EastEnders former favourite Scott Maslen has ruled out a return to soapland.
The actor played popular character Jack Branning in the BBC One series from 2007 to 2013, but admitted that now he had left, he would be reluctant to go back into the show.
According to the Daily Star, he said of EastEnders: “They’ve asked me back. And I’m lucky they’ve kept the door open. But I want to have a go at other stuff.
Scott Maslen as Jack Branning in EastEnders, tending to nephew Bradley after his fall from a roof (Adam Pensotti/BBC)
“When you do a show like EastEnders it takes a while for people to forget you did it. They associate you with it. I didn’t want to go back just 18 months after leaving.
“There is an element of snobbery with soaps. It means people in the industry don’t see you as an actor, they see you as a commodity.”
Scott, 43, who has a son, added that he had taken the role in the first place to provide some stability for his family.
Scott Maslen with his former EastEnders co-stars Jake Wood and Jacqueline Jossa (Ian West/PA)
He said: “There is always a catch in this industry. In the kind of acting I’d like to do, people would look at EastEnders and say, ‘You don’t want to touch that’. But we’ve all got to pay the bills and work. When I made a deal to do EastEnders that was my choice for my own reasons – for my family, to get a house.”
Scott, who now stars in E! drama The Royals with Elizabeth Hurley and Joan Collins, continued that trying to get a break in the US had been tough.
He said: “I did pilot season in the States after I finished on EastEnders, but I was knackered. I had a year away from acting after that, but now I want to do different stuff.”
