Gary Beadle challenged himself to break the \'EastEnders\' curse.
The former star of the BBC One soap - who played Paul Trueman for three years - was told he would struggle to work again after appearing on the show, something which he wanted to challenge and overcome.
He said: "When I walked away from \'EastEnders\', they weren\'t happy about it but I wanted to move on. The test was, \'Can you do EastEnders and then work again afterwards?\' Apparently, everyone who does it never works again. I liked the odds on that. I thought, \'Let\'s see if I can pull it off."
Gary never liked to call himself an actor when he was growing up as he says he would be have been dubbed "soft" by others for it.
Speaking to The Guardian newspaper, he added: "I never ever said I was an actor. Where I come from, to be an actor meant you were a bit soft. You\'re supposed to be a plumber, a brickie, work on the docks or something. When I got to 15, 16, and I had to make a decision, I was still in denial. I thought the best I could be was a cinema manager. I swear to God. There\'s a romance about this business, it can break your heart. There\'s times where I was like, \'Oh my God, I\'ve been doing this most of my life, but I don\'t think I can act. I\'ve been lying to myself all along.\' So I had to reinvent myself. And I did that through theatre, which is where I started."
