Townsville actress Harriet Dyer as Patricia in Love Child. Source: Supplied

The 27-year-old actress said filming the scene in which her character Patricia Saunders (Pattie) gave birth to a stillborn baby was one of the most difficult things she’s ever had to do.

“I remember that weekend feeling depleted in so many ways,” she told news.com.au. “I think that week my whole world was about losing a child, my body felt like I had lost something quite big to me because your body doesn’t know the difference between fantasy and reality. Your body reacts the same way it would in a situation of grief or fear, it makes you a bit empty.”

Dyer said she felt so drained from the emotion of filming the scene that it took her quite a while to get over it.

“You go to a pretty dark corner of your life, you let go of those screams that everyone knows they have in them but hope they're never going to come out. Your body doesn't know the difference between fantasy and reality, it’s like when you’re on a ghost train, you get scared even though you know its fake. And because I told my body that it’s hurting, crying and had lost something, the cells go ‘we’re all sad’ and my body was like ‘I thought we were at a funeral’. It definitely costs you something and it’s very taxing on you as a person.”

Dyer said the screams she let go at her co-star Mandy McElhinny during the labour scene were unlike any she’d ever heard herself make before.

Harriet Dyer and Jessica Marais in her labour scene from Love Child. Source: Channel 9

“I’ve never yelled like that before at someone in my life,” she said. “It just felt the way it looked, I think I felt red, I felt tense, I don't remember much, it's a slightly hypnotic state when you’re that worked up, your brain helps you forget things that aren't nice.”

Dyer said the prosthetic bump she wore was “massive” and although it wasn’t the first time she’d worn one it left her feeling “strangely clucky”.

“I had a friend who was heavily pregnant at the time and I had nightmares for her, I was so scared that the baby wouldn't make it, I was dreaming a lot about her. And when she was overdue, I was worried.”

Harriet Dyer with Miranda Tapsell and Sophie Hensser. Source: Supplied

While all was fine with her friend’s baby and despite the trauma she went through playing the character, Dyer says she loved being Pattie.

“She’s just a joy to play because she’s so open and very kind and she's funny as well and it's a special kind of funny. She's so naive and sweet and that’s were the comedy comes from and since she lost her child, she has been reborn.”

Love Child Season 2 is available on DVD now. We’ve got 10 x packs of Season 1 and Season 2 to giveaway! To win, like our news.com.au Entertainment Facebook page, comment on the Love Child post and tell us in 25 words or less “Why you want to win Love Child on DVD”. Competition closes Friday 10 July at 4pm. For T & C’s click here.

Harriet Dyer is an actress originally from Queensland. Source: News Corp Australia

Harriet Dyer in the heartbreaking scene. Source: Channel 9