As Amy Barlow (Elle Mulvaney) is drawn further into the cult in Coronation Street, Leanne Battersby (Jane Danson) makes a worrying discovery about the group leader Rowan Cunliffe (Emryhs Cooper).
Leanne has been a part of The Institute for most of this year. When she first joined the organisation, Rowan made her take part in a process he calls uploading. It essentially sees someone sit down and discuss their traumas but because of how intense it is, the person ‘uploading’ often experiences high emotion.
Recently, Leanne was told by Rowan that she had now reached a level within the group that allows her to recruit other members. It wasn’t long until she turned her attention to Amy – a young woman who has spent time recovering after being raped by a young man called Aaron.
In this new video, Leanne, Rowan and Amy are at the flat preparing for Amy’s first session. As Leanne leads, she explains to Amy that she won’t be able to truly move forward in her life until she confronts her trauma head on.
An anxious Amy goes on to reveal that after she was sexually assaulted, she ‘did things’ that she isn’t proud of.
Rowan gently tells Amy to close her eyes so she can feel more comfortable and open up. It then becomes apparent this is a complete cover up – by having her eyes closed, Amy fails to spot Rowan switching on a recording app on his phone.
This is, however, spotted by Leanne, who seems troubled at the sight of Rowan getting a permanent copy of everything Amy is about to say.
In the scenes that follow this, Leanne insists that Amy is ready to undergo a ‘malware’ session, but the ordeal isn’t at all what Amy expects.
‘I was shocked when I first saw the script, I hadn’t anticipated it would be that extreme,’ actress Elle Mulvaney admitted.
‘When she gets there, she has no idea what this is going to entail. She’s just told that it’s a malware session. That is what they call it. So she doesn’t know what that means.
‘And anytime that she’s tried to ask somebody, ‘What is a malware session?’, no one’s given her a response because they don’t want to tell her, because if they told her, she wouldn’t do it.’
As Amy stands blindfolded in the middle of the circle, she is horrified as the other members bombard her with insults. Though Leanne assures her that it will all be worth it in the end, Amy can’t take anymore and rushes out.
Speaking about filming the scenes, Elle revealed that it was unlike anything she’d done before.
‘I’ve never filmed anything like it. It was a really surreal experience, because I didn’t wear the blindfold until we were actually going for the take, because I wanted to feel that sense of discomfort. I feel like when you do it too often, you can almost get comfortable, and it takes away that initial feeling.
‘So we did the rehearsals as normal, and even the rehearsals felt strange, because it’s very, very unnatural to walk into a room and stand in the middle of a circle. So when we went for the take, I put the blindfold on, I obviously ended up crying as Amy, but it was real.
‘It felt really real because you feel so disoriented. You don’t know where you are, you don’t recognize the voices. It’s all done to make Amy feel that way, and that’s how Rowan gets you. It’s because he wants you to feel uncomfortable, because then you rely on him. He breaks people down for him to be able to sort of build them back up again.’
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