Eric will reach a point of no return in Hollyoaks, as his storyline races towards its end (Picture: Lime Pictures)
Hollyoaks star Angus Castle-Doughty has revealed that Eric Foster will reach a point of no return in the coming months, as the radical misogyny storyline hurtles towards an end.
Eric, who exhibited disturbing behaviour pretty much straight away upon arriving in the eponymous village, has spiralled out of control in recent weeks, with him having targeted and spiked a number of women.
The radical misogynist frequents an online male forum to voice his dark and horrific thoughts with a community who share his twisted views, and it was here he set his sights on kind-hearted Mason Chen-Williams (Frank Kauer).
Mason, who struggled to make friends in the real world, found himself in the wrong place on the internet when seeking advice on how to speak to women and Eric – spying an opportunity – decided to pounce, poisoning the teen’s mind with his warped views.
Mason has since turned to Eric for advice, unaware that what he’s doing is wrong.
How exactly this pans out remains to be seen, but actor Angus Castle-Doughty – who is delivering a chilling and award-worthy performance as Eric – told us that the audience have yet to realise just how important this part of the storyline is, adding that this will likely become apparent in due course.
‘There is a risk doing a storyline like this that you just show the badness for badness’ sake,’ he told Metro.co.uk.
Eric set his sights on Mason a number of months ago (Picture: Lime Pictures)
‘I think the importance of Mason in this is that he’s such an undeniably sweet kid and it’s important to show – especially nowadays with everyone plugged in – the risk of losing sweet boys who are searching for answers and finding them in entirely the wrong places.
‘I think that’s more prevalent than we realise.
‘It’s easy to watch Eric and be repulsed by him and creeped out by him – it’s difficult when we have made these judgements already to see their vulnerability or the humanity. With Mason, you see this boy who is being torn apart from the inside.’
Mason isn’t the only one who has fallen under Eric’s manipulative spell, however, as his own sister Verity Hutchinson (Eva O’Hara) is oblivious to her brother’s true ways.
Eva O’Hara told Metro.co.uk earlier this month that Verity could find herself in danger as she discovers more and more about who Eric truly is and what he’s been getting up to, and this is a sentiment Angus very much echoed.
Angus told us that Eric will come to a ‘crossroads’ in upcoming scenes (Picture: Lime Pictures)
‘The thing with the character Eva and Hollyoaks has created in Verity is that doesn’t suffer fools gladly at all – until it comes to Eric,’ he told us.
‘Eva said recently that things get to a point where Verity cannot ignore things anymore. Without giving too much away, Eva and I had the pleasure of working on some really fantastic scenes together. We got given the space to really explore that, so I’m really excited for that to come out!
‘Verity’s capacity for goodness and seeing goodness in everyone is challenged to such an extent that she’s got one of the loves of her life in her brother drifting into someone she just doesn’t recognise.’
‘We’re exploring this whole aspect of loving someone for what they were rather than liking them for what they are.’
Much like Verity, Tony (Nick Pickard) has no idea about Eric’s online activity and what he’s been getting up to.
Verity will soon start to see her brother for who he is (Picture: Lime Pictures)
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We have seen him starting to ask questions, after Maxine Minniver (Nikki Sanderson) rightfully accused Eric of writing a misogynistic slur on her forehead, but Tony has become distracted with the discovery that he has a son in Beau Ramsey (Jon-Paul Bell) – which proves very interesting indeed.
‘The Hutchinson clan is growing, they’re trying to hold on to each other, and they’re navigating things with Beau and Eric struggling, and I think maybe we’ll see them taking their eye of Eric,’ teased Angus.
Intriguing.
How exactly this storyline will come to a conclusion remains to be seen, but Angus told us that he feels ‘proud’ of Hollyoaks for tackling such an important subject in radical misogyny.
‘This is Hollyoaks down a tee, isn’t it?,’ he said. ‘They ask the difficult questions and force the conversation.
‘It’s a responsibility that I feel incredibly proud of, to be honest. And also, the producers and everyone in casting me – that they thought I would be someone capable of doing this storyline.’
Hear hear!
What we can tell you is that Eric’s antics will very continue across the coming months, and while viewers can expect things to come to a head at some point, there is much more to come before the highly-anticipated climax.
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‘Eric will come to a point where he’s at a crossroads,’ Angus added, teasing what’s ahead. ‘He’s really, really trying to be – quote unquote – a “good person”. He doesn’t want to live in this world of fear, anger and hatred all the time. But things fall apart for him very quickly, and it gets to a point of no return.
‘I’m very, very excited for that stuff. I’m incredibly busy at the moment, we’re shooting, and I take my hat off to the writers because the arc they’ve created for the character is now getting to a point of darkness where he just can’t see a way through to the truth.’
Hollyoaks airs weeknights at 7pm on E4, with first look episodes streaming daily on All4.
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MORE : Hollyoaks spoilers: Sienna Blake caught in surprise new love triangle
We caught up with actor Angus, who told us all about what’s coming up for Eric.