Ali Bastian was just 21 when she joined Hollyoaks in 2001 as Becca Hayton. At the time, the soap was attracting millions of viewers, and Ali found herself at the centre of some of its biggest storylines.
After deciding to leave the show in 2007, Ali admits she initially worried she’d made a huge mistake by walking away at the height of its success. However, she was soon rewarded with a regular role in The Bill.
Opening up on her career with new online bingo brand Zingo Bingo, Ali reflects back on her acting journey, including her stints in The Bill and Doctors - plus what really goes on backstage at Strictly Come Dancing.
Speaking to new online bingo brand Zingo Bingo, Ali Bastain shares:
When did you audition for Hollyoaks?
I was 19 when I started Hollyoaks, and it was a huge break for me. I'd always really wanted to be an actress. It was something that was just kind of in me. I went to little dance and drama classes, then I went full time to the school and was with their agency. It was the same agency that Kate Winslet was with. I played the young Jane Eyre for the BBC. Then I got this audition for Hollyoaks, which was a big open casting call. I went up for it, not thinking I would really stand a chance at all of getting it because it was crazy busy, queues and queues of people. I didn't hear anything for a couple of months, then I got called up to Liverpool for an audition. There were only six of us for five parts. At that point it was like, ‘oh my God, the odds are quite good here’. Amazingly, the five of us that got the jobs were on the train together going back to London. We all got phone calls from our agents so we all went wild on the train.
I got the call on Thursday and I started filming the following week. I moved up to Liverpool and my life changed overnight. It was one of those real pinch me moments. I have such a love for that place and I was there for six years. I felt like part of the furniture by that point because I had been there for so long. I had amazing mates and there was a lovely crew. It was a huge huge moment in my career, really.
Becca went through loads of highs and lows in those six years and as an actor, I got to try loads of different things: comedy and heartbreak! My character, in the end, went through a lot of heartache, but it really challenged me as an actor and the speed as well that soap works at is insane.
How did you find open casting calls?
Back in the 2000s, there were definitely more casting calls, but I think that’s because it was the only way to really find people. It would be interesting if that came back again. The call I went to [for Hollyoaks] was full of people coming from modelling and acting agents, so I think most people were represented in some way - so it wasn’t completely open. A few years later, Hollyoaks decided to do it. I can't remember what we called it, but I ended up presenting on it, these open calls and we found actors through that. Roxanne McKee came in through that and she's gone on to have a terrific career, and Simon Cole. He came into it through those auditions.
Hollyoaks were always quite innovative and they would be brave and try things. Hollyoaks actually went for it and made a programme about the search for the new stars of Hollyoaks. It's so important to people that there are lots of avenues into the industry and that it doesn't feel like a closed shop because I think it can do.
Soap stars always talk about how quick the turnaround is. Would you agree?
In some ways, I think it is an amazing training ground. It helps you learn to trust your instincts as a performer, and I think it made me a very instinctive performer. You don't have the time to deep dive into the script that you might have on other jobs, so you do have to just trust your gut and go for it and see what happens. That's the magic of it, but I like that. I suppose it's different from other jobs in that if you do a film, drama or a play, you know the full arc of your character's journey. With soap, you get on the crazy train and off you go and you never know what's around the corner and what storylines you're going to be playing next, but I absolutely love that about it, it keeps you alive as a performer.
How do you find the acting industry in Ireland?
Where I live on the west coast of Ireland, I've been really encouraged by the fact that there's this feeling of more of a curiosity here. People want to know, ‘oh, what are you up to? What are you making?’ There's a bit more positivity around the industry and it doesn't feel as closed as I think it can feel in London. There’s a really thriving entertainment industry here. It's really good to see that and I would love to be part of it myself.
There've been some huge names in the arts to come out of Ireland in the last few years - which must feel quite exciting?
