Hollyoaks - Interview with Ross Adams (Scott Drinkwell)

7 November 2023

John Paul and Scott share a kiss this week, the pair have a lot of history, why do you think they’re revisiting their romance now?

Genuinely I am so pleased that they are revisiting Scott and John Paul’s romance. I feel like we all forget that John Paul was Scott’s first love, Scott lost his virginity to him, that’s big! We’ve never revisited it and I think they’ve been friends for a long time and it’s that classic thing isn’t it of when your first love is always quite special John Paul’s been kind and he’s been bigging Scott up about his audition to be the queen fairy in the fairy parade and I think Scott maybe clumsily misreads the signs like he always does and he goes in for a kiss… I think what’s really sad is that when we filmed those scenes, I was almost willing John Paul and Scott to get together because I do think they’re cute. However it’s not meant to be and John Paul runs off and leaves Scott feeling gutted because, I don’t even think it’s that Scott desperately wants to be back with John Paul, I think it’s just another example of Scott getting binned off by somebody, it’s quite sad really.

Anita Tinkle is back as a fairy this Christmas period, what can you tell us about this?

There’s a big Christmas parade and there’s lots of other drag queens so we hear about Anita’s arch nemesis Trixie Tonguelash the drag queen who Scott is not a big fan of… Scott’s kind of lost a bit of confidence and doesn’t think he’s going to get this part and he really really wants it. He auditions and finds out he’s got the part and he is over the moon, so he decides to go all out. Anita is going to have a Christmas themed outfit, it’s giving Elsa from Frozen vibes, its lots of sequins and white hair, he’s got a new wig I can tease that!

In a special episode, Scott confides in Sally about always changing who he is to fit relationships, what are your hopes for Scott’s future?

I kind of feel like Scott needs some love. He has got so much love to give and, at the minute, his focus is his kids and I think that’s lovely and he loves them and they love him but he needs some love himself. He needs a proper relationship I think because he’s been on his own now since Mitchell left so that’s been a good few years and I just think it’s about time he had a little bit of happiness.

Why do you think it’s important for Hollyoaks to show the contrast of togetherness during the issue storyline covering conversion therapy?

I think the conversion therapy storyline is such a difficult hard watch and its almost unbelievable that it still happens and is still legal to happen. I think in amongst all of that darkness what Hollyoaks does really well is show the light and that’s what this episode does really clearly. I think because you have that darkness around conversion therapy mixed with all the loveliness of camp bright bold Hollyoaks at its best with all of our amazing LGBTQ+ characters, you see that actually they’re out there living their best lives having a great time and they don’t have to change who they are or be someone that they’re not. When you see that the gay conversion’s going on, it almost breaks your heart even more because you’re thinking, but look at how happy everybody else is, just be you, be yourself!

What were the scenes of Scott and Sally hanging the trans flag like to film?

Night shoots for me I think for all of us are always a laugh because it’s a bit like when you’re at school on a Saturday and none of the big bosses are around… Night shoots just have a different energy and we get pizza so everyone’s a winner. It was freezing we were up on the wall but the scene where we were actually hanging the trans flag was really nice and what I didn’t realise was Annie, she’d actually had a lot of input into that script because she knows the whole history of the trans flag and she explained that to me on the night and I thought that was great because it meant so much to her it was really sweet.