Emmerdale actor Darcy Grey has revealed that he planned to quit acting before landing his role as Marcus Dean.
The 31-year-old joined the ITV soap earlier this year as rapist-turned-killer Pierce Harris' son after coming into contact with Rhona following his father's death.
Fans were immediately suspicious of Marcus as he began to develop a romance with Ethan Anderson.
More recently, he's settled into the village - but it does look like he has a dark side that has not yet been revealed...
Speaking to the Mirror on the British Soap Awards red carpet last night, Darcy said that he was "so grateful" to be part of Emmerdale.
"It's a strange thing to say," he said. "This time last year it was a completely different story. I was almost thinking about quitting acting - I was in my head so much about it. And then Emmerdale came along and it's really changed everything.
"I remember the guys going - 'Be careful, because we're not sure how the audience are going to react to you because obviously the history between me and my dad. Let's just say everyone's been really, really nice and positive. I think everyone's expecting Marcus to be maybe a little bit more evil than they expected but time will tell about how that will unfold."
Quizzed on how Marcus' relationship with Ethan will unfold, he said: "It's been amazing so far - I would say it's a very fast-paced relationship, we dedicated our love to each other very fast.
"I've been in many relationships like that, I think many people can relate to that fast, buzzy nature of the relationship and I think we all know the outcome of those kind of stories as well. But again, only time will tell. The lips are verbally sealed each and every time!
Is he interested in exploring more of Marcus' dark side? "Dark side as an actor is always an exciting thing to do because it comes from the gut, it comes from a good place... he's a Gemini, he's got two faces going on, the yin and the yang, he's got two things going on.
"And at the moment we're seeing him relax into the village and explore that nicer side of him. But yeah, look, darkness is always exciting.... let's wait to see how bad Marcus is..."
*British Soap Awards is available to watch on ITV Hub
