Coronation Street star ‘couldn’t stop crying’ over his harrowing male rape storyline
Jack P Shephard is tackling the issue of male rape in his latest storyline on the ITV soap
By Joshua Haigh
Coronation Street actor Jack P Shephard has opened up about his distressing new storyline.
Shephard’s character David Platt finds himself getting drunk with character Josh on a night out, only to find himself waking up in the morning and realising he’s been the victim of sexual assault.
The harrowing scenes are set to air this week, and it’s the first time the ITV soap has ever explored a male rape storyline.
While it’s going to be tough for viewers to watch the fallout of the incident, which will see David shutdown and refuse to tell anyone of his ordeal, Shephard says that it was even harder to get himself into the headspace to film the scenes.
“David is tormented and the viewer needs to see that, so for David to break down it needs to feel real and not forced. It’s very emotional and after one scene I couldn’t stop crying”, he told Radio Times.
“For those particular type of scenes it can take a while. I just need to take myself off somewhere on my own and get rid of David.
The actor continued: “In showing how David struggles to cope with what happened to him and the effect not speaking to anyone then has on him, hopefully people will start talking about the storyline and it could help someone who has gone through something similar to realise the need to open up.”
Hollyoaks star Gary Lucy was the first to tackle the issue of male rape almost 20 years ago back in 2000 when his character on the Channel 4 soap was sexually assaulted.
The actor recently returned to the series, where viewers saw him struggle to cope when he inadvertedly spotted the man who had attacked him all those year ago.
If you’ve been affected by rape or sexual abuse and need to speak to anyone, call Rape Crisis on 0808 802 9999
Coronation Street continues tomorrow at 7.30pm on ITV