Kieron Richardson initially told 'Hollyoaks' bosses he was "too scared" to take on Ste Hay's radicalisation storyline.
Kieron Richardson
The 33-year-old star wasn't even sure what radicalisation was when he was initially told of plans for his character to be groomed by a far-right group, but upon finding out more about the storyline he expressed his reservations to 'Hollyoaks' executive producer Bryan Kirkwood.
He said: "When the guys sat me down originally, I hadn't heard of radicalisation before and I didn't know what it was.
"Then we had a meeting with the guys from Exit UK. Basically, most of our story has been based on their work.
"I came out of that meeting and said to Bryan Kirkwood, 'I don't want to do it. I'm too scared, I can't do it.' "
Despite his concerns, Kieron ploughed on with the plot - which took a sinister turn this week when a terrorist bomb went off in the village, leaving Yasmine Maalik (Haiesha Mistry) fighting for her life - and he is now "proud" of the storyline.
He added: "I'm so glad now though, over a year later, that I did.
"I'm so proud of it as a body of work."
But Kieron previously admitted he had to quit Twitter after he was targeted by cruel trolls over the hard-hitting plot.
He said: "It is so hard to watch and it is very controversial but it has to be like that as that is real life.
"I deleted my Twitter because people were hating on me and I was then trying to water down my performance as I didn't want to offend people, but that is the wrong way to do it.
"I just got rid of it and now I go in every day and I do it to the best of my ability."
The star - who has two-year-old twins Phoebe and Chase with husband Carl Hyland - later revealed some trolls had accused him of "teaching his kids to be racist".
He said: "I had people saying things like, 'You're teaching your kid to be racist. You're an irresponsible parent.'
"I just couldn't deal with people saying things about my kids."
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