'I did Strictly Come Dancing and SAS Who Dares Win - one was far harder'
Former EastEnders actress Maisie Smith has opened up about her experiences competing on both SAS: Who Dares Wins and Strictly Come Dancing
Maisie Smith is famed for portraying Tiffany Butcher in BBC One's EastEnders, but the actress has taken on many other challenges away from Albert Square.
The 24-year-old competed on Strictly Come Dancing in 2020, making it to the final with Gorka Marquez and coming in second place. In 2022, Maisie appeared on Channel 4's Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins and was one of only four celebrities to complete the famously gruelling course.
During an appearance on ITV's Loose Women on Thursday (August 14), Maisie opened up about her experiences on both reality shows, admitting that she found one far "scarier" than the other.
Maisie opened up about her reality TV ventures on Loose Women
(Image: ITV)
"What was more terrifying, Strictly or SAS?" Loose Women's Denise Welch asked the star.
After taking a moment to think about her answer, Maisie responded: "Strictly was scarier because it was my first time being myself on TV. Whereas I'm usually used to learning lines and being a character, so that was quite a shock to the system.
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"But, obviously, SAS was so physically demanding - and mentally. You can't compare them, they're so different."
Maisie went on to open up about her time on Celebrity SAS, admitting there were plenty of tears, but it is still "the best thing" she's ever done.
'I did cry the whole way through," she said. "It's worse than it looks.
"Even when I was watching it, it was like 10 per cent of how it actually felt. It's the best thing I've ever done mentally and physically."
Maisie competed on Strictly in 2020
(Image: BBC)
Maisie added: 'It felt like the first day you have a New Year's resolution, that's how I felt coming out. Like 'I'm starting my life with a completely new outlook of who I am'. The fact I was so young, I was five foot three, 20 years old, I had to stay until they physically removed me."
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Kaye Adams took the opportunity to quiz Maisie about a potential return to EastEnders, with the actress having exited the BBC One soap in 2021. Maisie admitted: 'You don't know, you never know. I'm really enjoying being on stage and it's so much fun and so different.
"This show I'm doing is going to be incredible. It's the first ever UK tour of The Talented Mr Ripley.'
Loose Women airs on weekdays on ITV1 at 12.30pm.
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Stacey is targeted again by Joel in upsetting scenes in EastEnders
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Michelle Collins makes her Edinburgh Fringe debut with Motorhome Marilyn
Michelle Collins makes her Edinburgh Fringe debut with a play about a Marilyn Monroe lookalike in Motorhome Marilyn. | Lucy Hayes The EastEnders actor has made a career out of stepping out of her comfort zone Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... EastEnders actor Michelle Collins is fulfilling the ambition of a lifetime by making her Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut with her one-woman show Motorhome Marilyn. A dark comedy, the play was inspired by a real life Marilyn Monroe lookalike Collins saw emerging from a trailer years ago in LA and explores our relationships with icons, ageing and what happens when dreams don't come true. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I'm terrified. But I've always wanted to do the Edinburgh Fringe. It's always been on my bucket list,' she says, when we talk ahead of her run. 'Being live on stage terrifies me but I still love it. I don't trust an actor who says they don't get scared on stage. Judi Dench still gets scared on stage. Doesn't everybody? I think all the good actors should get scared because it's good to be scared. And also I've never done a one-woman show. So there's only me up there. Oh, with a pet python.' A real python? 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In the meantime the 63-year-old has four decades of stage and screen credits ranging from TV roles in Coronation Street, Doctor Who, Miss Marple, Two Thousand Acres of Sky, and The Illustrated Mum, for which she won an international Emmy and Bear Grylls Mission Survive, while she's appeared in numerous plays and musicals including Daddy Cool, Calendar Girls, Cleudo, Thoroughly Modern Millie and A Dark Night in Dalston, which she also produced. Films include Black Road and last year's Gangster's Kiss, 2024, with John Hannah, Martin Kemp and Patsy Kensit. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Collins recounts how the inspiration for the play which she originally collaborated on with her late friend, the playwright Stewart Permutt, came about after she saw a woman dressed as Marilyn Monroe emerge from a motorhome in LA a few years ago. 'I was walking around Hollywood and saw this woman dressed as Marilyn in that iconic white dress. She had the wig on and was putting money in a meter and visually, it just looked fantastic. She had long red nails and put the money in the metre then sashayed away very elegantly. She exchanged hellos with this guy and walked off. Then she turned around and I saw that she was an older Marilyn, more like 56. So I walked up to the guy and asked who she was. He said, 'oh, that's Motorhome Marilyn. She lives in that trailer and walks up and down and that's how she earns her money'. I was really intrigued. I later went looking for her but never found her or found out who she was. I just became intrigued with the idea and that image always stayed with me.' Discussing the idea with Stewart Permutt, whose play 'Real Babies Don't Cry' won a Fringe First in 2010 and who also wrote the play she produced and performed in, A Dark Night in Dalston, the idea became a script. However Permutt's death meant it was not developed beyond early drafts. 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Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I think it's fantastic that older women are represented on screen. Also, why can't older women have affairs? Ok, I'm not condoning it, she did have an affair with her husband's stepson, which probably isn't a cool thing to do if you want to be accepted back into the family. But, you know what? Why not? Women of 60 can go and have affairs and I think people also want to see that on TV and I think that's really important. 'Soaps have always been really great in championing women, matriarchal figures and older women as well.' Michelle Collins plays Denise, a Marilyn Monroe lookalike in Motorhome Marilyn. | Lucy Hayes If Collins' career hadn't worked out the way it has, could she ever have seen herself going down the lookalike route? 'Oh God, I think I can. I remember getting a Kylie look alike for my daughter's birthday party. Yeah. There are people who have made careers out of doing something like that. But when I think of all the jobs I did when I was very, very young, it never really occurred to me to ever be a lookalike. Let's face it, anyone could be a Marilyn lookalike. Just get the blonde wig and iconic dress. Denise, my character says, 'Anybody can get the outfit on Amazon, but I'm different'. She feels she actually embodies Marilyn.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'You know, I did go to America when I was 17 with a boyfriend who became a very successful production designer in the film world, and we stayed in Venice Beach and I had the most brilliant time and people said to me, 'stay here and be an actress in America.' And I was tempted, and I do think what would have happened if I'd stayed? But I hadn't finished college here and came back. Sometimes I think what if? I didn't get into drama school but I've worked a lot. Life for me is about successes that come out of failures. I think having to struggle makes you a better person and a stronger person.' 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Daily Mirror
2 hours ago
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Emmerdale first look as Aaron and Robert kiss after emotional confession
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