Emmerdale star Ash Palmisciano has praised young actor Osian Morgan for being "one of the loveliest guys ever" despite the clash between their on-screen alter-egos.
In tonight's episode, Matty (Palmisciano) got involved in a heated exchange with Josh (Morgan) - the lairy friend of Samson (Sam Hall) - over his behaviour in the HOP.
As tensions escalated, Josh pushed Samson into the path of Matty, who happened to be holding a knife and ended up stabbing Samson.
"This is a life-changing situation and you can't go back from that and it's really serious but the guys were great and both worked so hard," recalled Palmisciano.
"Osian, the guy who plays Josh, is one of the loveliest guys ever. He is this really happy guy. He is a very good actor and delivered it perfectly.
"I think the audience will really dislike the character but that's because he nailed it and did such a good job."
The incident marks the start of a major new storyline for nice guy Matty as the soap does a deep dive into issues surrounding transphobia in society.
"It felt good to get my teeth into this as it is such a topical story; as it includes transphobia," continued Palmisciano, who has been in the Dales since 2018.
"But also in terms of having action it was great as we had a fight director, Kate Walters, on set who choreographed the action and it looks amazing on screen – it has been done so well. It was exciting to work with the actors in order to make it look as real as possible.
"Our amazing director Pip Short was passionate about making everything make sense [and] everyone was behaving in a way that felt right for the characters. It was really exciting to be able to do something like that.
"That said, on set it's a strange job where you're going to go into work and you are pretending to stab someone that day, but it was really exciting to do and great to get into an exciting storyline."
Emmerdale continues weeknights at 7.30pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
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