Corrie's Jonathan Howard missed out on huge part 17 years before landing Carl role

Crashing into Weatherfield with an indecent proposal to his brother’s wife after a car park prang, actor Jonathan Howard has already got Corrie fans on tenterhooks.

Viewers were decidedly shaken when Kevin Webster’s long-lost brother Carl came on to Abi, after a series of unfortunate events saw her displaying adept engine skills, when she fixed his car after they collided.

Now, firmly ensconced in the family fold, they are left wondering if her hostility is a defence mechanism. Will it be a case of fatal attraction?

The storyline has definitely grabbed Jonathan’s fancy.

He’s swapped the glitz and glamour of Hollywood for the role - even sleeping in his childhood bedroom during filming!

After spending 10 years in LA and working alongside big-name stars including Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins, the 38-year-old actor ranks landing a part in Corrie among his greatest achievements.

He tells The : “Being in is just as big a thrill as being in a Hollywood film or an American TV series. It’s all the same, everyone’s telling stories, whether it’s a big $200m movie or a soap like Corrie.

“As a Lancashire lad born and raised, the dream was to be in Coronation Street – that was the ceiling, so it feels wonderfully surreal to now be acting with people like Kevin Webster that I watched religiously as a kid.

“My friends ask me, ‘what you have been up to today?’ and I reply ‘I took Tracy Barlow for a drink in the Rovers Return!’ It’s just incredible to say these things.

“I’m staying with my mum and I sleep in my childhood bedroom. It’s been really nice to come home – going back to my roots.”

Over the years, Jonathan has appeared in several Hollywood blockbusters, including the Marvel superhero film Thor: The Dark World, where he played astrophysicist Ian Boothby, alongside Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins, Natalie Portman and Idris Elba.

“Thor was crazy,” he smiles. “I was less than a year out of drama school.

“The best part was two days with Anthony Hopkins, which was fantastic. We swapped emails and we emailed each other now and then and he’d send me amazing Russian poetry and tell me to really pursue what I wanted to pursue and not listen to anyone else.

“I’d had the biggest crush on Natalie Portman and then suddenly I was sitting chatting to her and I’d go out for dinner with Stellan Skarsgard.

“At the start I was ridiculously nervous, but it was OK, because my character was this geeky intern, so I could use my nervousness for the part.”

Another highlight was playing Charles Dance’s son in the 2019 film Godzilla: King of the Monsters.

And Jonathan also worked with Brad Pitt, who produced and starred in the 2013 action horror film World War Z.

“The very first time I met him he was walking downstairs eating an apple. I thought, ‘oh God, he even looks cool eating an apple,’ I’d be spitting food everywhere!” Jonathan laughs.

“Obviously he’s used to hundreds of people saying hello to him – everyone wants to talk to him – but he was very gracious and very nice.

“I played a soldier and I remember a fun moment where we were rescuing his character. They used lots of fire extinguishers to make it look like tropical rain.

“Behind the camera there were people holding umbrellas and I remember one time running under an umbrella and shivering and next to me was Brad Pitt and he’s shivering too. We just smiled at each other – there’s no glamour!”

What makes his new role even more special is the fact it’s the second time Jonathan has tried for Corrie.

In 2008, aged 21, he made it through to the final round of auditions to play Weatherfield bad boy Gary Windass, but lost out to .

Devastated, Jonathan assumed his cobbles dream was over - going to drama school instead.

“It’s come full circle,” he reflects. “It feels like the universe has brought me back to Coronation Street and the north of England.

“I remember going for the screen test for Gary Windass and I was down to the last handful. I was really disappointed not to get it.

“In the moment, it was hard to have a philosophical outlook on it, but at the same time I knew that the universe had got something else for me.

“I wouldn’t have had a career in America if I’d got the part of Gary. And I wouldn’t have met my wife, who I met at drama school.”

Carl arrived in Coronation Street last week, colliding with Abi’s car in the supermarket car park.

Then sparks flew and he asked her out.

But Abi ( ) turned him down - discovering later he was Kevin’s brother, visiting from his home in Germany.

She is horrified when Kevin (Michael Le Vell) invites him to stay with them, when it emerges that Carl’s business in Germany is struggling.

Later this month Carl makes a move and tries to kiss Abi - with rumours suggesting an affair is on the cards.

“Carl is a charmer who knows how to work people, but he’s not a bad guy,” Jonathan insists.

“He’s aware that it’s his brother’s wife and tries to back off from time to time, but he can’t help how he feels. At the same time, Kevin hasn’t been part of his life, so he feels he doesn’t owe him anything.”

Jonathan, who grew up near Southport, made his TV debut aged 14 in the children’s series Looking After the Penneys and at 18 landed the role of footballer Gavin Moody in Dream Team.

He has appeared in Downton Abbey, Episodes and Mr Selfridge, but has mainly worked in America, after moving there ten years ago with his wife, French actress Elodie Yung.

As thrilled as he is to have joined Coronation Street, he admits it has been a wrench to leave Elodie and their six-year-old daughter behind, 5,000 miles away. Jonathan began filming two months ago and hasn’t seen them in person since.

“I did have reservations because I live in America now,” he says candidly. “I talked it through with my wife, because we’re set up there. She’s working there and our daughter is happy in school. I didn’t really know how it would work.

“It was my agent who persuaded me to audition, but with millions of auditions you send them off into a black hole and with 99 per cent of them you don’t ever hear anything back, so I just assumed it would be one of those.

“It’s hard being away from my family but we keep in touch via FaceTime. My daughter is a very independent little girl, so she’s been OK, but I miss her.

“I remember last year I was coaching her soccer team and I moaned to my wife, ‘All I’m doing is coaching my daughter’s football team – where’s my purpose?’ And now I’ve got this job and I’m over here, all I want to do is coach my daughter’s football team – the grass is always greener!

“But I’m going back next week and I’ll get ten days there and then I’ll bring my daughter back with me. My wife will come over a couple of weeks after that, so we’ll have the summer together in England. I’ll get to show my daughter all the places I went to as a child – the Lake District and Wales. I’m really excited for that.”

In the meantime, Jonathan is determined to enjoy every second of his time on the cobbles. He explains: “When I missed out on the part of Gary Windass, I thought that ship had sailed.

“Now I’m here I love bumping into the characters that I watched 20 years ago, such as Steve McDonald.

“I always loved Steve as a kid. It was great to meet Simon Gregson, who plays him, but for him I’m just another actor going through Corrie, so I don’t think it was particularly the highlight of his day!”

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