Corrie star had unexpected reaction to sinister character and is ‘waiting’ for aggression

Coronation Street star Emrhys Cooper, who plays cult leader Rowan Cunliffe, in the ITV soap says people have been "vocal" about their dislike for the character. The actor, who first appeared on screens earlier this year, admits he "didn't anticipate" the fan reaction to him but he is glad about it.

Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk he said: " I'm just glad I am getting heckled out quite a lot. That's good. It means that people have an emotional reaction.

"It's something I'm passionate about sharing and bringing you know these stories to life [cults]. So it's been very cathartic. I like Rowan, because I get to play the bad guy. I get to put myself in their shoes.

"He is a very complicated character. He's obviously struggled a lot with a lot of issues and I'm hopefully playing it with nuance and with layers.

"It's exciting to play a role like this, because he does have good intentions. But, you know, the road to hell is paid for good intentions sometimes," he pondered.

"But I didn't anticipate just how vocal the people, especially in Manchester, would be. I actually like it. I think it's funny. I banter with them, so it's not I like I have been smacked around the head by with a handbag yet - but I'm waiting for that," he laughs.

Fans disdain Rowan because he has sucked Leanne Battersby (Jane Danson) into the institute costing her everything. Using her grief for her late son Oliver the organisation created an AI image of his for her to talk to.

Enthralled by this and their apparent understanding of her past transgressions she has isolated friends and family and her association with them appears to have been the death knell for her relationship with Nick Tilsley (Ben Price).

While the storyline may have seemed a bit far-fetched when it began Emrhys is all too aware of how people fall victim to organisations like these as it happened to his own parents.

"It was Kismet ironic and very much poetic justice that I would play Rowan in Coronation Street, given my personal experiences with cults. My parents wound up unknowingly in a cult," he confessed.

While he won't reveal the cult in order to protect his parents he admits: "I saw just first hand the dangers and the consequences of their experience.

And growing up in Totnes it's a hotbed for New Age thinking, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does attract a lot of charlatans, gurus and holistic doctors that don't have the qualifications or training with what they're selling.

"So unfortunately, my parents did fall victim to quite a few in Devon, which meant I did feel very unsafe growing up, because I had these strange figures coming in and out of our lives and home, and I couldn't really understand growing up," he recalled.