I don't think this was set up by the producers or offered any cash bonuses to act it out etc; it's too dangerous.
Let's face it, with the scrutiny LI is under for its care and mental health safe guarding at the moment could you imagine the fallout if it came out they deliberately encouraged and engineered a cast member to be a villain to be publicly vilified for reasons that cast member is not wholly responsible for?
All it would take is for said cast member to say they set me up, offered me this and that, its ruined my life, I feel suicidal... and the show would be blown apart. The show has became wayyyy too much of a cash cow for any of those behind it to risk all that sponsorship and profitability for a sake of a good storyline.
They'll rely on editing to engineer storylines instead, which we already know.
That's my tuppence worth anyway 