Amanda Abbington is performing in new play When It Happens To You (Image: GETTY) "We don't want to admit that there are some things so terrible that, if they happen to us, we will be sad forever." It was Amanda Abbington as viewers had never seen her before - with eyes full of tears and an American accent that scarcely slipped. The ex- Strictly star, also known for her BBC roles in Sherlock and Mr Selfridge, was playing distraught Pennsylvanian mum Tara, struggling to console her panicking young daughter after she was brutally raped in her New York apartment.
Against the backdrop of her real-life Strictly withdrawal and account of suffering trauma and PTSD, the heart-wrenching scenes could almost be mistaken for Amanda talking to her own wounded inner child. However, in an exclusive chat with Express.co.
uk at the afterparty at the Park Theatre bar, she had set the record straight - that she never allows reality and her work to blend. Instead, she committed herself to honour the story of writer Tawni O'Dell, whose real-life pain at seeing her daughter's life ripped apart by rape brought back memories of the sex attack she'd suffered herself at a similar age. Casting her own personal heartache aside, Amanda threw herself into the role.
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