Charlie G Hawkins struggled to cope with fame during his time on ‘EastEnders’.
The 29-year-old actor played the part of Darren Miller in the BBC soap, and Charlie has now revealed he developed anxiety as his profile grew.
He shared: "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."
Charlie thinks the soap helped him "in every avenue of life" – but he acknowledges that his ‘EastEnders’ experience wasn’t entirely positive.
He told the ‘Distinct Nostalgia’ podcast: "’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."
Charlie revealed he was particularly hurt by nasty comments posted online.
The actor – who is not on social media – explained: "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."
Despite this, Charlie suggested he’s still open to one day returning to the soap.
He said: "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."