EastEnders star Danielle Harold claims playing Lola's end was 'difficult'

Danielle Harold, the actress who plays Lola Pearce-Brown on the BBC soap opera EastEnders, has opened up about how tough it was to film her character's heartbreaking exit story as Lola fights a terminal brain tumor.

She mentioned that it was quite tough to actually become Lola and show her deteriorating state, which meant she had to be more careful with her actions and how she breathed. Harold described the atmosphere on set to Digital Spy,

"It's been really difficult filming these last few scenes over because it does get really tough, especially towards the end."

The actress also talked about how personally it affected her to learn about the storyline and talk to real people who have been affected by brain tumors.

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EastEnders star Danielle Harold opens up on filming Lola's emotional exit

EastEnders actress Danielle Harold talked about how she played Lola Pearce-Brown's emotional goodbye on the soap opera. Lola's storyline included fighting a terminal brain tumor, and her last episode aired on May 31. Harold shared the difficulties of filming those heartfelt scenes.

She told Digital Spy,

"It's such a heartbreaking diagnosis and it's not nice to watch or to play, so working with the charities has been so important for us because we want to portray Lola's diagnosis both accurately and sensitively while also raising awareness to hopefully make a change."

Fans of the show have been supportive and love how Harold played Lola. Speaking about the same, Danielle Harold added,

"The response from everybody has been really overwhelming but really lovely as they're really supportive of Lola. It's been so lovely to see that."

As Lola's story plays out, her pals and family all come together to say their goodbyes in their special ways, showing how tight-knit the cast is both on and off set. The plot also drops some hints about intense moments with characters like Billy and Ben Mitchell.

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Danielle Harold's history and storyline so far on EastEnders

Danielle Harold has been playing Lola Pearce-Brown on EastEnders since 2011. She's really gotten into Lola's character development over the past thirteen years on the show.

Danielle Harold spoke to the Radio Times about how executive producer Chris Clenshaw managed her last EastEnders storyline. She said,

"I can't thank Chris enough for giving me the best exit. (...) There's just been so many different things that I've always wondered about Lola so to like find that out with Chris and find what would have happened, why was she - it's just been such a lovely journey to actually fulfill before I go, definitely."

Lola started out as the Mitchell family's granddaughter, causing all sorts of family drama. She ended up getting pregnant by her cousin Ben as a teenager, and she had a daughter named Lexi.

Her relationships with Peter Beale and Jay Brown were also important in her story as she tried to improve her life and become a hairdresser. But the most memorable and sad part of her journey was in 2022, when she found out she had a terminal brain tumor, which led to a tearful goodbye as she dealt with her mortality.

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Watch EastEnders on a number of streaming services, including BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime Video, Britbox Apple TV Channel, and BritBox Amazon Channel.

EastEnders airs on Mondays to Thursdays at 7:30 pm BST on BBC One.