Gregory Finnegan didn't realise he was involved in Hollyoaks' Who Shot Mercedes storyline until he was called in to do a photoshoot.
Gregory Finnegan as James
The 39-year-old star only found out his character James Nightingale was going to be one of the suspects, after Mercedes (Jennifer Metcalfe) is gunned down in The Loft next week, when he and his co-stars had to have a series of promotional pictures taken for the plot.
He told BANG Showbiz: "We got called in to do a photoshoot and I didn't know what it was for.
"So I was like, 'What's all this?' They said, 'It's for the Who Shot Mercedes story,' and I was like, 'Oh, great, OK. Am I part of that then?'
"I had a meeting with Bryan [Kirkwood, exec producer] the next day and he spelled out what my involvement would be.
"We all got pulled in individually because he wanted to keep the circle tight, so it doesn't get revealed before it has to."
James will discover next week that his late beloved Harry Thompson (Parry Glasspool) wasn't responsible for the hit-and-run on Grace Black (Tamara Wall) after all, and that it was in fact Mercedes.
The shock discovery, which takes place on the day of Harry's funeral, will leave him fuming, and assuming that Mercedes had a hand in his boyfriend's death, despite Breda McQueen (Moya Brady) being the real culprit,
And Gregory admitted his alter-ego will go "nuclear".
He added: "He's not happy, there's a bit of fury going on.
"He goes nuclear when he finds out. He goes, again, down an even deeper and darker route."
Tagged in Jennifer Metcalfe