HOLLYOAKS star Angus Castle-Doughty revealed he was left with a crippling eating disorder after stripping naked for a Netflix show.
Angus, who played villain Eric Forster in the Channel 4 soap, said he developed an “obsession” with food after filming nude scenes in the 2019 series Shadow And Bone – only for it to be cut from the show.
He began a strict fitness and diet regime in the lead up to filming – only eating only two meals a day, extreme intermittent fasting and going to the gym twice a day.
“Up until recently, I felt like I had failed myself if I wasn’t thin and in doing so, I’ve denied myself many memories I could have enjoyed because of my obsession with food and exercise,” he told the Mirror.
He went on: ‘”It wasn’t an insecurity of ‘oh I am going to get naked on camera’, it was more I wanted to do everything I possibly could do to work as hard as possible for the role.”
Despite never being asked by lose weight by Netflix, the star began to develop an unhealthy obsession with his figure.
“Nobody at Netflix or the show asked me to change,” he said.
“It was me who got it into my head that I had to lose the weight.
“I managed to get down to 6% body fat (even though I was probably only on about 10%t to start with) when I went into filming the scene.
“But the irony is they then didn’t use it anyway!”
Even after filming wrapped, the 29-year-old star continued to eat just 1500 calories a day.
He admitted that even his ballet dancer mum Lynda tried to get him to stop but said that he “ignored her warning”.
Angus explained that he didn’t feel like he was “good enough” if he wasn’t thin, despite his friends begging him to eat a burger.
In August 2020, Angus started to ease up on his routine and by 2022 he landed his most recent role in Hollyoaks, where he met girlfriend Niamh Blackshaw, 24.
But the star was still worried about his appearance on screen after he struggled to fit exercise in between his busy filming schedule.
The soap star said he felt like he’d “failed” when he saw himself back on screen.
But Angus has now turned a corner and just two months ago said he began eating breakfast again and no longer visits the gym twice a day – but still exercises regularly.
He added: “I felt like I’d let myself down though and I can remember how, on one occasion, after seeing myself on camera, I decided I needed to take up long-distance running and so I started running 50 miles a week on top of filming.”
Last year, Angus and co-star Niamh revealed they are dating in real life.
Niamh, who played Juliet Nightingale, posted the romantic black & white snap – which shows the pair holding hands.
Angus’s character Eric was involved in a dark women-hating storyline, a first for the Channel 4 soap.
He previously opened up in a chat to the Mirror about the impact appearing on the soap and being involved in this particular storyline had on his mental health and his own life.
Angus’ character Eric will find himself embroiled in the dark world of incels, whereby men crave sex and despise the women who deny it to them and share a mutiny of misogynistic thoughts in special online forums with other like-minded individuals.
He told the publication about the dark storyline: “Filming this scared the s*** out of me as there is a real problem out there. Boys can get sucked into a rabbit hole.
“An incel finds evidence to suit their argument. They believe their destiny is predetermined and it’s a toxic cycle that is difficult to get out of.
“We’ve seen Eric take a ‘black digital pill’ and remove himself from society. He is ready to radicalise himself.”
He also bravely admitted that he had sought therapy in order to keep himself on the right track after admitting parallels in his own life became ‘blurred’ with that of his character Eric.
