ITV Coronation Street actor Luca Toolan ‘hates’ bully Mason as he reveals teen’s secret past

Coronation Street star Luca Toolan has shared the reason for bully Mason Radcliffe’s vile behaviour on the ITV soap.

The actor told The Mirror and other press why he was the way he is, as he explained his backstory which has never been told to viewers. Actor Luca questioned if viewers may understand how Mason became the bully he is today on the soap, once they know what his character has experienced.

That said, he admitted he understood why viewers disliked the character, adding he too “hated” what his character had done. Viewers have watched uncomfortable scenes involving Mason and fellow teens Liam Connor and Dylan Wilson over the past couple of months.

Mason, Dylan and their pals have been taunting poor Liam in vile scenes, with him left struggling with his mental health. With Liam contemplating taking is own life, a recent episode saw residents finally realising Liam was being bullied by Dylan and Mason, with his mother Maria Connor now seeking professional help for her son.

Ahead of scenes escalating, with Mason fearing he will be found out, actor Luca has shared more of Mason’s yet to be revealed backstory. Revealing all about life at home for Mason, he revealed what may be the driving force between his dark actions.

He explained: “I love to do the the work on why Mason is the way he is and his family, his upbringing, his thoughts. To play a character that is so demented and so far from what I am, has been a treat because it gives you juice. It’s something that you can dig your teeth into.

“He doesn’t have a father figure present which explains a lot. He has a lot of masculine influence which doesn’t provide him an outlet to discuss or talk about his feelings whatsoever, in fact, it’s quite the opposite. It’s encouraged to suppress them feelings, and I think it’s like when you shake up a can of coke.

“When you have that stuff going on in your family it builds up this pressure. I think his way of alleviating that pressure is then taking that out on Liam and Dylan. It’s just a ticking time bomb, because it’s just getting worse and worse, and the anger inside him is just like an acid, it eats him up so I can’t really see it getting any better.

“I can just see it getting worse because of his his upbringing. In his head I don’t think it ever registers he’s doing anything bad, it’s just the way he’s been conditioned by his family, like that’s always been the way for him in my backstory.

“The weak are preyed on, and he is the weak in his family, so he is being preyed on by his family members. So in return, he sort of lashes out and repeats what he’s seen in family settings.”

On the backlash aimed at his character, he went on: “I think there’s a very small minority of people that get invested so much that they can’t separate it from me. I do understand it to a certain extent, because I think we all do it whenever we’re watching TV or movies like, we actually hate that character.

“I hate it. I hate what he does, because for the most of it I’ll watch it with my dad or like my grandma, or family. I rarely watch it by myself, and they’ll just look over at me like, ‘Is this what you’re capable of?’. I hate it.

“Charlie plays the part of Liam so well, and he’s got this innocent, hurt look to a T. I understand, I get why the viewers feel the way they do. But I guess that lends to the strength of the storyline and of the characters.

“Hopefully, it has that effect. If it can have that effect on me if I’m playing it, hopefully it can have that effect on others too.”