Beth Nixon – the actress currently starring as Coronation Street’s latest villain – has admitted that her love for playing “baddies” was first nurtured at York College.
The York-born, 25-year-old has landed her first-ever TV role as Megan Walsh in the iconic soap opera and been handed a controversial storyline, as a sports coach/teacher who is having a relationship with a schoolboy.
Beth, who studied a Performing & Production Arts course at the college from 2016 to 2018, is no stranger, though, to playing evil characters – even being cast as the “ultimate baddie” during one production in the Sim Balk Lane institution’s Alan Ayckbourn Theatre.
Beth said:
We did A Vampire Story at College by Moira Buffini and I had the best time doing that,” Beth recalled. “I was a baddie – obviously – with a Cockney accent.
Then, the second year show we did was Everyman and I played the Devil – the ultimate baddie!
Beth, who also credits the college with helping conquer her performance shyness as well as offering invaluable advice on her next steps in education, has admitted that “she screamed her head off and then cried” when she was told her audition for the part of Megan had been successful.
She was working in her job as a Skin Clinic manager when she received the phone call from her agent.
It was a conversation that ended four years waiting for her big break – a struggle that had pushed Beth to the verge of turning her back on her dream career.
Instead, she is now looking forward to featuring in Corrie’s Christmas Day episode, which will be watched by millions of families up and down the country as an annual festive tradition.
Recalling the thrill of securing a role in the world’s longest-running soap series, Beth said:
The casting team had been to see me in quite a few shows that I did at my Drama School – the Arden School of Theatre – in Manchester, so I was kind of on their radar. But I’d auditioned for Corrie twice before – as a baddie both times – including for the role of Lauren.
Then, earlier this year, my agent sent me a casting brief and explained it was for a paedophile, which is a bit crazy to play because they’re obviously not a redeemable character, so they can push it pretty far. I sent a self-tape and was then invited to a chemistry test with a few other actors who were being considered for the role of Will (the schoolboy victim).
Next, I did a scene on the set in The Bistro with a full camera crew and, when my agent told me I’d got the role, I screamed my head off and then I cried, because it’s been four years since I graduated and this is my first TV role.
It’s been a hard time and I was really close to quitting and pursuing a different career, so this just came at exactly the right time.
Beth, who also worked as a waitress “for years”, has now been told her initial six-month contract on The Cobbles has been extended.
For her mum – a Corrie superfan – it was a real challenge not to scream her daughter’s big news from the rooftops, as per the wishes of the show’s producers.
Beth said:
It had to be a major secret for ages.
I was told I couldn’t tell anybody, other than close friends and family, but to make sure that they didn’t tell anybody else.
I got the job in July, started shooting in August and it only aired in November, so it felt like a huge chunk of time not being able to tell people that you’re filming Coronation Street. Me and my Mum loved watched Corrie together when I was growing up so, for her, keeping it a secret was eating her alive!
Beth watched her first episode on the show alone in her Salford flat, as she had only just finished shooting that day, but her family and loved ones toasted her life-changing moment back in Yorkshire.
Beth said:
My dad lives in Aberford and watched it in the local village pub and my boyfriend’s parents run a pub on Goodramgate, so they had it on their tiny telly in the corner and were all watching it.
It felt a bit weird, seeing myself on TV for the first time. It’s like it’s not you, because they’re not your clothes.
Everything is picked out for you and your hair and make-up is done for you as well, so it’s a bit of an out-of-body experience and I hate watching myself. But, for me, I have to, because I hadn’t acted for two years and I was scared I’d forgotten everything that I’d learned.
I even got my old College text books out again!
She is also pleased to be helping raise awareness of a crime that is sometimes trivialised and even glamourised in society.
Beth said:
It creates a lot of debate, because a lot of people say, ‘It’s a 15-year-old boy’s dream’ but, if you flip it the other way round, it’s always seen as disgusting.
If it’s a storyline that makes one person recognise that this is happening to them and it’s wrong, then it has done its job.
With actors who play Corrie villains regularly shouted at in streets as devoted viewers blur the line between fiction and reality, Beth has been told her identity won’t go undetected for much longer.
Beth said:
I haven’t been recognised yet but Rob Mallard, who plays Daniel, has told me it takes about six weeks of being on the show and then it goes a bit crazy.
That level of fame would have, no doubt, felt daunting for school leaver Beth when her shyness almost saw her enrol on another course, before the intervention of a tutor.
I came to College and did an audition, but I then decided I was going to do Media.
But the tutor doing the interview for the Media course told me I should do Acting instead because all I spoke about was how I wanted to become an actor!
The only thing that was putting me off was that I was a bit shy and self-conscious at 16, but I got over that in about a week and loved it! It was great how the course was structured.
I was so glad that I chose it because you were assessed on performance more than your coursework and you can’t learn to act from a piece of paper!
During her third year at Arden, Beth’s talent was spotted by her current agency Cieka Bailey, leading to work with one of the world’s most famous brands, but she has had to remain resilient and patient when other auditions proved fruitless.
Beth said:
Four months after leaving Arden, I got a McDonald’s advert in Switzerland.
I was flown out there for four days and thought it was just the coolest thing in the world – getting paid to eat McDonald’s all day in Switzerland!
I’ve also done a few plays and radio voiceovers, but nothing major really until this.
Because of what the character is doing, she probably won’t be in it forever, which is a shame, because I’d love to work in Corrie every day.
It’s such an institution, where everybody is so friendly, but I’m learning so much about how everything works and, if I go on to do other things and other dramas, I’ll know exactly what I’m doing.
The dream for me would be to do film, but I also really love theatre and just being a working actor is all I’ve ever wanted, so I’d be really grateful for anything that means I’m paid for doing acting as my job.
