Coronation Street star Ryan Prescott shares new milestone for Ryan's recovery
Coronation Street spoilers follow.
Coronation Street star Ryan Prescott has revealed a new milestone for his character Ryan's recovery.
ITV has unveiled behind-the-scenes photos for Wednesday's episode (April 19), in which Ryan Connor finally takes the brave step to look at his scars from the acid attack.
Ryan has thus far been reluctant to face what he now looks like, but with support from Carla Connor, he decides it's time to face up to his future.
Unfortunately, Ryan's surgeon interrupts with news that he will need to undergo another skin graft because his burns aren't healing as quickly as they'd hoped.
Later, Carla and Daisy are alarmed when Ryan goes missing from his hospital room — though they later find him at a nearby tram station, where he's struggling over what to do next.
Throughout the rest of the week, Daisy will share her own reluctance with Daniel over telling Ryan that Ibiza DJ Crystal no longer wants anything to do with him.
Ryan soon starts to feel self-conscious in the hospital canteen as he assumes a group of giggling nurses are mocking his appearance. After an uncomfortable encounter with a little girl staring at his face, Ryan will insist he wants to be left alone.
Ryan Prescott has now spoken about the gravity of the moment when Ryan looks at himself in the mirror for the first time.
"For Ryan, I don't think he expects it to be as bad as it is," the actor said. "He has never seen major burns before so he doesn’t know what to expect, and because he has been in bandages for so long, he gets into a little comfortable zone with just wearing the bandages."
He continued: "Once his facial injuries are revealed to him, it knocks it right out of him again. The initial glances are heartbreaking.
"The first time he sees his face, he is thinking: 'I am never going to have love in my life again. I am going to be the one that people look at in the street.'
"In that moment, all those feelings he was trying to ignore come rushing to the surface and he realises that there is no way this is going to heal and he is going to look like his burns haven’t been there.
"It confirms to him that this is going to affect every aspect of the rest of his life, no matter what."
The actor and Coronation Street's visual effects team have also spoken about designing the prosthetics Ryan Prescott will now be wearing.
The Corrie team are working with acclaimed Emmy- and BAFTA-winning SFX artist Davy Jones as well as makeup and prosthetics supervisor Beks Scott to reflect the reality many face in the real world.
"It was so impressive to have the opportunity to work with someone like that," Prescott said. "I went to Davy's workshop in the Wirral to have a cast made that covered my whole head.
"Davy’s workshop was wicked; he has done some big films and he had a lot of pieces of prosthetics around from the Blade trilogy and the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. He works magic in that studio."
Prescott also spoke about the emotional experience of seeing his face with the prosthetics for the very first time, knowing what they'd mean for his character Ryan's future.
"It was a process so there was no one defining moment or real shock for me. I knew what to expect and Gillian and I had experimented with a few layers of prosthetics before anything was even set in stone about the stages of Ryan's recovery," he said.
"I already had lots of ideas of what it was going to look like. Through my research for the storyline, I had spoken to numerous people who have survived acid attacks [and] who have real facial injuries."
He continued: "I had always thought of the prosthetics as an edge of that reality and now wearing the prosthetics make[s] me reflect on the reasons why I am doing this storyline. The prosthetics remind me that I want to further the dialogue of what people are actually going through in real life."
Coronation Street's head of hair and makeup, Gillian Walsh, praised the acid attack storyline for its relevance.
"When the storyline was first pitched to me, the bosses felt that it was the right time to do this storyline," Walsh said.
"I have worked on ITV's The Bay, BBC's Death in Paradise and ITV's The Good Karma Hospital, so with my previous expertise and experience away from Coronation Street, they felt that I could bring what I’ve learnt working with prosthetics on drama shows to this storyline."
She went on to share: "It's the most ambitious task that we, the Coronation Street makeup team, have taken on due to the longevity and the fact that the character will be on the show for a long time, but I feel like we have really risen to the occasion and I am really proud of what we have created. The team has all been challenged but everyone has risen to the challenge."
Walsh also addressed Princess Anne's recent visit to the Coronation Street set to see the work the team were doing on the acid attack story.
"She was amazing. I think she might even be a fan of the show," Walsh said.
"She was really engaged and I was able to show her pictures of some of the work that we created with the prosthetics that hadn’t been on screen yet — she seemed really impressed. It was a real honour and a privilege to meet her."
ITV has also shared comments from acclaimed SFX artist Davy Jones about the ways working on a continuing drama differ from his feature film work Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End or even Doctor Who.
"It's not just because it's a long-running show — we had to take a lot of things into consideration, like the watershed and what time the show is going out," the SFX expert said. "Sometimes with a horror film, not seeing things is more scary, so sometimes it's just trying to get a level of where 'it's enough'.
"This also includes taking into consideration the paint job. For example, if the team paints the prosthetics more intensely, the injuries are going to look worse. We have only been involved in the manufacturing and the sculpting of the prosthetics, and Beks did the makeup tests with the team to show them what colour they should be aiming for."
Coronation Street has collaborated with advocacy groups like The Katie Piper Foundation and ASTI on this storyline, in addition to having guidance from Pinderfields Hospital charge nurse Paul Blakemore.
Paul has worked with real acid attack victims and used that expertise to help the Coronation Street team accurately reflect the experiences of patients like the ones he cares for.
"Any kind of medical conditions that are highlighted on television are a good thing because it brings the general public more information about them, especially when it is shown as accurately as this storyline is," the nurse explained.
"An acid attack is a horrible thing and we hear about them infrequently. But it's not like someone breaks an arm and once it heals, you can't tell. Once you've been a survivor of an acid attack and an assault like this, it's with you for life, and the psychological impact is massive. For Coronation Street to highlight this is really very good."
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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