I was in a dark place playing rapist doctor Andrew Earlham, says Liar star Ioan Gruffudd

HE is one of television’s most seasoned actors – but playing a serial rapist made Ioan Gruffudd “lose it” in real life.

The Welsh heart-throb ended up staring into space and gorging on cheese sandwiches while “depressed” after playing twisted psycho Andrew ­Earlham in the forthcoming second series of ITV thriller Liar.

In a revealing chat with The Sun, ­Ioan reflects on the dark depths to which he crashed while filming the show’s new run, during which the full extent of Earlham’s depravities are seen in flashback.

Ioan said: “As an actor, I was exhausted. I got into a very, very dark place playing him. I immersed myself in my character and gave it everything. For the first time, I lost myself in somebody on a daily basis.

“I was able to find this desperate creature he was. It shocked me because I’m an actor who tends to enjoy ­performing, but this was a study of someone losing it — and I did lose it.

“I was in a flat in Southwark, South London, and got quite sad and lonely and missed my family. That informed the character who I played on screen.”

In the show, Earlham has drugged and sexually assaulted 19 women, including teacher Laura Nielson, played by Joanne ­Froggatt. But at the end of the first series, he was seen lying on a mudflat in Kent, with his throat slit, after evidence of the assaults had been discovered.

While the first series had focused on whether he was a rapist or not, the second becomes a whodunnit to find out who murdered HIM. Laura has a plausible motive but so do fellow victims and their partners, as well as others whose lives Earlham affected — including Laura’s sister Katy and Andrew’s son Luke.

Much of the series covers the three-week period between ­Earlham’s crimes becoming public knowledge, forcing him to go on the run, and the moment his body is discovered.

Ioan, who has also starred as a naval officer in the Hornblower TV films, and in superhero movie Fantastic Four, says of filming Liar 2: “Every day was exhausting. I look wild-eyed and dishevelled, as Earlham has this feral quality.

“I resorted to comfort food. I could tell I was slightly depressed because I would turn to plain cheese sandwiches. I tend not to eat bread because actors don’t — it puts on pounds. But I was eating non-stop because it gave me some kind of solace from the madness of playing this person.

“That’s what I used to have in my lunchbox at school as a child — I wanted to feel embraced and comforted, as a child would, because I was away from the warm embrace of family.”

There was some surprise over Liar’s return because the first series focused on a mystery — whether or not Laura was raped — which was eventually solved.

While retaining elements that made the show so popular in series one, the new run has an entirely different plot as well as new cast members — including Mr Selfridge and Coronation Street star Katherine Kelly, who plays DI Karen Renton, the officer in charge of the Earlham murder investigation.

Ioan admits he, too, ­wondered if a return series could be as good as the first — but then he got to read the scripts.

He says: “I always thought the first series was a one-off. But it was received in a way that meant there was a desire to make another. We were victims of our own success. In the first series there was always danger lurking.

"One could imagine being on a date with Earlham because he hadn’t been caught. So I feared that with him being dead, and everyone knowing he committed the atrocities, there would be no danger. But I’m pleased it’s come together in such a ­brilliant way. It might even be more compelling — or entertaining, if I can use that word. It’s a totally different beast and I’m excited for people to see it.”

One of the threads covered in the new series is the moment suave surgeon Earlham begins his brutal spree of drugging then date-raping his victims. We then watch as his world falls apart when his son — the most precious person in his life — finds out what he has done.

Ioan says: “We try to introduce how Earlham became Earlham.” But the star adds: “Earlham needed to have his comeuppance. We knew he was dead but we had to see those final days. His world has fallen apart, he can’t pretend any more. I enjoyed playing someone who is trying to hold on to reality and is in self-denial, just trying to survive.”

Ioan filmed several scenes with Joanne — including recreating their screen characters’ first date, but also much tenser sequences as Earlham goes on the run.

Ioan says of Earlham and Laura: “It gets very physical between us. That was brutal and tough to do.”

But he adds: “The story is really Joanne’s. When I read the script, exciting as it was for me to play against type, one of the biggest thrills was to play opposite her. I was so excited to try and come up to her dizzying standards. We were so lucky to hit it off.”

'Brutal and tough to do'

Throughout the filming process, Ioan was missing his wife, the actress Alice Evans, and children Ella, ten, and Elsie, six, who are based in Los Angeles.

He had flown to the UK straight from Australia where he had spent five months filming crime drama Harrow, and he believes that contributed to his tortured state of mind.

He says: “Between Harrow and Liar, I was away from my family for about nine months. We were going through a tough time as a family, purely by the nature of being away from one another.

“Then I was only home from July to October, and now I’m back in Australia again. So currently my children hate me, they cannot believe I’m away for five months again and it’s not like I can pop home for the weekend.

“This is all relative, though, right? I’m not on a tour of duty in Afghanistan. In my apartment in Brisbane I have a photo by the door and it’s a woman in US army fatigues at an airport — she’s hugging her child and crying. I have that there to remind myself, ‘Look, you’re in pain but you’re doing the thing you love, and you live a beautiful life as a result of it’ — and that snaps me out of it.”

Although Ioan was struggling with his emotions while filming Liar 2, he remained upbeat when he phoned home so his family would not know the distress he was feeling.

He says: “You protect your family in these situations, because I’m the one that abandoned them. Even though I was working, for their part there was that sense of, ‘Well, we’re all here living our lives — where the hell are you?’

“So you put on a brave face. The last thing they want to hear is, ‘Daddy’s having a tough time doing his fantastic TV show.’ I don’t think that would have gone down very well.”

Just as with Liar 1, Ioan will be Down Under and miles away from the UK when Liar 2 airs, so will not fully experience the public’s reaction to it.

Liar 1 was watched by on average 6.5million viewers and it regularly trended on Twitter.

Ioan feels too close to the project to judge whether Liar 2 will have a similar impact.

But he says: “There are so many people who wanted Andrew Earlham dead so it will keep them guessing all the way.

“The writers have created something very clever and it’s a thrilling ending. I hope people will be satisfied.”

•  Liar begins on ITV on March 2.

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