Emmerdale actor James Moore has said trolls are surprised when he replies following online abuse.
Moore, who has cerebral palsy, said he believes some people use online abuse as a way of coping with their own problems.
Speaking to ITV Calendar News, he said: “At the end of the day, you’ve got to balance it out and I find that… I’ve realised that there are a lot more people that are really supportive and enthusiastic about what I do and they’re the people that I want to put myself out there for.
“So, it’s important to take the bad with the good and try and look at it from a more optimistic handle.”
Moore said: “I think it’s something within themselves. You’re going to take it out on someone that, a) is a character on a show, b) they’ve never met in real life.
“It’s really a reflection of who they are as a person. It doesn’t make them look good and I think a lot of people do it as a way of coping with their own problems, in a way.
“It’s a sort-of self-defence mechanism.
“When I get it online, I think people are shocked that I reply sometimes, because I do.
“But I think people don’t expect celebrities or TV stars, or whatever, to read people’s tweets. But they do. If you tweet at them, it will come up in their notifications and you know they will see it.”
The 26-year-old, who plays Ryan Stocks, joined the ITV programme last year and won the Best Newcomer prize at the National Television Awards in January after a public vote.
He told the programme: “I think disability should be completely normalised within culture.
“And I feel like almost it is the last big bastion, a goal entertainment has to achieve because we’ve already succeeded in having LGBT characters played in main roles, characters of all races, and I think there is a lack of diverse characters with disabilities
“We need to get the message out there to casting directors and to script writers to say ‘look, we need some more representation on screen’.”