Scott Anson: Sheffield actor shares all on Coronation Street role and right-wing extremist storyline

Scott Anson is currently starring in a semi-regular role on the ITV soap opera as Reece Bolton, the right-hand man of the leader of a far-right extremist group. In the hit TV-series, the group begin to groom Max Turner and bring him into their network, as Max begins to date Reece Bolton’s daughter, Lauren.

This is Scott’s first time appearing as a consistent character in the soap, after playing smaller roles in other series before this. He said: “This is very different. I’m what’s known as a semi-regular and this caught me off guard, it’s all like a machine, it’s so fast and frantic, but they look after you.” Scott said the character was “a joy to play” because he said “it’s not often you get to play this dark character”.

Although he was limited in what he could share, due to the storyline not being finished, he was able to reveal the scene he found most difficult to film. He said: “It was one where we beat up one of the refugees in the start [of the storyline]. We had to be very careful in rehearsing and making sure not to give the actor an impression this wasn’t just a scene, but also make it as real as possible. Every time they said ‘cut’ it had to stop immediately and I’d always check he was okay.”

Scott told The Star of the work needed to portray such an extreme character, whose opinions and beliefs are so distant from his own. He said all his research was “done online” and through “watching films to get an idea of how to play the character”. Scott said his character and the others in the group were present to Max Turner at a time of his life when he feels alone, as an impressionable young man. He said “Max feels a sense of loyalty to the figures”.

The storyline Scott appears in is due to finish soon, but he hinted there were suggestions some of the characters in the storyline could return in the New Year, but this hasn’t been confirmed and he is currently looking for his next role.