Contrary to what most people might think, it wasn't a tough decision to leave Coronation Street. I loved the Street and it was regular money, but I had been acting in soap for eight years (before playing Jamie Baldwin in Corrie, I was in Family Affairs) and I felt I needed to try other things. Plus, I missed theatre a lot.
My idea of "other things" and other people's idea of "other things" turned out to be quite different. It is difficult to prove to some people that you can be more than a soap actor or minor celebrity, and I was getting more offers to do reality television than acting, which I felt was absurd. I knew I had to go for difficult, challenging parts so I could impress with my skill and not be forever tied to the soap celebrity tag.
After doing a play in Bolton about northern soul, which restored my confidence in performing, I got an audition for the part of Peter in Future Me by Stephen Brown. It was the best script I'd ever read. It was also about a paedophile.
The character, Peter, is a successful barrister with a lovely girlfriend and what appears to be an idyllic life. But he is exposed as being in possession of child pornography and, we discover, ends up in prison. We follow him as he goes through the system, including therapy and interaction with other paedophiles. It's a far cry from the cobbles of Corrie.
Though my agent was initially wary of me taking such a controversial part, with support from my girlfriend Jenny [Platt, who played Violet in Coronation Street], I learned the entire script for the audition – a first. If I didn't get the role, it wouldn't be for want of preparation.
But the work paid off and I did. The director, Guy Retallack, has really pushed me beyond my comfort zone in rehearsals. My research has involved watching films such as The Woodsman, starring Kevin Bacon, and reading widely, from Nabokov's Lolita to criminology books including Bob Long and Bob McLachlan's The Hunt for Britain's Paedophiles.
There's a quote on the book jacket: "Monsters don't get close to children, nice men do…" and that is part of what the play is about. As much as our initial reaction might be to demonise paedophiles and as much as the tabloid press seeks to paint them as inhuman, they are still people, and there are a large number of them out there.
Of course, child abuse is wrong, but Future Me intelligently explores the subject. It doesn't come up with pat answers, nor does it rely on easy, knee-jerk responses. Some of the characters are responsible for terrible acts, but as the play emphasises, it's naive to reduce them to one-dimensional archetypes. As such, it is a story as much about hope, love and the possibility of redemption as it is about paedophilia. There's warmth, humour and sympathy and much discussion of how Peter's actions affect those around him – not least his girlfriend and his brother.
Playing Peter hasn't just just helped me grow as an actor, but deeply affected my personal outlook. That might sound odd, but come and see the play and re-evaluate what you think about this most contentious of issues. Or not, as the case may be.
