Doctor Foster star Bertie Carvel says he has never faced a backlash for playing a cheating husband - because people don't recognise him.
The 40-year-old actor stars as adulterer Simon Foster in the BBC1 drama, opposite Suranne Jones as his ex-wife, eponymous GP Gemma Foster.
But in an interview with Radio Times he said he's never been recognised in public as the person who plays the villainous character. "I think it's because I don't look like Simon Foster," he said.
"I'm aware that there are people on the internet saying how much they hate Simon Foster," he admitted.
"With the millions who watch it, there are likely to be one or two who can't distinguish between me and the character, and feel a hatred of Simon. So I suppose that puts me at risk."
But despite the show's success in the UK, Carvel isn't losing the run of himself, and is quite happy to be off-radar and able to live a pretty ordinary existence.
"At the level of the really famous actors - which I'm not - that risk is scaled up, and you might be sensible to think about your security," he said.
"But I'm not paid enough to live in a gated community with private security, and actually I wouldn't want to live like that.
"You have to just hope that most people enjoy the fictional reality of Simon without thinking he's real."
Carvel also revealed that he almost rejected the part when writer Mike Bartlett sent him a draft of the opening episode of the show's first season.
"I had a strong reaction that Simon was such an obviously bad guy, and I felt that was a mistake," he said.
"I wanted it to be more nuanced, and with a sense of why Simon behaves in that way. I wrote to Mike, and I think, in his own way, he reflected some of that in the rewrites."
The second season of the programme is currently airing on Tuesdays on BBC One, and looks set to be as much a ratings-winner as the first.
But Carvel admitted he would prefer to go on being ignored in public than feel he had to hide away from people or become something of a recluse.
"I hope that kind of recognition never does happen to me," he said. "I keep a low profile. I'm quite cautious about social media. I keep my private life private."
