Saying goodbye to a beloved soap character is never easy, especially when their journey has been as emotional and impactful as Amy Wyatt’s in Emmerdale. Actress Natalie Ann Jamieson recently reflected on her character’s dramatic exit, sharing the intense preparation behind filming Amy’s final moments, the physical challenges of performing her own stunts, and the deep emotional connection she felt while saying farewell. In our exclusive interview, Natalie opens up about her time on the show, the groundbreaking representation of Amy and Matty’s relationship, and the powerful audience responses that made her role even more meaningful.
SD – Emmerdale is known for its high-stakes drama, and your recent storyline sadly involved an exit! How did you prepare for such an intense moment?
NAJ – From first reading the scripts to actually filming them and then to watching them was a real journey. I knew what the storyline was going to be and how it would play out but I wasn’t prepared for reading all Amy’s loved ones last words, I was really emotional reading those, knowing it was the end of an era for that character and then realising the impact it would have on her soap family! Especially Kyle her son. Amy’s very last words were “I love you” to Matty and reading that for the first time was just as emotional as filming it – I don’t think there was anything I could do to prepare myself for that. I will really miss Amy being a part of that village. For the stunt sections, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to do it all, especially the bits in cold water, so I made an agreement with myself that I would at least try everything once and if I didn’t like it I would ask for a stunt double. I was really glad I did that as actually I managed to do everything that was asked of me and I felt a real sense of accomplishment. For the underwater scenes I spent half a day doing the beginnings of PADI training, learning to dive down three metres in my clothes and how to equalise the pressure etc. If I had of had longer to do practice, I would have liked to have improved on my breath control to be able to spend longer under water.
SD – Before her exit on the show, one of Amy’s storylines —marrying a trans man and starting a family—has been groundbreaking for British soap operas. How does it feel to be part of such an important representation on screen, and what has the audience response been like?
NAJ – I felt privileged to be a part of that story and to have a small role in onscreen representation for the trans community and their partners. Ash who plays Matty is a really good friend of mine and I know that he gets regular feedback from the audience about how much it means to be able to see themselves represented onscreen via a character like Matty. I would also hear a lot from our audience about how much they love Amy and Matty as a couple and how they were really hoping to see us play out the adoption story as that was another layer they were really interested in. I think soap telling these stories is really important and when soap is at its best – it’s not only helping people feel seen but it can also help to open conversations for people. I met a couple who told me seeing Matty onscreen really helped them to understand when their grandchild told them they were transgender, that kind of feedback makes me feel extremely proud to be part of that storytelling.
SD – You joined Emmerdale in 2019 and were quickly recognised with a Best Newcomer nomination. How has playing Amy Wyatt changed your life, and what have been your biggest personal or professional takeaways from the role?
NAJ – Playing Amy for 6 years has completely changed my life in so many ways. Personally, I have been lucky enough to meet many incredible people over my time at Emmerdale and many will be friends for life. I moved to Leeds from London and I’m now planning on staying a northerner for as long as possible. Professionally – Working on soap can be incredibly challenging and really sets you up for this industry, it’s fast paced and ambitious. Sometimes you might be required to film 12 scenes a day and they could be intensely emotional and almost always shooting out of scene order, being a part of something like that for 6 years is a privilege and really feels like a training ground – like you’re set up for anything!
SD – Before Emmerdale, you appeared in Vera and Doctors. What were those experiences like compared to working on a long-running soap, and did they help prepare you for the fast-paced nature of Emmerdale?
NAJ – Yes Doctors really did. I remember feeling so stressed about the pace of Doctors when I was there – which was even quicker than Emmerdale – or felt like it was. In my memory every take was done in one. If you got the words right, they bought the take. At that point I was more used to working in Theatre and having the luxury of chatting though all the character motives in great detail. In TV it’s quite different, mostly the director will trust you have done that work yourself before getting to set and on set you will have a read through the scene and then director input is largely about the blocking and how the scenes will look rather than from a character point of view. That felt to me really scary and exposing for a long time – having to trust I was making good character decisions without the safety blanket of the director chatting through each decision with me. I’d love to work on a piece of tv or film with the luxury of time to collaborate on character and story decisions, having those conversations is a part of my job I l really enjoy. Really getting into the bones of the character and the story and what might be driving their decisions and how we want the audience to feel and why we are telling the stories we are telling, I just love those kind of chats.
SD – Beyond acting, you’re a passionate advocate for youth theatres and services, particularly in working-class areas. Why is this cause so close to your heart, and what would you like to see change in terms of government funding and support?
NAJ – I really am – youth services changed my life completely, especially youth theatre and to think that young people might not get the opportunities I had due to lack of funding makes me incredibly sad. My youth theatre really changed my entire path in life. I remember first attending Live Theatre in Newcastle and meeting lots of like-minded young people from different parts of the region and being completely besotted with them – I found it fascinating how different people could be who weren’t just from my immediate area in Newcastle. I also found the style of teaching in comparison to school incredibly freeing; the leaders of the sessions were working actors themselves and they were sharing their skills with us rather than telling us things we were supposed to remember. The collaborative nature of it really sang to me. And I was hooked! Those people are still my friends to this day and being in rehearsal room and meeting new people and sharing our skills just keeps getting better the bigger my world gets. I want everyone to be able to experience that, whatever their version of that is. To know that people who live where I used to live might not get that because of lack of government support is really sad. Luckily there are many charities and funding opportunities available in Newcastle, Live Theatre is free to attend and Sunday For Sammy raise money to help artists. I’m sure this is true for many communities. I would love the government to step up more to ensure the working classes have equal opportunities though, access to youth services is incredibly important.
SD – As a proud Geordie actress, do you feel that regional representation is improving in the industry, or do you think there’s still more work to be done for Northern actors and working-class talent?
NAJ – I think there’s definitely more to be done, as I mentioned it can be incredibly difficult for working class people to access the arts, it’s expensive to do and often not a highly paid career. This puts working class actors at a disadvantage. When I was applying for drama school, I was working two jobs to pay for my auditions, trains, accommodation – it’s hard work. I think post covid the industry has become less London centric and we have access to digital ways of auditioning which helps with travel costs for instance. To get better representation we need people to be able to afford to train in their craft. We need to be able to afford to take days off work to audition. We need to be able to afford to not earn money while we write scripts. These things are less often achievable for the working classes and the cost of living keeps rising making it even more difficult. Arts funding certainly doesn’t seem to be rising at the rate that the cost of living does so I don’t think regional representation will get better anytime soon. However we do have a lovely amount of artists who despite all this are still going at it so go out and support your regional theatres, you will always have a magical night in a local theatre.
SD – What’s next for you beyond Emmerdale? Do you have any dream roles, genres, or projects you’d love to take on in the future?
NAJ – Yes, I would love to do a sitcom or comedy. There’s some incredible TV being made at the moment – Big Boys, Am I Being Unreasonable, Amandaland, Smoggie Queens (great regional representation). I’m really excited to be able to audition for shows such as these!
