Since Damon arrived and started blackmailing Nick, is he shocked by how quickly the whole situation at the Bistro has spiralled out of his control?
I think he thought, naively, that Damon wasn’t the same as his brother, maybe not as bad or as dangerous. That’s the thing with Nick, he’s just niaive. He was panicked, he wanted the money to get him out of a hole and then it's just got deeper and deeper. And actually Damon is more sophisticated than his brother. Nick was used to the way Harvey played things but with Damon he didn’t see this straight away. Damon operates differently, he doesn’t lay it out from the start like Harvey and the worst part for Nick is that he’s like a boa constrictor, he’s slowly going to suck all the life out of his business and then his family. Nick just doesn’t know how to get out of his hold. He’s almost relieved when Leanne finds out but then it escalates much, much quicker than he thought it was going to.
How exhausting has it been for Nick keeping this from Leanne, is it a relief to finally share the weight of this?
Yes but then it’s just another set of problems. It happens with them quite a lot and they get through it because they rely on each other but I think Leanne is just a bit stronger than Nick in these situations. He’d rather have her in the conversation at the end of the day than not, even if it breaks them. Damon starts to get this weird thing going on with Sam where he’s buying him stuff, giving him advice and it just gets a bit too dark for Nick.
They have to come together then don’t they, even if they fall out about this in the future there’s almost no time now is there?
When it settles down I think it will be different but in that moment she realises they’re both in this together and they need to get out of it. So she jumps straight in then they start formulating a plan to get themselves out of this.
As Damon takes hold the drugs arrive in the bistro and there’s a siege with a gunman. Nick gets a call from Sam to say he’s in there. How does Nick feel when he gets that call?
It’s awful, when it's only affecting him he can handle it, but with Sam and all the trauma he's been through already this is the moment where he's like, I'm about to really ruin my kid's life. He’s a father who wasn't there for 10 years and now he is here he’s making his life worse, putting him at the centre of a gun siege.
Do you think seeing his son in that situation gives Nick a bit of steel to try and deal with Damon?
Yes because he’s got nothing else to lose. He gets pushed so far that he thinks it can't get any worse than this and if he has to go to the police then so be it. It’s escalated so far, having his child faced with a gun, that he thinks it’s never going to be worse than this.
Do you think Nick and Leanne can get through this?
Yes I do but I think there'll be some caveats. I don’t think Nick’s bad but I think he’s naive, he didn’t get into this knowingly and I think Leanne gets that. He wants this family unit but I don’t think Leanne will make it easy, he’s going to have to work for it. But then there are many times where it's been reversed and he’s been there for her. I think they do need to be together, I think the audience wants those characters to stay together even when it’s hard. I think people want to see them push through when things get really, really hard, like Carla and Peter, like Deirdre and Ken, because that is real. They can go through so much but they can push through and stay together.
How have you enjoyed playing Nick alongside Damon, is it a slightly darker Nick we’re going to see?
There’s definitely sides to Nick, he stole from his own gran remember! There’s a part of him that still has his dad in him, he can be quite Machiavellian at points, but then he has this family and this sense that because his dad wasn’t there for him he needs to step up. He misguidedly thought taking the money would make everything right for all of them. What he's trying to do all the time is get stability for his family but the way he does it is always wrong. There are sides to him without a doubt but he tries to not show that to Sam or Leanne. I don’t think he’s a complete pushover with Damon, he lets him know he can rough him up and he can threaten him but if he decides he will just go to the police, he has that in his back pocket.
Is there the fear for Nick that he could lose his son here, can their relationship survive this?
Definitely he has that fear about losing Sam but the greater fear here is what damage am I doing to my own son. I hope they will find a way back because I do think they have a bond, he is his dad and Nick wants that relationship. But in the back of his head he’s also aware of at what cost to this young kid. Nick has to see his part in this whole thing.
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