EastEnders star Charlie G Hawkins says instant fame and online trolls almost destroyed him.
The actor, who played Darren Miller in the soap, suffered crippling anxiety as he became a household name in the early noughties.
Charlie, 29, felt he had to quit to save his life, which he believed was only defined by his role in the soap.
He said: “I struggled to deal with the profile of the show and I went from being this cheeky chappy who was really confident to being someone who wanted to be at the back of the room.”
Former EastEnders star Charlie G Hawkins says instant fame and online trolls almost destroyed him (Image: Getty Images)
Charlie added: “EastEnders really helped me in every avenue of life.
“The one thing it couldn’t manage me for was the feeling of fame.
“I’ve never been able to shake the feeling that people only want to talk to me about EastEnders.
“You’ve got one strand, you’ve got nothing else to your bow.”
Darren Miller was the younger brother of Micky Miller, played by Joe Swash (Image: BBC)
Charlie, who is not on social media, revealed nasty comments about his appearance on EastEnders forum Walford Web “absolutely broke” him.
He said: “You may have got 100 good comments but you’d get one bad one.
“I would stare at that one comment and it absolutely broke me. It really affected me.
“I did struggle with that but I never really wanted to turn my back on acting.”
Charlie refuses to rule out a return to Albert Square having left in 2011 after seven years (Image: BBC)
But Charlie refuses to rule out a return to Albert Square having left in 2011 after seven years.
He added to the Distinct Nostalgia podcast: “You can never say never for anything. If it fits for you in that moment in time and it was the right story then yeah.
“Would it be the right thing for me at the minute? Probably not.
“But you just never know, you can never say never.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
