Emmerdale actress on ‘awful’ experience filming ITV soap as she makes career change
Former Emmerdale star Jessie Elland has opened up about her time on the ITV soap, admitting 'it was awful'.
Jessie Elland detailed an ‘awful’ experience filming Emmerdale (Image: ITV)
It’s been two years since Jessie Elland departed from her role as Chloe Harris on ITV soap Emmerdale but the actress still recalls her time on the show as “awful”. Jessie portrayed Chloe, daughter of Kerry Wyatt and sibling of Amy Wyatt, from 2021 to 2023. During her stint, Chloe was at the centre of various intense storylines.
A notable plot point involved her being stalked by her ex-partner, Noah Dingle, who covertly took photos of her and installed surveillance devices in her bedroom. Chloe subsequently found herself in a horrific car accident while confronting her partner, Mackenzie Boyd, about his illicit affair with Charity Dingle. Their vehicle was struck by a van, leaving them dangling on the edge of a ravine. Mack chose to save Charity, and Chloe later ended up in an induced coma due to her severe injuries.
Jessie’s final scenes as Chloe aired in the 2023 Emmerdale Boxing Day episode, which concluded the long-standing love triangle narrative between Chloe, Mack, and Charity.
Chloe was stuck in a love triangle (Image: ITV)
Jessie has since shifted her focus to writing and is set to release her debut novel, The Ladie Upstairs, on May 22. Labelled as a “delirious, ultra-visceral body horror”, the book charts the journey of Ann, a humble “scullery drudge” with aspirations to ascend to the role of a lady’s maid at Ropner Hall.
Ann’s fortunes appear to take a turn for the better when an encounter with Lady Charlotte of Ropner presents her with the chance to become her personal maid, a development that has Ann believing she’s on the up and up.
Yet, lurking around the corner is a dark twist that could jeopardise Ann’s newfound status in the upper echelons of the household.
In conversation with Radio Times, Jessie divulged how her intense story arcs on Emmerdale fuelled the grim elements of her novel.
“It was high-octane stuff. I was coming home covered in fake blood – what’s known in the industry as pig’s blood, but it was actually a kind of syrupy liquid,” she recounted. She added: “It was really disgusting. The first day was fun, but by day five, you’re still covered, and it’s awful. So I was primed, I was already at that pitch to get into writing the gory stuff after a day filming these kinds of things.
“I really wanted to build a dense, soupy, intense prose that makes the reader feel claustrophobic.”