Amy Barnes - Character Development

Character Development

BBC America have branded Amy as the "Bad Seed" of the Barnes sisters. They also add: "She's not mean-spirited, but she's known for trouble-making."

In 2007 after Amy resumes her relationship with Ste Hay (Kieron Richardson) and they move into their own flat, Ste became increasingly violent and started to hit Amy, which was the start of a domestic abuse storyline. Slanina-Davies conducted extensive research into the plot During an interview with LINC Online she stated: "I research pretty much everything I’m involved in. It’s important to be realistic because there’ll be people out there watching who are hoping to relate to your character. I think if you didn’t research properly you’d only end up alienating the people you want to try and empathise with." One segment of the storyline saw Ste cutting off her ponytail. In real life Slanina-Davies had cut her hair short to raise money for charity of this she stated: "When I had my hair cut short in Hollyoaks I did that to raise money for CLIC Sargant, which is a charity helping children with cancer and leukaemia."

At this time, Amy fell pregnant, but was unsure whether to keep the baby. Slanina-Davies stated that she loved portraying pregnancy in the serial and commented on Amy's dilemma of abortion stating: "I have absolutely no opinion on whether Amy should keep her baby, because I think it's a woman's right to choose." Speaking about 2008 as a whole for Ste and Amy, producer Bryan Kirkwood stated: "I'm really proud of the way Kieron Richardson has portrayed Ste, dare I say sympathetically, so we can understand but not condone his behaviour. He and Ashley are delivering brilliant performances as two young kids portray the reality of so many 16-17-year-olds as they struggle to make a life for themselves and repeat the mistakes of their parents. It's a very real situation and some of their scenes still to come are downright shocking. It's set to become a very big story as the year progresses." Ste later takes a violent outburst to far and a spokesperson for the serial described it as "the final straw" for Amy. She is later shown leaving Ste after finally realising she needs to accept help from those closest to her. Slanina-Davies and Richardson then fronted a charity campaign called "Expect Respect" in order to combat domestic violence. At the time Slanina-Davies released a statement reading: “Domestic abuse takes many forms, it can be physical, sexual or mental. In Hollyoaks, my character Amy faced this in her relationship with Ste and I know from this storyline why it can be difficult to leave an abusive relationship."

In 2010 Amy was involved in a special week of episodes dubbed "fire week". Amy was described as battling to save her two children Leah Barnes (Jessica Croft-Lane) and Lucas Hay (Jude Hawley) in the blaze with executive producer Paul Marquess stating: "I will say is that it will be shocking." In early 2011 Marquess revealed that Amy would be staying in the show permanently and be involved in a serious storyline in which Leanne Holiday (Jessica Forrest) would do some "terrible things" to Amy. Executive producer Gareth Phillips later revealed that there was never any plans for Amy to leave. They filmed alternative endings to confuse viewers and added they had been "mischievous" in doing so. He said it made the serial more exciting and that they had lots of storylines for Amy and Lee because they "make a great pairing".

Amy was written out of the series in 2012. Series producer Emma Smithwick told Digital Spy's Kilkelly that Amy often did not "care for herself and her own wellbeing" because she was to busy helping Ste and her children. Smithwick and her colleagues had wondered what would happen if Amy was no longer in the show. They wanted explore Ste's character without having the stability that Amy provides him. But Smithwick noted that she "loves" Amy and the decision was just "dictated by story". The storyline played out when Amy "goes on a wild night out", gets drunk and kisses Ste. Richardson told a writer from Inside Soap that "when Ste comes to her rescue, Amy's emotions are all over the place after splitting up with Ally. So after Ste shows her a little kindness, she gets the wrong idea and goes in for a snog." Amy is "mortified" by her actions and has to rethink her life in Hollyoaks. She decides to move away to study taking Leah and Lucas with her. Richardson explained that his character has done everything for his family and to not have Amy and the children in his life is a "massive thing to get used to." Amy made her final on-screen appearance during the episode broadcast on 8 August 2012. Amy will return in February 2013 for two episodes and the scenes will feature Ste, Brendan, Leah and Lucas. Slanina-Davies filmed the scenes in December 2012.