Emmerdale star admits struggle in key scene: 'I was knackered'

Emmerdale star Jay Kontzle has admitted to struggling while performing a key scene from the soap, saying he "was knackered".

Speaking on tomorrow's ITV soap podcast Off Script – which will be available in full here – Jay opened up about playing his character Billy Fletcher, who is a personal trainer.

Asked by hosts Kelvin and Liz Fletcher if he felt pressure as an actor to hit the gym before filming any training scenes, Jay said: "Yeah 100%.

"I get myself up to a physical shape in terms of feeling comfortable in my body and looking okay on camera. Obviously I'm a family man as well, so it needs to make sense as well as what I'm doing."

Recalling one particular scene in which Billy is seen training alongside Manpreet, Bear Wolf, and Sam, Jay said he could barely keep up with his co-stars.

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"I remember doing a scene with Manpreet, Bear Wolf and Sam and we were in the village hall and we were doing this workout stuff," he said.

Revealing that the scene took place before he had started to go to the gym in real life, Jay added: "We were doing this scene over and over again and it had not even turned around onto me. I was knackered."

Asked by Kelvin how he prepares to do topless scenes, Jay explained that he doesn't want to take his top off on camera.

ITV

"I don't do topless scenes," he said, before adding: "I might get a little bit of arm out, but I'm like 'Nah I'm alright'."

Responding to Jay, Kelvin – who played Andy Sugden on the ITV soap between 1996 and 2016 – said he used to get given a lot of topless scenes which left him feeling a bit shy.

"They used to give me loads of topless scenes and it really used to make me feel a bit embarrassed," he said.

Emmerdale airs on weeknights at 7.30pm on ITV1, and streams on ITVX.

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