Hollyoaks star Angus Castle-Doughty has revealed he secretly battled an eating disorder and body dysmorphia for five years after stripping down to star in a Netflix series.
The 29-year-old actor played villain Eric Forster on the Channel 4 soap and has now shared how he developed an ‘obsession’ with food and exercise after being asked to film a nude scene in the 2019 series Shadow And Bone.
Despite never being told to lose weight, Angus said The mirror that he was determined to get to zero percent body fat and therefore skipped breakfast and went to the gym twice a day. However, his nude scene was cut from the show.
When he first spoke about his disorder, he said: ‘Until recently, I felt like I was depriving myself if I wasn’t thin. In doing so, I’ve deprived myself of many memories that I could have enjoyed, because of my obsession with food and exercise.’
Angus explained that after writing a fictional film about his experiences, called Dis-Morph-Ick, he finally saw his body differently. He thanked his partner, former Hollyoaks star Niamh Blackshaw, for her support.
Hollyoaks star Angus Castle-Doughty has revealed he secretly battled an eating disorder and body dysmorphia for five years after stripping naked for his role in a Netflix series
The actor played villain Eric Forster in the Channel 4 soap series (pictured) and has now shared how he developed an ‘obsession’ with food and exercise
The actor explained that he struggled with “insecurities” when he was told he had to film a nude scene for Shadow And Bone.
He said: ‘It wasn’t so much the insecurity of ‘oh, I’m going to be naked on camera’, but more that I wanted to do everything I could to work as hard as I could for the part.’
Angus embarked on a gruelling fasting diet, eating just two meals a day and hitting the gym six times a week in the run-up to filming.
He added: ‘No one at Netflix or the show asked me to change. I was the one who got it into my head that I had to lose weight. I was able to get down to 6% body fat (even though I was probably only at 10% to begin with) when I went to film that scene. But the irony is that they didn’t use it then!’
Even after filming for Shadow And Bone wrapped, Angus continued his new, strict diet, eating just 1,500 calories a day, despite warnings from his mother Lynne, a former ballet dancer.
In August 2020, Angus began easing up on his regime, but became insecure about his appearance when he landed the role of Eric in Hollyoaks.
Because he was less able to move during the filming, the actor admitted he felt like he had “failed” when he saw himself on camera. Even after leaving the soap in 2023, he struggled to break his regime.
Two weeks ago Angus told me he finally started eating breakfast again. He still exercises, but not twice a day anymore.
Angus explained that after writing a film about his experience he finally changed the way he perceives his body and he credited his partner Hollyoaks star Niamh Blackshaw for her support
Angus told The Mirror that he was determined to reach zero percent body fat, and started skipping breakfast and going to the gym twice a day, only to see his nude scene cut
He has now announced that he plans to start a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for his short film, which tells the story of a young man who enters the fitness world.
Angus says his film is still “a work in progress,” but that writing it has been a healing experience.
The soap star made headlines for his role as incel Eric in Hollyoaks, in which he bullied Maxine Minniver and threatened other women in the village with attacks because of his warped, misogynistic views.
Earlier this year it was reported that due to budget cuts at Channel 4 a number of changes were coming, including fewer episodes of Hollyoaks per week, all in a shorter space of time.
With the changes came the sad news that jobs would be cut and the cast and crew would be made redundant. A number of fan favourites have left the soap, with Stephanie Waring, Ross Adams and Emma Rigby among the big names leaving the show.
The soap has planned a dramatic time jump of a year into the future to explain some of the exits, after reports that as many as 20 characters would be leaving the village.
In May, it was revealed that Hollyoaks was the latest soap to face severe budget cuts, with bosses at the soap wanting to reduce its workforce by 40 percent.
It’s also been hinted that a huge stunt will air before the time jump and before the new era of the series begins.
Earlier this year, Hollyoaks boss Hannah Cheers said of the changes: “When we started talking about moving to three episodes a week, we realised we needed a mechanism to transition our stories and characters and we kept coming back to this one. It’s bold, daring and a first for a British soap; it sums up Hollyoaks perfectly.
Two weeks ago Angus said he finally started eating breakfast again, and while he still exercises, it’s no longer twice a day
‘The new three-episode pattern gives us a different model of storytelling, meaning we’ll see characters on screen for much longer.
“Our viewers are really smart; to serve them well, we need to launch this new structure in a meaningful way. By permanently fast-forwarding the show a year, we get unlimited story possibilities.
‘It is with great sadness that we must say goodbye to some much-loved Hollyoaks villagers, some even sooner than we expected.
“It’s not good for our characters or our audience to have a long series of goodbyes on screen and an over-the-top stunt didn’t seem like the right approach either.
“We also wanted to have the flexibility to revisit favorite characters and we were really excited about how that would play out.”