Guilt | Interview with Sara Vickers (Erin)

Erin has a very complicated relationship with her parents and her family background. Can you shed more light on that for us?

She’s estranged from her dad and is a little bit trapped between two worlds. There’s a lot of resentment from Erin’s point of view, because obviously she blames her dad for her mum’s accident. She wants nothing to do with her father, but at the very beginning of the series her hand is forced and she has to reconnect with the slightly shadier side of her family.

She’s had the private education, she lives in a very beautiful house – money isn’t an issue, but the money’s not good money.

The upbringing she had has always been a little murky – there were always things going on. But kids are astute and she’s picked up on things. She knows her dad has been up no good, which is obviously why she has taken a sidestep from him. We kind of meet her at a point where she’s trying to make amends for all that, make her own life. She has what she thinks is her stable husband and marriage, she’s setting up her own business. She’s trying to make amends for what has happened in the past with her family. And of course, she’s very close to her mum, and that and she’s very protective of her as well. That’s the main relationship for her – it’s that mother daughter relationship and that is just all encompassing. She wants to please her mum and make sure she’s okay and happy, whilst making amends for a what her dad’s done to her.

What was your impression of the script when you read it and what attracted you to this particular part?

When I got the scripts through for the audition I binge watched the first series and then I couldn’t stop watching. I really liked it and I just have never seen anything like it. When I read the new scripts with the twists and turns that she goes on, I mean there’s no point where she gets to rest as a character. She’s constantly being flipped back and forth to who can she trust. She’s desperately trying to find her way while everything around her is shifting.

I’ve never seen a Scottish show like this that has universal appeal as well. There are lots of little things that you know the Edinburgers will get!

What was it like to film that opening scene with the gun? Have you ever worked with guns for a part before?

On stage yes, but not, not on not on camera. We filmed that section just over one day and there were so many technicalities, making sure that all the little bits of choreography match perfectly. It was full-on but it was great fun to film.

Having been a viewer of the first series and now starring in the second series, how do you think it differs?

It’s evolved quite dramatically from the first one. The other one was very suburban, this is very much urban living, city-centre drugs, and a lot more going on, a lot more characters and a lot more complications. In the first series, the old man gets run down and that thread is pretty much throughout, but this one has got so many spokes that come off. It’s got a different feel. It feels the same but different.

You’re new to the series, what was it about guilt that that made you want to want to be involved?

It was a total no-brainer for me. I just loved the first series and the pressure was on to try and do as much justice to this one is as possible, which hopefully, fingers crossed, we’ve managed.

What would Erin’s definition is of guilt is?

It’s funny that a lot of her stuff is based on blame and I think sometimes she feels like a victim of a lot of things that have happened to her in her past. I don’t think she feels guilty about blocking her dad out of her life but I definitely think she thinks that’s the right choice. She’s constantly trying to repair the damage that has been done to her mother by her father, and she doesn’t think she can ever give everything to her mum that her mum needs, so she probably feels guilty about that.

If Neil were to write Erin into a third series, would you like to return?

Hell yes!