Aimee-Ffion Edwards has opened up about the weight of responsibility she felt while portraying a real-life sexual assault survivor in ITV's harrowing drama Believe Me.
The actress took on the role of Sarah, one of the victims of notorious predator John Worboys, in the new series examining how women were let down by authorities.
Speaking to GB News and other media, Ms Edwards revealed that depicting a real person's trauma came with significant pressure.
"You feel a responsibility in doing that, and you want to do that as well as you can," she said.
Aimee-Ffion Edwards as Sarah, Miriam Petche as Carrie and Aasya Shah as Laila
|ITV
Aimee-Ffion Edwards opened up on the responsibility of her role on ITV's Believe Me
|ITV
The Welsh actress praised writer Jeff Pope's scripts for their richness and attention to everyday moments, which she believes helped bring authenticity to the characters and made them genuinely relatable to audiences.
The drama chronicles the crimes of Worboys, who became known as the "black cab rapist" after targeting women while operating as a licensed taxi driver in London.
He received a conviction in 2009 for sexually assaulting twelve women over a two-year period, though these cases represented only a fraction of his suspected victims.
His method involved picking up women following nights out, then claiming he had won money at a casino or on the lottery before offering them champagne laced with drugs that left them unconscious.
Daniel Mays portrayed John Worboys in Believe Me
| ITVBelieve Me depicts how Sarah and Laila, played by Aasiya Shah, reported their assaults to the Metropolitan Police, only to face inadequate investigations that left them feeling disbelieved.
The Met's failures allowed Worboys to continue offending undetected for years, with his trial revealing links to allegations from over a hundred women.
Ms Edwards explained that meeting the real Sarah proved invaluable for her preparation, though the circumstances offered an unexpected creative freedom.
"I was sort of relieved of the responsibility of needing to talk like her and look like her because we're protecting her identity, which is quite freeing," she revealed.
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Believe Me airs on ITV this weekend
| ITVThis anonymity allowed the actress to channel her efforts differently, focusing on capturing something deeper than mere physical resemblance.
"So it means that you can put a bit more energy and effort into, I guess, portraying their energy and their essence," Ms Edwards added.
She described Sarah as remarkably open and generous during their conversations, sharing details about her lived experience that helped Edwards understand the woman beyond the headlines.
Ms Edwards spoke of the importance of understanding who Sarah was before the attack, discussing her children and her life prior to the assault.
The victims portrayed in the drama, Sarah and Laila, pursued legal action against the Metropolitan Police | ITV"Because also that is so important, and it was also so brilliant about us taking time to get to the point of the attack, because you need to show how much this has changed people's lives," she explained.
The actress reflected on how such trauma transforms victims both immediately and over time, affecting their relationships and life choices in ways that prove difficult to articulate.
"It's a fact that these women's lives change in such a sort of vast way," Edwards noted, citing examples such as being unable to use public transport or interact with others.
She expressed feeling privileged to have met Sarah, describing her as "very funny" and "really wonderful."