Coronation Street brings in Hollywood experts for Ryan Connor’s grisly acid attack injuries
CORONATION Street has brought in Hollywood experts to bring Ryan Connor’s acid attack injuries to life on the show.
The scenes shocked viewers when Ryan Connor, played by Ryan Prescott, was unintentionally hit by acid thrown by Daisy Midgeley’s (Charlotte Jordan) stalker, Justin.
Since then, DJ Ryan has been laid up in a hospital bed with huge bandages covering the scarring on his face after being unable to face up to the reality of looking at his injuries.
But now, with the help of Carla Connor (Alison King), Ryan is ready to peel back the bandages once and for all to see the scars for the very first time.
Coronation Street have worked closely with a number of experts on the story including with Emmy, BAFTA and RTS Award Winning Makeup Prosthetics Designers, Davy Jones and Beks Scott in order to keep the story as true to life as possible.
Actor Ryan Prescott opened up on the challenges that come with using such heavy prosthetics in order to achieve the desired look but expressed his gratitude at being able to work with talented designers for the powerful plot.
Ryan said: “It was so impressive to have the opportunity to work with someone like that. 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.”
He further revealed that in order to create the cast he was only able to breathe through a tiny hole placed near his mouth.
Speaking of the process, he added: “The face cast fully covered my whole head apart from a tiny hole near my mouth where I
could breathe through.
“It can take hours to do a face cast but we were done in 45 minutes so I wasn’t sitting there for a long time.
“Davy and Gillian (Head of Hair & Makeup at Coronation Street) were always checking in with me, every five minutes, asking if I could still breathe!”
Admitting that wearing the prosthetics has now become the norm for him, Ryan revealed that it has had a surprising effect on his mobile phone usage.
He said: “I have got so used to wearing them now, even on
weekends I don’t hold my phone up to that ear or that side of my face anymore!”
Prosthetics designer Davy has already well and truly made his mark on Hollywood but relished in the chance to work on Coronation Street.
Speaking of his starry past working on films including Pirates of the Caribbean, he said: “It was amazing because at the time you don’t know how big a film or show is going to be until you’re there.
“It was amazing being in the Caribbean and it was great because it was Disney which meant it was nice character makeup.
“It was a great opportunity and the phone call came out of the blue; we never know where we are going to be or what we are going to be doing and that’s what I love about this job.”
Corrie also worked alongside Paul Blakemore, a Regional Burns Unit Nurse, who was present for the filming of the scenes and also helped to prep Ryan’s bandages for the episode himself as though it was real life.
Coronation Street airs these scenes tonight at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX.