Corrie star was ready to quit acting altogether before landing ITV role

13 February 2024 , 00:01

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Calum stars as the new boyfriend of Channique Sterling-Brown’s solicitor Dee-Dee Bailey

Calum Lill was so close to quitting acting when he landed a part in Coronation Street that he “fell to his knees, sobbing” with relief when the offer came through.

The actor, who plays Joel Deering, the new boyfriend of Channique Sterling-Brown’s solicitor Dee-Dee Bailey, said he was put through a rigorous audition process for the soap. It went on for weeks and at the time Calum was hating his job as a car salesman.

But he feared he was never going to get the break he needed to make a living from acting as the deadline for hearing about the gig had passed. He explained: “I took myself off to the key safe cupboard. I had a little cry to myself, and was like, ‘It’s OK, you’ve not got it. So close, but so far’.

Calum previously starred in Hollyoaks

“And then my phone started vibrating in my pocket, and it was my agent. I walked on to the forecourt. And he went, ‘You got it’. And, like the absolute drama queen that I am, I just fell to my knees. I was sobbing. I couldn’t speak.

“I was getting to the age where we wanted to save up for a house. And I just thought, ‘98% of actors don’t act full-time. Unfortunately, I think I’m in that 98%’.”

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Calum, 28, who played PC Carlton Smith in Hollyoaks, said his first day on the set in Salford blew his mind. “I felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. I was just walking past people I’ve known in my living room since I was five... and I was like, ‘This is insane’.”

Calum previously revealed that he was nearly “homeless” during the COVID-19 lockdown due to the shutdown of the television industry. He told the ‘Me, Myself and Hopefully You…?’ podcast in 2021: "Most actors, despite being professional actors, you still have to have a job to do, between jobs.

"Unless you're in the top one per cent. It's a hustle. That's what a lot of theatre actors struggle with. They love theatre, but it only pays enough to cover your rent while in you're in the job...You've then got to go back to waiting tables."

Nicola Methven