nowt but the filing cabinet and the photocopier, like the rest of us...
So she gets to snog for a living, and act in the nation’s best-loved TV show, but how does Jennie feel about the whole being famous thing?
‘Well, you hear “celebrities” – you know, people who’ve been in Big Brother – saying how they can’t stand being famous and they hate it when people come up to them. It’s a silly attitude to have – you’re famous, the clue’s in the word – so people are going to talk to you. Corrie has been part of people’s lives for the past 47 years, so, for me, saying “Hello” to people in the street is as important as going on set and saying my lines.’
Jennie has no intention of leaving The Street any time soon. ‘I love it and I love watching it. I was talking to my Dad (who I ring to remind that it’s on every time – he always forgets what time it’s on, even though it’s been on for nearly 50 years…) who is a big fan. He said, “If you ever stop watching the show, then you should think about leaving”’, which I thought was very true. I still pinch myself sometimes that I’m actually in it.’
And with that, Jennie the laydee gets changed, wipes off the day’s slap, and heads back to the Corrie studios to be ‘re-Fized’, ready and raring for another long shift in the knicker factory. And, really, we wouldn’t have her any other way…
JENNIE ON...
LOSING WEIGHT
‘I’m not really slim, but I’ve lost some weight, although I don’t know how much because I’ve never, ever weighed myself. Diets are a stupid, stupid idea, and they never, never work. People end up heavier than they were before they started. I’ve just been healthy, looking after myself and doing a bit of exercise on my stepper machine while I’m watching Corrie. I’ve cut out junk food and eaten less. Kebabs are bad for you, and a bit of lettuce is good for you. If it’s green it’s good. It’s not rocket science, is it?’
ON OLDER FELLAS
Like Fiz, does Jennie see the appeal of the mature fella? ‘I suppose, yes. It depends how old. How old is too old? Er, 70. That’ll be my cut-off point…’
