Landing the role of villainous love rat Carl Webster in Coronation Street as an experienced actor means Jonathan Howard has the maturity to cope with fame…
Now Jonathan Howard, who plays villainous love rat Carl Webster in Coronation Street, is glad he missed out on his first choice role on the cobbles 18 years ago when, aged 22, Mikey North beat him to the part of builder Gary Windass, he says: “I didn’t get Corrie, but I got a scholarship to drama school.
“If I hadn’t gone to drama school, I wouldn’t have had my daughter and I wouldn’t have had 20 years of living and working in America. I appreciate Coronation Street even more coming to it in my 30s, rather than my early 20s. I’ve learnt the importance of discipline, training and a good attitude. All of that could have got a bit mushy if I’d gone straight on to Corrie. It would definitely have gone to my head. Me as a 22 year-old – the head already was big! So, maybe I would have been less humble. Coronation Street was the dream – I’d grown up watching it as a kid, so I was devastated when I didn’t get the part, but it now feels like the universe was speaking.”
Moving to LA in his 20s, Jonathan worked with Hollywood’s finest, including Brad Pitt, in the 2013 horror film World War Z and Anthony Hopkins and Chris Hemsworth in the Marvel superhero film Thor: The Dark World (2013). He also had a very difficult spell, coping with constant rejection and unemployment.
He recalls: “At one point in my mid 30s I was auditioning constantly and getting rejected three times a week, which was tough. When you do 200 self-tapes and it’s a constant no and you have two years of being unemployed, at some point you’re going to question whether or not you’re suitable for this, whether or not it’s you as an actor that isn’t good enough. During those times, I was dropped by agents too. It’s mentally challenging. I really had to dig deep, persevere and think ‘is this heartbreak worth it all? Do I want this enough?’”
Jonathan, who has a daughter, Minavann, 7, with French actress Elodie Yung, 45, says the hard times have made him appreciate Coronation Street even more.
But, determined to gain something positive from his ‘resting’ period, he says: “Luckily, my partner was working, so it meant the bills were paid and I was the stay-at-home dad.
“As frustrating as it was that I wasn’t getting to go to work, on reflection I’m so glad I wasn’t working, because I would have missed out on all that time with my daughter.”
Lancashire-born Jonathan, 41, moved back to England last year to play Carl. With Elodie now filming in France, Minavann currently lives with Jonathan full-time, which he admits has made him reconsider his future on the cobbles.
A devoted dad. He says: “My circumstances have changed. My daughter is living over here with me now. Originally, when I joined, it was like ‘ok, I’ll do 12 months.’ But she’s settled – she goes to school in Manchester – and so I don’t necessarily want to rock the boat right now.
“The universe has brought me back to the north. I’m an hour away from the village that I grew up in. I go home at the weekend and see my sister, my niece and nephew and my old friends, so my daughter is getting to touch in with her English roots.”
She’s even losing her US twang, according to Jonathan, who laughs: “She’s starting to pronounce water with a ‘t’ rather than saying ‘warder.’ But when I say ‘I want mi dinner,’ she’ll say ‘Papa, why do you say ‘mi’ dinner?’ She’s been with me when I’ve been recognised and she understands that my character is a bit naughty. One guy shouted ‘you’re a snake!’ and she said: ‘Papa, why are you a snake?’”
Moving to Weatherfield as the long-lost brother of Kevin and Debbie Webster, he had a fling with Kevin’s wife, Abi, breaking up their marriage – but was two-timing her with footballer James Bailey.
Debbie took the blame for a horrific multi-vehicle crash caused by Carl and went to prison, despite having early onset dementia. And, since discovering that Debbie is actually his mum and not his sister, he’s wreaked havoc non-stop.
More trouble lies ahead when he ends up back in cahoots with dodgy car dealer Fiona Morley, which leads to him threatening Kevin with a gun. Jonathan explains: “Carl’s trying to turn over a new leaf, but then he gets this phone call from Fiona to do a quick little job for her. He says he’s not interested, but it’s a lot of money and he think: ‘well, it’s one last job and it will give me a head start on my new life.’”
But Kevin inadvertently sees a video of Carl attempting to sabotage the brakes on his car. Furious, he grabs a wrench and advances on Carl, only for his errant brother to pull out a gun to defend himself.
Astonishingly, Carl is suddenly shocked to his senses and, despairing at the state of his life, he puts the gun down and tells Kevin to do his worst. Jonathan says: “The writers have done a really good job of making him more complex. He’s not just a bad guy who rips people off and likes sex.
“I’ve tried to give him a heart and some humour and to explore his relationship with his mum. I think we’d be missing out on something for Carl to leave before he’s come to terms with his mum’s dementia diagnosis. I would at least like to stay until we see what happens to Debbie. Then we’ll see what happens after that.”
While Jonathan made wonderful memories in America – working on big films like Godzilla, he even lived with actor Charles Dance for four months and visited jazz bars with him. He says: “It was an amazing experience, but I sacrificed my UK by moving over to America.
Since being back in the UK I’ve seen how many great British dramas there are here and if that’s what comes out of me being in Corrie, that would be fantastic.” Alongside his Corrie role, this year Jonathan appeared on the big screen in the gothic thriller The Dreadful, playing a 15th century friar.
This explains Carl’s current buzz cut. He says: “I had the full monk haircut. That’s why my hair is so short on Corrie, because I’d just finished filming it when I got the audition. I quickly had to have a No 1 all over before heading to Manchester.”
Away from work, Jonathan stays in shape with regular gym sessions, as well as training in Jiu-Jitsu and Thai boxing. It’s a good job, considering the number of bedroom scenes he’s had playing Carl. He laughs: “It became a running joke with the crew. Every time I was filming in the hotel room they’d joke ‘oh, who’s in your bedroom this time.’
“It’s funny, when I’ve done topless scenes in the past, I would always super train for it and make sure I didn’t have any food in the morning. But Carl’s been getting his top off so much that I can’t keep on track of it all. A couple of times I didn’t realise that I was doing a topless scene and I’d already had a big full English breakfast!”
*Coronation Street airs weekdays on ITV at 8:30PM and ITVX at 7AM
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: mirror.co.uk
