Digital Spy: Steven Robets Interview

Digital Spy recently caught up with Hollyoaks' Steven Roberts (George Smith) in which he talked about the recent development of his character within the recent homelessness storyline. As well as his friendship with Pheobe (Mandip Gill) and Callum (Laurie Duncan) and the direction in which his storyline is going to take during next weeks episodes.

Check out some of what Steven said below but you can read the interview in full here. 

We've seen you on our screens in Hollyoaks for a few months now. How are you finding your time on the show?
"I'm really enjoying it, especially with George's storyline becoming a lot more serious now. He's not so much the joker anymore, and I think this story has perhaps explained why George is the way he is - he's been covering up this big secret. I'm particularly enjoying how the story is becoming a lot darker, and you'll see that in the episodes that are coming up."

Were you excited when you received the first scripts for this storyline?
"Yeah, the first I heard of it was when I met with Emma Smithwick, our series producer, and she talked me through the way the story would be going. I was really excited when I found out that it would be a homeless story. I knew it would be quite hard-hitting due to the issue we were dealing with.

"As the story progresses, it also becomes a lot more about the character - so I think we'll find out a lot more about George and how he deals with different situations."

How long has George been homeless for?
"Well, Phoebe is a lot more experienced with this compared to George. She's been telling him what to do and where to go, while George is quite new to this. He's been living rough for about seven or eight months.

"The way I see it is that, when George first left home, he took his bare essentials with him and probably had some money that he could take away too, allowing him to stay in a hostel. But over time, that money has run out and his situation has become more desperate - and as a result, he's become more dependent on Phoebe."

What happens next?
"Up until now, George has been able to stay at the squat while continuing to attend college and keep up his front. But now he finds himself literally sleeping on the streets, with nothing more than cardboard to sleep on and a cheap sleeping bag.

"You'll see that he looks a lot rougher, because it's cold, damp and very bleak. People may think that things have been bad for George so far, but it's about to get a whole lot darker."

Have you had to do much research for this storyline?
"The issue was something that I didn't really know that much about to begin with. But there are charities like Shelter and Centrepoint, who have their own websites. Hollyoaks are working with them at the moment as we move forward - especially with Centrepoint.

"Over the next few weeks, we're going to try to raise awareness of the problem of homeless teenagers. It's not something that's really reported and you don't really see it in the papers. So I think it's nice that Hollyoaks are bringing this to the forefront, as it's a very real issue."

The scene you did with Emmett Scanlan (Brendan) in Price Slice was a memorable one!
"That was really good. Our producer Emma has said that she wants to incorporate the village a lot more, and have us all crossing paths with other characters. It was obviously really great to do a scene with Emmett and to break out of the sixth former 'bubble' that we'd got ourselves in. It was quite a random scene, but people seemed to like it!"

You can see the developments of this storyline unfold next week on Hollyoaks at 6.30pm on Channel 4 followed by the first look episode at 7pm on E4.