Michelle Richardson
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| Michelle Richardson | |
|---|---|
 April Pearson as Michelle Richardson |
|
| First appearance | "Tony" |
| Centric episodes | "Michelle" |
| Information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Age | 18 (birthday: 3 March) |
| Occupation | Student |
| Family | Anna Richardson (mother) Ted (step-father) Scarlett (step-sister) |
| Relationships | Tony Stonem (boyfriend) Josh Stock (ex-boyfriend) Sid (ex-boyfriend) |
| Portrayed by | April Pearson |
| Created by | Bryan Elsley and Jamie Brittain |
Michelle Richardson is a fictional character in the television series Skins played by April Pearson.
[edit] Characterisation
Michelle is portrayed initially as primarily interested in serving her boyfriend Tony's needs and in "looking shaggable" which she places as her primary function, compared with Jal's interest in the clarinet. She is very confident in her appearance - on the Skins website in a Myspace-style "about me" section, she protests that her pictures have not been Photoshopped, and that she is "this gorgeous in real life".[1] She is also aware of Sid being in love with her, and is sometimes angry at Tony for him calling her "nips" and protesting that her boobs are uneven. Despite lack of academic interest, she is a very talented linguist.[2] It is stated that she is very talented with languages and seems to be fluent in French and Spanish. Also, in the first episode of Series One, she seems to understand Italian when it is spoken near her. It is also hinted in the last episode of series 2 that her oldest/longest known friend is Chris when she says she first met him when she was 7.
[edit] Character history
In the episode "Tony" she convinces one of her best friends, Cassie to sleep with Sid at Tony's behest. Cassie, freshly out of rehab, obliges. Before the events of "Cassie", she throws a big house party which is seen in the Skins promotional trailers. She appears to have some minor issues with her mum and step dad. In "Jal" she starts to worry about Tony's interest in posh girl Abigail Stock, and in "Chris" she laments that she feels Tony who she loves will never love her in the way Sid does. In "Sid", as an experiment, Tony kisses Abigail at a concert before Michelle's eyes to prompt her to angrily break up with him backstage where he had been fondling Abigail. After a brief run in with some chav girls, she tells Sid she believes he was in on her humiliation and angry with him too. Tony urges Sid to try and score with Michelle on the rebound, and as Michelle appears to warm to him, Tony appears and forces Sid to watch as he takes Michelle back instantly, affirming his power over them both.
In "Maxxie and Anwar" she and Jal attempt to reconnect while on a school trip in Russia, getting incredibly drunk. Believing she is passed out, Tony attempts to seduce Maxxie. Unknown to Tony, Michelle oversees them kissing and Tony going down on his knees, only to be told by Maxxie he isn't very good. She later probes Tony for a confession but he is unaware she is alluding to his infidelity.
Later, in "Michelle", she punches and dumps Tony for not confessing his attempted infidelity with Maxxie, and later learns of his other conquests from Jal; which include Abigail Stock. She derides Maxxie for being a 'dirty little slut'. During a confrontation with Abigail, she is introduced to Abi's brother, Josh. Confronted by Tony whilst deleting old photographs from her phone, Michelle asks him to prove that he loves her completely, but he is unconvincing, so she turns to Sid on the rebound. Sid, surprisingly, has come to love her as just a friend, so she takes him to see Cassie who has gone back into rehab after a suicide attempt. At the rehab clinic, she meets with Josh again - who works there - and sets out to seduce him.
After this Michelle succeeds in winning over Josh and learning that his mother, a psychiatrist, medicates him, their relationship progresses nicely until Tony sabotages it by sending lurid pictures of Abigail from Josh's phone to Michelle. After helping to repair her mother and stepfather's hollow relationship, Tony makes another futile attempt to regain Michelle as his girlfriend, in spite of a slightly better attempt to explain that he loves her.
In the series finale, Michelle goes with Jal to Anwar's birthday party. Michelle isn't seen much throughout the rest of the episode until the end where Tony confesses his love for her over the phone, he is knocked over by a bus abruptly after. It was unclear as to whether Michelle knew of Tony's accident.
