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EastEnders star Michelle Ryan shares glam Zoe Slater transformation pics amid her return to the BBC soap
EastEnders star Michelle Ryan has shared before and after glam transformation snaps amid her return to the BBC soap.
The actress, 41, briefly reprised her role as Zoe Slater back in June after 20 years away from Albert Square.
Michelle is set to make a full time return as Zoe this summer where she'll come face-to-face with her estranged mother Kat Slater (Jessie Wallace) in explosive scenes.
And amid filming for her scenes, Michelle gave fans a glimpse into how she gets into character as Zoe as she snapped selfies in the make-up chair.
The soap star initially showed off a bare-faced look without a scrap of make-up, before a follow-up picture showed her with eye-liner and sleeker hair.
Subsequent images followed showing Michelle looking glam with a sweep of bold red lipstick, while her raven locks were styled in glam waves.
Set to Modjo's 2001 track Lady (Hear Me Tonight), Michelle captioned her post writing: 'Make up transformation today in the chair. Grateful to costume and make up for helping me find the role of Zoe again over the past couple of months.
'When I first played Zoe early 2000's this song was a huge hit and played all the time.'
It comes after Jessie revealed she 'burst out crying' after reuniting with her on screen daughter Michelle amid her return to the soap.
During her time on the show, Michelle was involved in one of the soap's biggest storylines when it was revealed that Kat Slater (Jessie) was in fact Zoe's mother and not her sister, with explosive scenes seeing her yell: 'You ain't my mother!', only for Kat to reply: 'Yes I am!'
And now, after returning to Albert Square two decades after her dramatic exit, Jessie, 53, revealed she was overcome with emotion at the news.
Speaking in an interview with the Radio Times she confessed that they reunited at a secret dinner date with the executive producers.
'I burst out I saw Michelle, I cried – we were all very emotional. It was nostalgic and lovely.'
While it isn't uncommon for roles to be recast in the soap world, Jessie was also determined that if Zoe returned it could only be Michelle.
Michelle captioned her post writing: 'Make up transformation today in the chair. Grateful to costume and make up for helping me find the role of Zoe again over the past couple of months'
'I said to Ben [executive producer], "It has to be Michelle. It won't feel right if Zoe is recast." I wouldn't be able to give my best performance. The audience would feel completely conned.'
She added: 'I love Michelle and have always been protective over her, perhaps that's natural having played her mum. I'm a mother myself now, which I wasn't when we worked together before, and I'm very protective over my daughter.'
Michelle had been asked to return to the soap before but had always declined.
However this time she felt the time was right after she was moved after seeing the comments on social media following EastEnders' 40th anniversary.
After reminiscing on her time on the soap with colleagues she mentioned to her agent that she would go back and as coincidence would have it EastEnders had already been on the phone.
Back in June Zoe made a bombshell return to the BBC soap, after her return was kept under wraps.
Viewers then saw Zoe in two further episodes that week but she will now be back full-time this summer.
Speaking previously on her return to the BBC soap, Michelle said: 'It feels like coming home. After doing my first few scenes, it was like I'd never been away. It all happened at the right time.
'I'd already been thinking about a return because I'd met up with Kacey Ainsworth (Little Mo) and Kim Medcalf (Sam Mitchell) and we were reminiscing our fond memories of the show, and I'd also joined social media and saw that there was still a lot of love for the character.
'It just so happened that at the same time, EastEnders had announced a new Exec who was keen to explore the potential of a return as he was such a massive fan of Zoe and the Slaters, so both of our worlds aligned at the right time, and I'm so excited to be back.
