Matt Di Angelo has spoken fully about the show's upcoming rape storyline for the first time, admitting that the difficult scenes were initially "intimidating" to film.
Late last month, show bosses announced that Di Angelo's character Dean Wicks will rape his sister-in-law Linda Carter (Kellie Bright) in scenes due to air later in the autumn.
Speaking to Digital Spy and other journalists at the TV Choice Awards on Monday evening (September 8), Di Angelo explained: "We shot it about a month ago now and I'm going to watch it tomorrow afternoon. I haven't seen it yet, but the feedback from the director and the executive producer is that they're extremely happy with the episode, so I feel good that my boss is happy with my work.
"Initially it was a very intimidating storyline. It's a disgusting, scary thing and to have your face associated with that heinous crime is a challenge, but what I'm here for is to tell these meaningful stories and it is a job."
He continued: "It's an important story and the statistics about rape are really, really shocking. People often aren't reporting rapes - I think 80% of rapes aren't reported. Around 20% are but only around 2% lead to prosecution and imprisonment.
"That's shocking and it needs to be spoken about. People are going to be shocked and upset with the story, but it brings attention to a very important subject so that's why we're doing it."
Di Angelo admitted that while he is unsure about what the storyline means for his long-term future, he is doubtful over whether Dean will face a prison sentence.
He said: "I think with this particular case, the soap gods are going to rule very similar to the real judicial system - which like I said, is 2%. Not that we've decided yet if he's going to go to prison, but if he did, it would be a 98% chance against real life and what happens.
"It's a soap opera about real life, so if we're telling a real life story, his character in no way, shape or form should go to prison. That's what we're trying to tell - the injustice is the interesting bit.
"They might go against that and send Dean to prison, but we're trying to show that not all rapists are big, ugly, smelly, sweaty guys with masks. A lot of rapists are young men that seem normal.
"In this case, Dean is a self-deluding rapist who doesn't believe that he's raped Linda. We've done a lot of research with Rape Crisis on this and it's pretty horrible, but hopefully it was worth coming back for."
Di Angelo also paid tribute to the wider team working on the storyline, thanking them for giving the plot extra time and effort on set.
He explained: "It wasn't nice [to film], but we had a closed set and Kellie was amazing. We also had a phenomenal director, Jennie Darnell. We had six hours of rehearsal time, which for EastEnders is unheard of, but they threw the rule book out of the window for this one so they were really helpful."
On how Danny Dyer's character Mick might react if he finds out about his partner's attack, Di Angelo added: "If he does find out, the repercussions are going to be hopefully more just than the judicial system. He'll probably get his hands on Dean and you can only imagine what will happen. That part will make for very interesting TV because we are on-screen brothers."