It feels exciting, but I think that's part of the feeling. It's part of the heritage here, in the fabric of this country. The arts and musicality, dance, performance, it feels it’s considered to be an important part of life here, not a sort of additional thing, but something that everyone can and should be experiencing. This isn’t just if you want to pursue a career in entertainment, but to be able to make connections and experience creativity to cultivate empathy, to imagine putting yourself into somebody else's shoes. I really think in this day and age is something that can be so easily lost.
Were there ever any storylines pitched to you which didn’t end up happening?
If I hadn't left at that point, I think that the plan was for Becca to return [to Hollyoaks village] and end up with Jake. This was a plan that was floated by me, but it was never sort of officially down on paper. By that point, I was also just really ready to go home as well. I’d been in Liverpool for six years and I felt that I was ready for a new start. At that point, I made the decision to leave. That is why that storyline ended how it ended [with Becca being killed off].
I went home and I had about a month of thinking, ‘Oh my God have I made the biggest mistake here? What's going to happen?’ Then I got an audition for The Bill. I went in as a guest and actually managed to get a regular role. I got a phone call that night saying, ‘You didn't get the job, but they want you to come back tomorrow because they're casting for a new regular’. I was like, ‘oh my God!’ I went back to that audition and I got the job and then I started as a regular on that and was there for three years. Our industry is so bonkers. You never know what's around the corner. One door closes, another opens.
Becca was killed off in quite a dramatic fashion. Was that your idea or was that from the producers?
No. I remember it was me that had wanted to finish, and I was ready [to leave], but I don't think I would have chosen to die. I remember when I heard that I was like, ‘Oh, great. That is really the end of that. I'm never coming back’. I was a bit gutted, because I had that sense of knowing there was no way back. At the same time, it gave such a strong ending to that storyline and to her journey. I am quite glad I didn't just disappear into a cupboard and never come out again. I did get a cracking final story. You hope for that, of course, but it did make it feel final!
I mean, I would never say never [to returning]. If they wanted me to go back as a ghost, I would definitely consider it. I feel like [Becca’s son] Charlie could do with some guidance. I'd be right in there to be like, ‘what's going on here?’ That phone call never came. In some ways it's like it kept me moving forward and kept me doing new things and different things and I'm glad for that too.
What was it like working on The Bill?
I loved The Bill. I really loved it. It was like going to ‘big school’ after [Hollyoaks]. I felt like I graduated. It was shot at quite a pace as well. Not as fast as soap, but I got to do so many fun things and stunts and stunt driving and I loved it. I really loved it. It was a good time and a lot of laughing. I worked with [EastEnders star] Micah Balfour, he played my partner on that and we just laughed every day. I just remember there was a little gang of us. We all had the same, really random, sense of humour. There were lots of giggles and laughs and I really looked forward to work everyday.
What was your favourite thing about working on the show?
The challenges were just really different because, at that time, the storylines weren't emotionally driven. They were really police-based storylines. It was just playing lots of different things. For me, it was that they liked, for some reason, putting me into lots of really crazy situations. I was always doing stunts. I'm not the most athletic human, but I will go for it. I was involved in loads of fight scenes and I remember probably one of the biggest ones we did was filming in the Thames. Literally in the Thames, for three days up by City Airport where they jettisoned a car off the side of the road and then I had to jump out after it and try and pull a girl out of it. I was on a hydraulic going down under the water and she was in there and it was crazy. Really fun and really not your average day at the office.
Do you think we'll ever see The Bill come back? Would you like it to return?
I would love that. Every time there's been a mention of that, I think it'd be so good. It was such an institution. I'd love to see it really go back to its roots. I'm probably biased because I played uniform, but it became, towards the end, more based in CID and less about less uniform stories.
It would need to go back to like Bobby's on the beat and be anchored in that again. I'd be delighted if that came back again.
Shows like Holby City too, that's gone now. They would both give actors their first break - Doctors as well. The fact that those three jobs have gone now, that would give somebody their first opportunity to work on a TV set, it's devastating actually. It's really bad. I hope other things will fill those shoes.
