Since he has drawn Leanne Battersay (Jane Danson) into the Sinsiter Institute, Coronation Street star Emrhys Cooper—who plays cult leader Rowan Cunliffe in the ITV serial opera—has quickly grown to be the most despised person in Weatherfield.
Even though a cult on the cobblestones might not seem like the most realistic plot device, Emrhys claims that experiences such to this actually occur.
Speaking exclusively, the 39-year-old actor said: “It was Kismet ironic and very much poetic justice that I would play Rowan in Coroation Street, given my personal experiences with cults. My parents wound up unknowingly in a cult,” he confessed.
While he won’t reveal the cult in order to protect his parents he admits: “I saw just first hand the dangers and the consequences of their experience. And growing up in Totnes it’s a hotbed for New Age thinking, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does attract a lot of charlatans, gurus and holistic doctors that don’t have the qualifications or training with what they’re selling.
“So unfortunately, my parents did fall victim to quite a few in Devon, which meant I did feel very unsafe growing up, because I had these strange figures coming in and out of our lives and home, and I couldn’t really understand growing up,” he recalled.
Motivated by his experience Emrhys made a movie about the subject years before joining Coronation Street which required even further research into the topic. “I wrote and directed a film called The Shuroo retreat, which is about a cult leader in the Catskills of New York. So I’m very familiar and passionate about this subject matter and bringing light to it. So it’s divine synchronicity that I’m getting to play, Rowan on Coronation Street,” he pondered.
Emrhys is keen to stress his parents didn’t intentionally join the cult but rather their vulnerabilities were preyed on. “It can happen to anyone. My parents were intelligent people. They both just have trauma from growing up.
“So this made them more susceptible and vulnerable, because they’re always seeking these alternative remedies and alternative lifestyles. Their intentions weren’t necessarily bad, but it made them just more vulnerable to these kind of cons.”
While he may sound completely at peace with his experience now Emrhys confesses that is partly thanks to the role of Rowan, which has helped him deal with previousy unresolved issues.
“I think I was holding on to a lot of anger and resentment towards my parents but in the last few months I feel I have let go of a lot. It’s like a veil has dropped and I can see things clearly for the first time.
“I think playing the role of Rowan on Corrie helped with this growth, that’s the interesting thing about acting, you can step outside of yourself and with that comes objectivity and insight.”
Unfortuantely for Rowan’s mother there were serious consequences to her pursuit of an alternative lifestyle.”Her doctor had given her a prescription for high blood pressure but she took advice from a holistic doctor [instead].
“She listened to this quack guy, stopped taking the high blood pressure medication, and then she had a very severe stroke and she is now in a nursing homehe sadly revealed.
“At the end of the day the cold reality is that if my mother had just gotten regular check ups and taken her medications she would be in good health and not confined to a hospital bed today. The simple message I’d really like to drive home is get your blood work done [by a professional] and take regular check ups seriously,” he pleaded.
Reflecting on modern cults he said: Cults are really everywhere,” he opined. “They look different to how we imagine them to be – in white tunics, running around the fields. Now you’ve got Tiktok dance cults which is a social media thing. You’ve got all these YouTubers now brainwashing people. People are online so much that now we’ve got this way to target people.
“If you have any interest these cults can literally target you on social media. So it’s a very different time. We’ve been bombarded with so much misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories I think we’re a lot more susceptible, susceptible to cults [nowadays].”
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