Emmerdale and Hollyoaks star reveals how stomach-churning Celebrity Gladiators moment forced him to make life change

EMMERDALE star Anthony Quinlan has revealed the stomach-churning entertainment show moment that made him transform his life.

The 41-year-old actor, who has just become a dad with soap star girlfriend Nikki Sanderson, played Pete Barton in the Dales for seven years and had a number of hard-hitting storylines.

Prior to that he was a Hollyoaks regular, starring as Gilly Roach, and also took part in a celebrity edition of Gladiators.

His appearance in the 2009 special saw him tackle the famous Final Eliminator assault course in fetching red Lycra and the exertion made him vomit everywhere backstage.

He exclusively told The Sun: “It was great fun. But at the time, I’d not trained for about three years.

“Being a young adult, I was kind of out all the time and enjoying myself, having a good time, going out drinking, socialising. I think actually in the VT, because you do a video tape promoting, I got drafted in for that last minute. In the video tape, they ask you, ‘what sort of training have you done for this?’

“I remember being in a pub. I was supping a pint in the pub and I lifted it up and said, ‘this is my training’. I was completely honest.”

Speaking on behalf of Freebets.com, he continued: “I was actually throwing up because I was that unfit. I was sick because of the exertion that had occurred over the last show. That was like a kickstart into, ‘you need to get a grip now’.

“There’s no way that I should have been throwing up after that. Then I found love for training again, literally immediately after that. I started CrossFit.”

The lifestyle change certainly worked as the following year he was nominated for Sexiest Male at the Inside Soap Awards.

Anthony is now plotting a big acting return six years after leaving the the Dales.

Despite his profile, Anthony said roles have been hard to come by and acting took a backseat to running his vegan supplements business.

But he’s now teamed up with a new agent and is starring in series three of BBC crime drama Time later this year.

He said: “I made an oath to myself last year that I really wanted to get back into the mix and back into the acting game.

“It wasn’t a case of not wanting to, it was a case of that I was busy and also the auditions just weren’t coming through. That’s the brutal honesty of it, the industry is very, very difficult.

“But it’s something that I will never ever give up because I’ve got such a passion and a love for it.”

Anthony took part in Gods of Salford at the Lowry Theatre last year, which retold ancient myths on the streets he calls home.

Headed by three professional actors — Anthony, Laura Harrison, and Jimmy Fairhurst — it also starred 25 young people from local area, inspiring the next generation of working class talent.

It culminated with a trip to London to perform in the House of Commons.

He relished passing on wisdom to the up-and-coming actors, part of which saw him gently explain the harsher side of the business too.

“It was hard not to give them the wrong impression of the industry, that it isn’t all glitz and glamour and shining lights,” he said.

“It is a graft and it doesn’t always go your way. It’s trying to instill that resilience in them as well as excitement about what the potentials are.”

Anthony said his big break on Hollyoaks “happened overnight” and propelled him to stardom quicker than some of his peers who had spent years toiling away.

He had studied acting at college and attended evening classes in Manchester, but his arrival on the soap was also his first on-set experience.

“For some people it happens literally overnight. That is the beauty of the industry,” he said.

“You never really know what is around the corner. Like I said, it’s one thing that keeps you going really. The drive for creativity and the opportunities to submerge yourself in these roles or be a part of these amazing productions.

“Whether it be on stage or screen. I just get a real buzz out of it. If you’re not getting that buzz then you’re not truly an actor.”

A qualified personal trainer from the age of 18, Anthony used his expertise to launch supplements brand Boxed Off after his soap career ended.

It’s ongoing success is something that took him by surprise and ended up putting more distance between him and the small screen.

He said: “Don’t get me wrong, I’m very fortunate. I’ve got a few other side hustles. The sad thing is acting became the side hustle which was never the intention.

“I started my companies as a supplement to my acting career. But then they become a little beast of their own. You become passionate about that and it starts taking over.