Coronation Street star Ryan Prescott responds to Ryan twist in acid attack
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Coronation Street spoilers follow.
Coronation Street aired shocking scenes for Ryan Connor on Monday night (March 27) as he received life-changing injuries in the show's acid attack storyline.
Justin Rutherford arrived at the Rovers Return on the day of Daisy Midgeley's wedding and threw acid at her, following weeks of stalking and obsessive behaviour.
However, in a twist which Corrie bosses had held back until transmission, Ryan stepped in to protect Daisy and took the full force of the acid.
Following instructions from a 999 operator, Daisy dragged Ryan into the upstairs shower and covered his face with a constant stream of cold water. Ryan was later rushed to hospital once the emergency services arrived.
Ryan Prescott, who plays Ryan, recently chatted to Digital Spy and other media about the storyline.
When did you first hear about Ryan's involvement in this storyline?
"[Coronation Street producer] Iain MacLeod first called me when I was on holiday. I was sitting on a sunbed by a pool in Crete at the time. I didn't really know what to expect, but he told me that something big was going to be in the pipeline for Ryan.
"I had no idea that it was going to be something so gritty, because Ryan usually slides into the more humorous elements of the show. So to have something so serious, I was just excited, to be honest!
"It was something gritty to get my teeth into and I was excited to explore different things for Ryan. It's something of real substance, so as an actor you can get stuck in."
What did you think when you first read the scripts?
"The scripts were written by Ian Kershaw, who's a fantastic writer and one of my favourites. He manages to draw a lot of reality into scenes and still leave room for the actor to find some subtext, so it's not all black and white – there's a lot of room for creative licence around it. The scripts were amazing, which is a Godsend for a block like this with something so sensitive."
What was the episode like to film?
"In the same respect, our director Mike Lacey creates a working environment where you feel comfortable and free enough to explore what we like to call 'the wiggle room'. It's the 'in between the lines' of what you can find creatively. I think that's where the best work comes to fruition.
"We got to let loose a bit, which is nice. To be honest, the whole block had a different energy to it. It was very high energy and we had this respectfully curious urgency to tell the story.
"Everyone was serious in what they were doing, but there was a lightness to the environment and there was a respect for the material. Charlie [Jordan, who plays Daisy] made it easy for me, because she's a really talented actor and we work quite well together.
"For the acid attack scenes themselves, we were using ALEXA cameras, which allow us to shoot 100 frames per minute. That allows us speed up the material, slow it down, and layer audio over the top of it. That gives a visceral and guttural effect for the scenes."
How was it to film the shower scenes where Daisy was covering Ryan's face with cold water?
"If I'm honest, I completely underestimated the temperature of the water. It was so cold, so there was no acting being done! That was just me trying to breathe throughout the scenes.
"In the story, the water had to be as cold as possible, in order to numb the nerve endings and cool the acid. Water doesn't do that much to neutralise any acid or alkaline, but it is the thing that you have to do in this situation – keep a constant stream of water. That will allow you to save some of the facial tissue.
"In real life, we couldn't have any steam showing in the scene, so the water had to be as cold as it was in the story."
What research did you do to prepare?
"I spoke to an acid attack survivor called Andreas Christopheros – an amazing guy with a warrior spirit. He told me his story. I was also in conversation with some of his psychotherapists, who've been with him along a very long road of recovery. Andreas had an absolutely brutal story to tell.
"All the reading in the world can't really make you comprehend violence of this extreme nature. It's one of those things that you can't comprehend unless you've gone through it.
"Instead you just try your best to engage with all the issues around it. What really moved me was Andreas' connections with his family, how they were changed and how he struggled to rebuild his relationships. You try to relate to that as best as you can.
"Throughout the research, we discovered that there were 300 acid attacks in Manchester in 2022 alone, which were not televised or in any mainstream media platform whatsoever – for multiple reasons, obviously. But it just shows that it's way more prevalent that we expect."
What was going through Ryan's mind in the moment when Justin arrived at The Rovers to attack Daisy?
