Adam Woodward sat down with a psychologist for five hours to research his ‘Hollyoaks’ abuse storyline.
The ‘Oaks’ star worked with charity Survivors Manchester – which provides therapy for male victims of sexual abuse – to research the plot, in which his character Brody Hudson and Ollie Morgan (Aedan Duckworth) revealed Buster Smith (Nathan Sussex) had been grooming and abusing them, and Adam admits the research "really helped" him do the story justice.
He exclusively told BANG Showbiz: "We were working with Survivors Manchester and the head of that is a psychologist and I sat down with him for five hours.
"The pair of us sat down and we really delved into the details of the psyche of both a victim and their abuser and that really helped me massively."
While Adam enjoyed playing out the hard-hitting plot, he was pleased to have a break afterwards before he goes back into another "big storyline".
He said: "It’s been nice that that big storyline has finished. Not finished completely but we’ve moved on to a slightly easier one before I go back into the big storylines
"It’s nice to have a little break in between."
Adam’s comments come after Nathan revealed he read extensive accounts of the victims of disgraced football coach Barry Bennell – who was jailed for 31 years in February after being convicted of abusing 12 boys aged eight to 15 between 1979 and 1991 – for plot inspiration.
And he admitted some of the information was "quite horrifying" to read.
He added: "The biggest case I researched was Barry Bennell. My character is not based on him but I used all the information when all the victims came forward and talked about what they went through.
"I absorbed all that and took it with me to set, because what he did was quite horrifying to those young men.
"I really only used that as inspiration really."
Adam Woodward had 5-hour psychologist research session for plot
