Emily Head says her co-star Thomas Atkinson is "genuinely terrifying" as ‘Emmerdale’ kidnapper Lachlan White.
Lachlan currently has Emily’s character Rebecca White, who is his aunt, locked up in a derelict shack in the woods ever since she found him trying to kill Robert Sugden and Liv Flaherty and Emily admitted her co-star’s portrayal is so realistic that he sometimes scares her.
Speaking to Metro.co.uk, she said: "Tom brings almost an innocence there still which sounds ridiculous talking about a serial killer. In some scenes talking about the death of his mother, there was a real sadness, hurt and like he was a child again. There is real depth to the character not just a knife wielding sociopath. He gave me a look yesterday that was genuinely terrifying! He does it very well."
And she admitted that some of the scenes where she is locked up have been "brutal" to film.
She said: "They’re pretty full on. He never hits her but he is certainly a bit rough at times and very menacing. I think there is a reason she doesn’t really fight back, she has her hands free for a lot of it. My initial reaction reading scripts was why doesn’t she claw at his face? But she is genuinely terrified of what he may do to her. ‘Survival instinct kicks in and to be subdued is a better option. They have a massive argument and he’s not very happy with her after that, she screams at him about all the awful things he’s done. He gets very angry and yanks at her chain, some of it is pretty brutal but there’s nothing too violent that we can’t put it on TV!"
Emily recently admitted she feels "sad" after crying for 10 hours a day while filming her emotional ‘Emmerdale’ hostage scenes.
She said: "I don’t take it home with me when I have days with lots of crying and emotional scenes.
"But your body knows you’ve been crying for 10 hours, and you feel a bit sad.
"I try to talk to a family member and get back into the real world.
"But Thomas is so lovely, and between scenes we mess around – which means it’s never too heavy to shake off."
While there is a chance Rebecca could die at the hands of serial killer Lachlan, Emily isn’t worried about her character being killed off because she is enjoying playing out the "exciting" storyline.
She said: "It doesn’t make me nervous at all. If you spoke to Louise [Marwood, Rebecca’s late sister Chrissie White], she knew that the build-up to Chrissie’s death was so exciting, and that’s all that mattered.
"I think as long as we’re telling good stories, it’s not important when or how your character goes, as long as you enjoy the work that you’re doing."
Thomas Atkinson ‘genuinely terrifying’ as Lachlan White