In the second series, we learn that Michelle has had no contact with Tony during the six months after his accident. Instead she has been drinking at bars, flirting with men, and presumably having sex as well. It's clear that she is confused how to approach the situation with Tony, although she is quite aware that what she's been doing is wrong. We see an example of this when Sid, at a club, catches her dancing with two guys and snogging, to which she walks away guilty and humiliated having been seen. Later in the episode, through an emotional confession to Sid, we learn that Michelle has gone to seen Tony only once since the accident.
School eventually resumes and Michelle is now in her final year of college. In an Unseen Skins episode, Maxxie encourages Michelle to sign up for the school play. Although Michelle declines because of stage fright, she eventually auditions where she shows she has an aptitude for singing, and eventually gets the lead role alongside Maxxie. During a kissing scene during rehearsal between Maxxie, Sketch -- Maxxie's stalker -- puts Michelle's life into danger when she purposely drops a heavy stage light out of jealousy.
Later at a costume fund raising party for Drama, Michelle wears a costume modeled on Princess Leia, only to be insulted by Abigail, who is also dressed as Leia. To make matters worse she came to the party with Tony, who is dressed as Luke Skywalker. Michelle is hurt that Tony dressed "for" Abigail, although Tony is unclear himself of the circumstances of his costume, let alone his relationship with Abigail. Michelle takes Tony into a private area where she confronts Tony as to why he took Abigail to the party. We learn that Abigail has been convincing Tony that she is his girlfriend, not Michelle. After both a failed attempt at seducing Tony and being deeply hurt that Tony doesn't remember her, Michelle comes to realisation that Tony isn't the same person anymore.
When word gets around that Sketch was assaulted by their Drama teacher (a false story Sketch made up), Michelle shows kindness and compassion when she attempts to befriend her and invites her to sit with her during lunch. Michelle learns Sketch's true nature only when Sketch gives her pills that make her sick, causing her to drop out of the school play just moments before the show (and subsequently fulfilling the role).
In episode 4 Michelle once again asks Tony how much he remembers, however he doesn't remember much if anything about their relationship at all. When Michelle tries to seduce Tony, Tony has developed an erectile dysfunction, which frustrates Michelle and prompts her to slap him, blaming him for his accident and subsequent condition. Although she apologises, she tells Tony she "cannot wait" for him and the two officially end their relationship. Before leaving Tony gives her an early birthday gift, and Michelle invites him along on her birthday camping trip, to which he declines.
Meanwhile, we learn that her mother has ended her relationship with Malcolm, and has recently married one of her clients, Ted. They have also moved in with him into his newly renovated upscale home, which Michelle dislikes greatly. To make matters worse, Ted has a spoiled daughter named Scarlett -- who he's closer to than any father and daughter should be -- who decides she'd move in as well.
At school, Scarlett wins Michelle's friends with her charm and sex appeal. When she invites herself on the camping trip, offering to use her car, Michelle feels annoyed although she doesn't say anything. On the trip she feels alone and annoyed with Scarlett's presence there, and finds comfort from both Sid and Maxxie. Later that night she catches Scarlett trying to seduce Sid, and finally decides to confront her. However she learns that Scarlett isn't as much of a bad person as she pretends to be, and goes after Sid instead.
In an intense moment, Sid expresses his grief to Michelle, and the two of them kiss and make love for the first time with each other on the beach. They decide to keep their relationship private, feeling that they're not ready to tell their friends, and preferring to spend more time with each other. However after returning to Sid's home where they passionately attempt to have sex in Sid's bedroom, they're interrupted by Cassie, who has been watching the entire time from Sid's bed.
Although Cassie blatantly announces to everyone of Michelle and Sid's relationship, they're still -- although apologetically -- together.
She is seen briefly in the second season episode "Effy", primarily ignoring at least 39 phone calls and 141 text messages from Tony. She returns the watch Tony bought her with a smashed face. Effy has it fixed and gets the word "Forever" engraved on the back, before sending it back to Michelle as if from Tony. The next time Tony tries to call her, she picks up and tells him she loves him.
[edit] References
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