Former EastEnders star Zack Morris says leaving the soap 16 months ago was "not an overnight decision" but "still feels like the right one."
The talented 24-year-old, who played Keegan Baker for five years in the long-running BBC soap, spoke to RTE.ie ahead of the European premiere of his first film project, Jericho Ridge, which takes place as part of the Galway Film Fleadh on Friday 14 July.
Jericho Ridge is a thriller telling the story of a small-town cop in the US, who has to fight for her life when her remote sheriff's office is targeted by murderous attackers. Morris plays Monty, the sheriff's son.
With opportunities coming in thick and fast when he announced he had decided to leave EastEnders in March 2022, Morris says that Jericho’s engaging script, with its detailed descriptions of action sequences, had the actor hooked.
He said that the film came at "a time when I was reading a lot of scripts. There was something about the writing of this one that was just so engaging.
"And the action sequences… they were so detailed, that when we eventually ended up getting to shoot them, I had already really envisaged them.
"When you feel you’re there when just reading a script, you know it’s a good one."
The actor, who hails from Essex in the UK, says he is passionate about action movies and thrillers, and the fact that his character Monty also has a level of depth and substance was of huge appeal.
But going back - how difficult was it for the young actor to walk away from the juggernaut that is EastEnders?
"It was definitely not an overnight decision. I had the backing of my team – my UK agent and my US management. We had a lot of talks about when was the right time."
"And ultimately, EastEnders was the perfect training ground for myself - it was the perfect place for me to gain exposure in the industry, and also get a feel, essentially, for what every little part of the industry was going to be - be that working on set long hours, be that script changes, the everyday life of a working actor, dealing with the media, being in the limelight. All that stuff that’s valuable going forward."
Morris says that those five years on set occurred through a very "impressionable" time of his life, due to his young age and the fact that he combined the work with acting college.
"I booked the show when I was 17 and I started on set when I has just turned 18. I was there for five years and it was a very impressionable time in my life.
"I felt like I was doing a lot of learning. I love learning and I love wanting to push myself and grow, so when it felt like it was time that I needed new challenges..." he trails off, before continuing: "As a creative, I just want to play cool characters, I want to tell great stories, I want to be involved in cool projects.
"When those opportunities arise… I had to go for that, so I needed permission to leave [EastEnders] to be able to do that."
The actor is keen to show his gratitude for the exposure the soap gave him, saying, "Without EastEnders, the opportunities that have arisen would not have been there."
Alluding to the stigma that there can be around soap actors, he said, "Yes, there is a stigma with soap actors… typecasting and that kind of stuff.
"I hear that completely but at the end of the day, everyone who works on EastEnders is incredibly talented, incredibly hardworking, and to be an actor in this industry what I’m learning is that’s what you need - you need to want it, you need to be hardworking.
"It felt right at the time. It still feels like a right decision and it gave me a lot of what I needed to move forward."
The actor wasted no time in seizing those opportunities and started filming Jericho Ridge only nine days after doing his last scene on EastEnders. Will he ever go back to the soap? "We’ll see!" he laughs.
Exciting times lie ahead for Morris, with a major role on a new TV adaptation of R.L Stine's famous Goosebumps series due to hit screens later this year - "I can't say much, but I'm one of the series leads. It was an incredible experience to be part of. We wrapped earlier this year."
Jericho Ridge will be shown as part of the Galway Film Fleadh at 10.30pm on Friday 14 July at the PÁLÁS Cinema, followed by a Q&A session with some of the cast and crew.
Check out galwayfilmfleadh.com for more ticket information, as well as more detail on the festival, which runs from 11-16 July.
The 2023 festival, which is in its 35th year, offers 80 foreign and Irish feature films, with world premieres to making up a 25% of films shown.
