Coronation Street legend Simon Gregson has revealed his first decade on the soap was “hell”. The actor joined the soap in 1989 aged just 15 playing Steve McDonald.
But landing a part on the nation’s biggest television show wasn’t smooth sailing. And he’s confessed that he doesn’t know how he survived the first ten years.
But speaking on Irish television show Living With Lucy, he added: “At the beginning, my character wasn’t very well liked. That reflected in your real life. The first ten years were hell. I really don’t know how I got through it. (My son) Alfie is 15 now. If Alfie went through a tenth of what I was going through, I wouldn’t be able to cope with it for him. I really don’t know why I survived, I really honestly don’t.”
And being on the soap opened him up to criticism that left him constantly worrying – negatively affecting his mental health. “I used to be a terrible worrier, which affected me massively,” he said.
Coronation Street star opens up about tough start on soap
“I went through a time where I was so worried about stuff that I actually started to get a bit of a problem, doubt myself, hate myself, worry about everything. It was a problem, took me a while to get out of the situation. But I just suddenly thought to myself, when I’m on my deathbed, am I going to sit there and go, ‘I wish I worried more’ — and it was like an epiphany.”
The actor also recently opened up to Irish podcast Tis Yourself about the abuse he got after joining the soap. He said: “It’s instant jealousy because they think you’re multi-millionaires, which obviously is not the case. And secondly, they have a preconception. They’re like, ‘He’s off the telly, therefore he’s going to be an [expletive].’
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“‘He’s going to have his head up his backside, he’s going to be a show-off, he’s going to be big-headed and he’s going to think he’s great.’
“So you kind of go out of your way to convince a stranger you’re a normal person and that’s how I spent most of my time doing. It’s only into my late-30s I was like, ‘What are you doing? Who cares what they think?’”
Coronation Street usually airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV.
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