Hollyoaks fans have seen Luke Morgan’s (Gary Lucy) Ollie Morgan (Gabriel Clark)son go through the wars recently, battling drug addiction and staying by his dad’s side as he battled dementia.
Following his dad’s tragic death, Ollie decided to leave the village in upcoming scenes after landing a job in Canada.
Actor Gabriel has done an epic job of portraying the character over the past two years since he joined the popular soap, through some harrowing storylines.
READ MORE: Hollyoaks stars fear soap will be axed as part of controversial Channel 4 sale
Daily Star have taken a look at Gabriel’s life behind the scenes as he departs the Channel 4 soap.
Co-star mum
Gabriel got to spend some quality time on set with his real life mum when the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in her scoring a role alongside her son on the show.
Fans of the show will have seen scenes air in November 2021 where Ollie became embroiled in an altercation with local police officer PC Franks (Bronté Terrell) who he was subsequently seen pushing to the ground.
(Image: gabriel_clark/Instagram)
However, Covid rules meant that Gabriel’s mum was brought in as a stand-in for Bronté for the physical contact element of the scene so that they complied with restrictions at the time.
He told Inside Soap: “I pushed her over in the scene where Ollie assaults a police officer and then gets arrested.
“My mum’s an amazing opera singer so she wasn’t taken aback by the process of everything.
“She had such a great time, I think she’d love it if they asked her to come back. We had such a good laugh.”
Real-life dementia anguish
(Image: gabriel_clark/Instagram)
When on-screen dad Luke was diagnosed with dementia the storyline struck a chord very close to Gabriel’s heart in real-life.
The actor lived through real experience of the disease when he saw his great-grandmother develop and ultimately pass away from it.
Talking about it further, Gabriel said: “I had always known her as such a strong woman who was feisty and sharp.
“But when someone has dementia, those things start to disappear. I wasn’t seeing her all the time, so when I did see her I’d notice the deterioration more. She’d have forgotten who I was. That was difficult to deal with.
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“You grieve for someone before they’re gone.”
Gabriel admitted the experience made it easier for him to portray Ollie’s struggle watching his dad decline with the disease.
He added: “When you’ve been through something in real life, there is a personal element to it. You draw on your own experiences, so it’s incredibly emotional doing some of these scenes.
“But it’s still important that I do the research. As an actor, you want your performance to be relatable to everyone.
“This storyline is so important because it’s something so many people go through.”
Coming out
(Image: gabriel_clark/Instagram)
Shortly after joining Hollyoaks as Ollie, Gabriel revealed to his fans on Instagram that he is gay during a live Q&A session.
A viewer of his live stream enquired about his sexuality asking if he was part of the LGBTQ+ community
Gabriel then said: “ I am. I am really proud to be.”
He then followed up by posting on Twitter: “I love my job SO much, thank you to everyone who’ve sent such lovely messages over this last month!
“There’s so much drama to come and I’m so excited to bring it to screen and proud to be part of such an amazing cast!
“(And a part of the growing LGBT+ community on the show!”)
Hollyoaks airs weeknights on Channel 4 at 6.30pm followed by first-look episodes on E4 at 7pm
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
