Coronation Street’s Carl Webster star Jonathan Howard(Image: Jonathan Howard Instagram)
Coronation Street newcomer Jonathan Howard has revealed how he once auditioned for another role in the long-running show 17 years ago – and things could have been very different.

The 38-year-old actor arrived on the cobbles earlier this month as Kevin and Debbie Webster’s long-lost little brother, Carl Webster.

Carl is the son of Bill and Elaine Webster and was born in Germany where his parents were living at the time. When he was nine years old, his father Bill left Germany and returned to Weatherfield after his mother Elaine had an affair.

Jonathan, however, has told how he previously went for another role in the ITV soap, but when he lost out, ended up going to drama school instead.

“I was in Dream Team and I was at a crossroads with my career and what I was doing and I thought, ‘I’ve never trained as an actor, I want to go to drama school!’ So I was in the process of auditioning for drama schools at the same time as I had a screen test for a new family, and that was the Windass family,” he revealed to the Manchester Evening News and other press.

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“Gary Windass was the character I was auditioning for. Obviously I didn’t get it. I lost out to a great actor [Mikey North] and he’s done amazing things with that character.”

He went on: “But in that moment, if I’d been offered Corrie I would have taken it and I wouldn’t have taken my place at LAMDA, at drama school, and I wouldn’t have done that training.

“So, it was very disappointing at the time because, as a northern actor, Corrie is the main staple of an actor’s diet. The to not get it meant that I went to drama school and you have to trust the universe and trust that things happen and it’s all for the right reason.

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Jonathan recently made his debut in the ITV soap as Carl Webster(Image: ITV)
“I got a great training at drama school, I left and got a good agent and therefore had opportunities that took me to America, met my wife – can’t forget that. I wouldn’t have met my wife if I hadn’t have gone to drama school, so it all worked out for the best.”

The new soap star – who has appeared in the likes of World War Z, Thor: The Dark World and Godzilla: King of the Monsters – has ditched the States for his childhood bedroom in Lancashire while taking on the role of Carl.

Away from the cobbles, Jonathan Howard is happily married to TV and film star Elodie Yung, who has appeared in hit movie The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and starred in some major TV series, such as Marvel’s Daredevil and The Cleaning Lady.

Heexplained: “I left the north of England 20 years ago, I left when I was 20, I went down and did Dream Team in London then I went to drama school for three years.

“I left drama school and managed to work in America and moved to America and I’ve been living in the States for the last 10 years with my wife and I have a daughter over there. The only hard thing is being away from them, but at the same time it’s a real gift to be back in the north of England.

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Jonathan left the north of England 20 years ago and has since made a life in America(Image: ITV)
“I’m a Lancashire lad, born and raised. My sister, my mum, my childhood friends still live in the same village I grew up in on the outskirts of Southport so I go there on the weekends. It’s a bit weird to be sleeping in my childhood bed, my teenage bed… 40 years old and I’m sleeping in my childhood bedroom is really interesting but it’s really nice to be around northerners.”

Jonathan also told us how he and Elodie moved from LA to another state for her work, and that they enjoy their life out there together. “My wife has been working on a TV show for the last few years in another state in America and we’ve been based there for the last couple of years,” he shared.

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“We enjoy our life there. My wife is French Cambodian and we never thought we’d be living in the States, but we like it out there. That’s our life right now.”