"I think Ryan probably would have thought that Justin was throwing vodka or something in the moment. Mainly because it's very difficult to anticipate this level of hate and violence. We don't really expect that someone could do this to another person.
"There are a few seconds where Ryan wouldn't know what the liquid was. It takes a couple of seconds for sulphuric acid, which it was in this case, to actually set into the facial tissue and start eroding.
"We did shoot a moment where Ryan gathered that this isn't what he would have assumed, although we went straight into the action on the final edit and we did miss a little bit of that.
"It was just an edge of reality that we probably don't need to see – and there's always a time restriction on these things."
What went through Ryan's mind when Daisy visited him at the hospital later?
"I think at that point, Ryan was starting to realise that his life was never going to be the same again. He's trying to reach out and clutch onto whatever he can in his life – mainly his relationships within his life – that will allow him to deny this reality.
"One of those is his relationship with Alya. There's also this new-found possibility with his new love interest Crystal. Ryan hoped to go and live the life he always wanted in Ibiza and continue with his DJing career.
"As Ryan sees these things slipping away, he naturally tries to reach out and grab hold of them in desperation. But there are stages of acceptance and denial. Slowly, bit by bit, he starts to understand the gravity of his wounds and what's happened."
How does Ryan feel towards Daisy?
"He knows that this is not Daisy's fault. She's been so consistent with his aid and she's the reason that he got to hospital in the first place and helped him to save most of his face.
"Ryan doesn't feel any resentment towards Daisy. If he has any resentment, it's for Justin. But even still on some level, I think that Ryan starts to understand that these things are usually bigger than any one person."
What long-term effects do you think this will have on Ryan?
"It's going to change his life forever, because it changes the way he interacts with the world. The difficulty within the parameters of soap is to show some kind of reality of the longevity of what it means to be an acid attack survivor. The restoration and recovery period is so long – if not life-long.
"It's psychotherapy and physiotherapy for many years, if not the rest of your life. There's PTSD and trauma therapy.
"One of the things they teach in the therapy sessions is how to deal with people looking at you in the street. There's a whole phase of just trying to accept how people will react differently around you.
"Your face is the first thing you see when you get up and look in the mirror. It's your first means of communication and it's the thing you most readily identify with yourself. So when that changes, everything changes.
"Despite the massive shift that the incident causes, Ryan is determined to make sure that it doesn't define who he is. I think he wants to somehow find his way back to that infectious spirit that he once had, but it's a long road."
Will Ryan push his loved ones away?
"Yeah, definitely. I think it's a natural thing to do, especially when you feel vulnerable. Ryan really hates being on the receiving end of pity. I think he's experienced it in the past, so it brings up his defence mechanism and his barriers. Also, just before the attack, there was a possibility that there was something in the air with Alya and that gets shut down.
"There's one reality check after the next, and then the attack is a monumental shift completely. I think Ryan just needs to learn, and he will learn, that there are people in his life to support him – and he does have love in his life even if it's not the kind of love he'd like in that moment."
How is Corrie dealing with showing Ryan's injuries?
"We worked with a man called Davy Jones, who's a master of prosthetics. We went into his workshop to have a mould set, so he could create a cast of my face and then create pieces that would be layered in order to create the types of scarring. I was encased in this plaster for the mould to be set.
"There are different stages of Ryan's scarring and the wounds, so we've had to focus on what stages come in when.
"The colouration that we've done has to be done by hand every time I come in for filming. We've got about 15 people in the make-up team who will have to get used to it, because there are so many blocks and directors. The team have been incredible.
"It's about an hour in the make-up chair to begin, and then an hour to get it off. We've been putting those times down and getting faster. The hardest thing is to match it with continuity. They're having to match not just the colouration but the placement each time. They've got a huge job but they're absolutely smashing it."
Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.
Read more Coronation Street spoilers on our dedicated homepage
Coronation Street has been working on Ryan's storyline with guidance from The Katie Piper Foundation and Acid Survivors Trust International (ASTI), which both offer help and support to real-life survivors.
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