Coronation Street star reveals reason why staying ‘would never work’ as she quits after 7 years

When news broke of Mollie Gallagher leaving her role as Coronation Street’s goth Queen Nina Lucas, fans were understandably devastated.

Mollie is swapping the cobbles for the theatre, with her recently debuting in the role of Clarice Starling in the stage adaptation of Silence of the Lambs, though, she initially wanted to pull double duty.

‘Originally I really wanted to find a way to do both,’ she admitted.

‘It sounds ridiculous hearing it now, but I’d seen theatre runs where different actors take on different stints, but I realised pretty quickly that could never work.’

Talking about the dilemma she faced, Mollie said: ‘It’s so hard.

‘Because obviously, being on Corrie has been my dream, but also you want to explore other things and to be offered something as great as this, and not be able to do it would be devastating.’

She went on to discuss the transition between television and theatre while talking to Radio Times: ‘This is only my second professional job!

‘So I don’t know if this ever goes away for anybody, but there is a big feeling of imposter syndrome.

‘I’ve not done professional theatre and I feel like I’m very much in the unknown, and at least with TV you can watch yourself back and kind of go from there.’

On embodying an iconic character like Clarice, Mollie said: ‘Sometimes you can go, ‘Well, I wouldn’t do that, Mollie wouldn’t be able to do that,’ but Clarice can do that.

‘She has to be grounded, no kind of airy fairy behaviour, it’s the opposite of that. But luckily I got my big mirror out and I started doing the lines and I was like, ‘Oh, this is cool, she does sit in me.’

Mollie’s departure from Coronation Street was first revealed back in June, with her final scenes to air at the end of August.

At the time, a Corrie spokesperson said: ‘Mollie has created a unique and well loved character in Nina over the past six and a half years and everyone will be sorry to see her go.

‘It is fantastic for Mollie that she has been given this incredible opportunity to play such an iconic role and we wish her all the best for the theatre tour.’

Mollie previously promised devastated fans that Nina’s story ‘isn’t over’, while confirming that she won’t be killed off, saying: ‘I would not have been able to deal with that!’

‘I was really passionate about portraying this alternative character. We kept her quite similar the whole time, which was important to me. I never wanted Nina to lose her goth look and who she is – I think the audience have always really appreciated that.’

Mollie isn’t the only former soap star to be performing in Silence of the Lambs, with EastEnders legend John Partridge and Corrie and Emmerdale alum Oliver Farnworth, rounding out the cast.

‘They’re the two actors I work with the most,’ Mollie said, discussing her working relationship with the two soap titans.

‘We get on very well, which is what you want! They’re brilliant actors as well. It’s nice, because it’s this little soap bubble.

‘We’ve got EastEnders, Emmerdale, Corrie – and Ollie did Corrie as well. They’ve been in the industry for years so it’s nice to learn from them and get some advice. I’m very lucky.

‘I’ve also enjoyed talking to Ollie about his Corrie days – it was quite a few years ago now that he was in the show, so there are some similarities with my time but also some differences.’