New Love interest for Steph - Fernando

[tammyy2j]

Steph has put her heart and soul into her dance school, and its this new passion that sets the widow on a path to find love with newcomer Fernando

On screen debut 24th March

Source: Inside Soap

[LostVoodoo]

Fernando? :lol:

[tammyy2j]

Sarah begins working at the dance school also with Steph and develops a crush on her

[lizann]

Sarah begins working at the dance school also with Steph and develops a crush on her


:sick:

So is Sarah gay or straight or bi???????

[tammyy2j]

Jeronimo Best who will be playing dancing lothario Fernando.

Have you found it exciting or daunting coming to HOLLYOAKS?
This is my first television work, it's the first time I've been kind of slotted into a TV machine – it's a huge machine. I mean you've got four or sometimes five filming units working at the same time. It's hugely complicated, so to me that's like 'wow!' I'm not used to the logistics and the way it's all run, but at the same time it's been good because I felt very relaxed during filming.

What sort of things did you do before you started working here?
I've done some theatre and some shows in London. I did some shows for schools, and I did a show called 'Like Water For Chocolate'. It went on for three months, and the play was mainly in Spanish with only little bits of English, for a non-English speaking audience.

Are you Spanish?
I'm from Mexico. Spanish is my first language and English is my second language, and in HOLLYOAKS I play a Spaniard.

When did you move over here?
Five years ago. I got my place at uni in Mexico, but was persuaded by two friends that I should go with them to England to study English and then to travel. I had my whole plan of going to these amazing places – 'If I take the train there, and then fly and go to Turkey etc' – and then at the end of the day I didn't end up going anywhere! I auditioned for a few drama schools here in England, and when I got a place in one I thought I should really take it. So my 'take the train and backpack everywhere' dream never really happened!

Can you tell us a little bit about your character Fernando?
Fernando is a Spanish dance teacher. He's from Seville in Spain, and he teaches Latin American dancing. Fernando had a girlfriend in Spain who broke his heart, and he's basically trying to recover from it. At the same time Steph, Carley Stenson's character, has a dance school but when Fernando arrives his lessons are much more popular. They might end up helping each other out, or not as the case may be – we'll have to see!

Do you have to do a lot of dancing on screen?
I do and I don't. There are a lot of fantasy sequences from other characters where Fernando appears and dances. I haven't filmed those yet but I've been to rehearsals, we had a choreographer who specialises in Latin American dancing.

Do you feel embarrassed when you have to dance in front of everyone?
When we were rehearsing I was fine with it, I'm not usually embarrassed. But then during the rehearsal I had to do a bit on my own, which was a step which women might find sexy, you know, and when I did it I suddenly had a moment – you know when you do something with real conviction and then you suddenly see yourself from outside and think 'oh what a plonker! What am I doing?!' So yeah, that was a bit embarrassing. But it's fine, you can just laugh at yourself and have fun with it.

Can we expect lots of glitzy costumes from Fernando?
I have tried some dance trousers which are interesting! And I know they are making a bright red cummerbund thing for me. They are having a lot of fun with the character on screen and with the scripts and stuff, so they'll probably have fun with the costumes too, but I hope I won't look too bad!

Tell us a little bit about your auditions. What did you have to do to try and get the part?
There were about six other people auditioning, and they gave us a bit of time to prepare for the audition which was nice because sometimes you just get thrown into it straight away, and that's a bit difficult. But then I just walked in and went through a few scenes. Everybody was really nice and relaxed about it, and I left the room thinking I have no idea how that went. I just couldn't tell! And then literally on Thursday I heard back from my agent saying they want me to play Fernando!

[lizann]

Steph and Dom hook up to make Loretta jealous but start to fall for each other

[tammyy2j]

Dom and Steph :eek:

What happened with him and Loretta?

[Lennie]

Dom and Steph could work, seeing as the both loss their partners and can understand one another