Ricky Whittle has spoken out on his decision to leave his hit US show
The 100.
The
British actor, who shot to fame as
Calvin Valentine on
Hollyoaks, has accused the show's executive producer
Jason Rothenberg of 'bullying him' out of his role.
Ricky who has starred in the CW drama since the first episode in 2014 - has told Zap2It that he felt he had to quit the series, alleging that Rothenberg made his job 'untenable.'
Speaking to Zap2It, the actor claimed on his exit'Jason Rothenberg abused his position to make my job untenable. What he did was disgusting and he should be ashamed.'
He added:'He was professionally bullying me, cutting out all the storyline I was supposed to be doing, cutting lines, cutting everything out, trying to make my character and myself as insignificant as possible.'
Jason was trying to cut me out and it was childish, it was immature, it's narcissistical, really. He chose to belittle me and neglect my character and myself
...That's one thing that
I'll never forgive him for, he made me walk away from something I really love.'
Taking to Twitter as his final scenes aired on Tuesday, Ricky told his fans: 'I will always support my friends,but I also said on periscope a while back that YOU need to make the choice to look after yourselves first.'
'
Anyway,I just want to thank you again for all ur support,u truly have inspired me to be better each day. #Stayblessed #grateful.'
In a statement to MailOnline, Rothenberg said: 'Ricky Whittle is a talented actor; I appreciate his work on The 100 and wish him all the best moving forward on
American Gods.'
Ricky is moving on, recently landing a role in another US series, American Gods, playing the front man,
Shadow Moon.
Starring in his first leading role, the 34-year-old will be at the centre of the
adaptation of
Neil Gaiman’s acclaimed contemporary fantasy novel.
The series, which will begin production this month, sees a war brewing between old and new gods with conflicting traditional and new age values.
The novel already has a huge cult following, translated into more than 30 languages and awarded the
Bram Stoker Award for
Best Novel among many other accolades.
As Shadow Moon, Ricky will play an ex-con who becomes bodyguard and traveling partner to conman, Mr. Wednesday.
However, his enigmatic new boss is one of the older gods, who is on a mission to gather his forces in order to declare war against the new gods - who are obsessed with money, technology, media, celebrity culture and drugs.
Writers and showrunners
Bryan Fuller and
Michael Green, explained the decision to cast Ricky was non-debatable.
We searched every continent and country and all the islands in between for our Shadow Moon, and we are lucky to have found Ricky,' they said.
Fans of the novel will find he has every bit of the heart of the character they fell in love with.'
- published: 07 Apr 2016
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