EastEnders star Adam Woodyatt has told of how he always gives rude fans who comment on his weight a cutting comeback to chew over.
The 51-year-old has played Ian Beale in the hit BBC soap since 1985 but says he is not one for the attention that comes with fame.
And when the attention he gets is rude or offensive, he responds in kind.
Adam said: “I’m not a showy person. I try to avoid attention.
“I’m not your typical luvvie, so I tend to get a quieter time.
“During the 80s, through to the mid-90s, people did think you were the character and that was it. That has changed for the better. Now, everybody wants a selfie.
“If I’m having a meal, I’ll ask someone to wait until I’ve finished eating. At this point it usually turns to, ‘You’re just like your character, you’re rude’.
“Actually no, you’re the one who is being rude. You’ve come up and interrupted somebody while they’re in the middle of doing something.
“Have some patience. Have some manners.
“If anyone is being rude, you are. One of the best examples of somebody being rude is when we were at BBC Good Food.
This woman looks at me and says, ‘You’re fatter than you are on the telly’. I said to her, ‘If I had said that to you, you could go to the papers and say I was being rude, this and that. I’m sorry, I don’t like the way you spoke to me’.
“She said ‘I didn’t mean it’ and went off.
“A little while later a bloke has leant across the stand and literally patted my stomach and said, ‘You’ve put on some timber’.
“Because of what had happened with this woman, I turned around and said, ‘You’ve lost all your hair, haven’t you?’ and walked off. What gives somebody the right to say that to someone just because you’re on TV?
“If somebody comes up to you and they’re nice, I’ll be nice.
“If they’re rude and offensive, I’ll be rude and offensive back.”
The Queen Vic regular has also revealed plans to open his own boozer one day – serving his own brand of gin.
Adam and wife Beverley have been making Neat for several years.
And he told Ed James on the How Do You podcast: “I would love to open a gin bar with a bit of piano music, somebody playing in the background, comfy chairs.
“It’s a lot of money. It’s making sure that everything’s in place before taking that risk.”
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