Louisa Lytton on the reaction she's had to the massive storyline
EastEnders actress Louisa Lytton has revealed that she’s been “quite surprised” by the huge reaction she’s had to the Ruby Allen rape storyline.
Viewers took to Twitter in their droves to praise EastEnders for covering the much-debated topic of sexual consent.
And the 29-year-old, who plays Ruby, revealed that she had people contacting her directly on social media.
Speaking on Lorraine about the response, Louisa said: "A great reaction. I was quite surprised, I’ve had loads of people contact me directly on social media just saying, 'This is the closure I’ve needed for so long, this incident happened to me 10 years ago, I questioned whether it was rape or not this episode has confirmed to me that in fact it was.'
"I was surprised myself actually just how quickly that reaction has happened and that’s the whole point of this storyline to hopefully open that conversation for men and women and hopefully educate."
In Tuesday’s episode, Ruby talked to Stacey Slater about what had happened and as the episode continued the realisation that she had been raped hit home.
As the friends discussed the school reunion afterparty at Martin Fowler’s old classmates’ house, the reality that she had been sexually assaulted by Matt dawned when Ruby revealed she “didn’t say no”, to which Stacey made the important point that she also “didn’t say yes”.
Louisa added that she was grateful that EastEnders had trusted her with the storyline.
“I got a phone call from [boss] John Yorke to say, ‘We’d love to bring your character back and here’s the nature of the story’. I was grateful to be trusted with such an important storyline.”
Next week in the soap Ruby will be seen going to the police to report her rape.
EastEnders continues on BBC1. Lorraine, ITV, weekdays 8.30am - 9.25am.
