Emmerdale actress Louisa Clein has opened up about how playing villain Maya Stepney has affected her life.
Teacher Maya was jailed for a year after being found guilty after sexually abusing her student Jacob Gallagher.
The teenager was groomed over months behind his dad's back and had struggled to deal with what Maya has done.
Louisa, who won two gongs at the Inside Soap Awards for playing the villain, spoke to Mirror TV on the red carpet last night about how her life had been affected by the role.
"I mean I'm a mum, so I think one's always hyper aware around their children," she said. "I've also become much more involved with Bernardo's so I'm actually going to do some site visits with them, they're an extraordinary charity and they invited me and gave us amazing advice.
"They do a lot of good. We can bring light to their brilliance and their hard work doing stories like this."
She also refused to rule out a return from the ITV soap, saying: "I think the storyline will almost certainly continue. There are repercussions, no doubt, for years for those characters."
Despite leaving the soap months ago, Louisa is still heckled in the street over her character.
"Someone shouted out 'I thought you were in prison!' the other day. But I'm genuinely thinking it's been only positive feedback," she said.
Louisa added that she would definitely be up for playing another villain again.
She said: "They're very interesting characters! Because as an actor, you're looking not to play a one directional characters, you're always looking as to the reason why they do things."
*Emmerdale airs weekdays at 7pm, with additional episodes on Thursdays at 8pm on ITV