It’s not just actors that get their break on these sorts of shows. Any crew and writers and production staff training come from the ground up. I worked with people that were running on Hollyoaks that were then producing Doctors when I went onto that. Over the years, people fly up the ranks, but how are people going to get the experience? It’s not good.
How did you find your experience on Doctors?
I did six months on Doctors. That is definitely, 100%, the fastest TV show that I believe to have ever existed. They say for the first few months you can see the whites of actors' eyes when you come onto that job because you just fly by the seat of your pants completely. I’m sad that that's gone.
I look back and I think my main memory of that was just having terrible fits of laughter with Matt [Chambers]. He was freaking hilarious and has a brilliant sense of humor. He’s a loon in the best possible way, and he just made me laugh so much. We worked intensely together because the storyline was about me coming in as the affair. He was an absolute joy to work with. It's always the people that make the jobs, always. I think that's what I love about acting and actors, the kind of silliness allowed and the playfulness and you don't get much of that in day to day life unless you look for it.
You also previously took part in Strictly Come Dancing - how did it come about?
Strictly did come a bit out of the blue because I didn't know I was even on a list for it! I got a phone call to say, ‘Would you want to do it?’ and I said, ‘Yes, I would.’ Then that was it. I started rehearsing about three weeks before the first show and learned so much on that job. What the professionals teach us is unreal. It was a completely immersive, incredible experience. I felt like I'd climbed into the Glitterball and there I stayed for about nine months. I did the whole thing and the tour.
I actually loved the tour best out of everything. I'm not the most competitive person, so being in a competition didn't really sort of sit with me as easily. I was just doing a show and really enjoying it. My nerves sometimes would get the better of me through the competition. You would find you'd have more and more dances to do and less and less time to learn and do it. The tour just felt like loads of fun and it was an amazing experience performing to thousands of people in arenas. It was probably a once in a lifetime thing to experience for me. I hadn't danced since I was little and to have that again in my life and to be learning like that was such an incredible gift.
How did you find the Burn The Floor production?
We went on not long after the tour to do Burn the Floor, where I met the most amazing company of performers. I was so nervous. I was the only not really professional dancer going into a company. Professional dancers, they're like elite athletes. I knew it could be really hard, but I felt like they just picked me up and put me on my feet. Strictly was a very full on experience. They were just lovely. I remember it being like the hottest summer for ages, and we were in the Shaftesbury Theater in the West End. I just remember sweating my a**e off, to be honest, but loving it and having these crazy moments.
We did a salsa where these guys would flip me over and throw me up. It was a real core memory right there of just an incredible time. We did West End Live as well and I went on to do Chicago, playing Roxy for a year. That was a big moment for me. I'd always felt I had been holding someone's hand in the ballroom, but with Roxy I was just on my own on stage, like holding my own and that felt amazing too. It was a very empowering moment for me playing that character. She's one of those where you unlock so much playing a character like that, that I wanted to hold onto the parts I’d discovered about myself. I did that for a year, and I loved it and learned so much.
What was the hardest thing about Strictly?
The physical aspect is huge because it is demanding. It seems even more demanding now than it was when I did it, just in that they're doing so many lifts and things. When I was doing it was a bit more traditional and you could only do a lift in the American Smooth or in your show dance, but it wasn't all the time. It's very full on. There's a lot that goes on.
There's so much press interest as well during that time. It was a bit crazy. I remember being followed on mopeds for lunch and photographers in the bushes. To be honest, my life had never really been like that before and I have to say hasn't been since, which is absolutely fine by me! During that time, there's just a lot of focus on everybody. It was exciting and quite fun in some ways, but it was just intense.
I remember when the show finished, I think it was the night after the wrap party, I opened my front door and I was like, breathe out. Everything felt calm again. I need that for my sanity, I think everything needed to settle down for me and calm down, not be running at 100 miles an hour. I couldn't maintain that if that was my thing, as you can probably tell by the fact that I've pursued a life in rural Ireland. That's more my speed. You can perpetuate your own chaos sometimes, for a while, but I needed that to slow down a lot.
