Hollyoaks star Charlie Clapham has spoken about the downside of being on the TV in everyone's living rooms each day – you become a target for abuse.
Charlie, who plays Freddie Roscoe in the Channel 4 soap, told What's on TV: "The other week I got told I was a lookalike for Freddie and that I was too ugly to be on TV. Their daughter was going, 'Dad – it's the real Freddie!' I said, 'Don't worry babes, he's had a few drinks...'"
Charlie has had to learn ways of dealing with being in the public eye since he debuted on Hollyoaks in 2013. "I've had to [develop a thick skin] really. The TV world is very body conscious, the way I speak, the way I look, the way I dress. Certain things I take on, and just go, 'Yeah I'm going to put my effort into that', but certain times you do become self-conscious. You have to kind of have a laugh with it. If someone has a go, I go, 'Fantastic! I don't really have an opinion on you.'"
He has some advice for anyone starting out in the ultra visible world of soap acting...
"I always go straight back home to Leicester, see my mates, see my family, and I recommend any young person starting in a show like this, keep that anchor," he said. "I'm very lucky, my parents are still together, I've got a great group of friends from school, they take the mick out of me... And that's good, for every person on Twitter that tells you you're amazing and they love you, you get the odd person who wants to says something not so great.
"So you've got to take the rough with the smooth, but if you go back to where you come from, with the mates who've always known you, that can give you a great grounding and that's what I stand by."
Charlie was nominated as Best Actor at the recent British Soap Awards, an honour which was won by Emmerdale's Danny Miller.
Watch the interview with Hollyoaks' Charlie Clapham, above."]
