Michelle Collins wants more TV shows to feature strong female characters
Michelle Collins plays the manipulative and adulterous Cindy Beale in EastEnders, and she would like to see more strong female characters in other TV shows.
Michelle Collins calls for more TV shows to feature strong female characters like EastEnders does.
The 63-year-old actress plays the manipulative and adulterous Cindy Beale, alongside many other powerful women in the hit BBC One soap, including the fiery, no-nonsense Kat Moon (Jessie Wallace) and the headstrong, resilient Nicola Mitchell (Laura Doddington).
Asked if she loves that EastEnders has lots of strong female characters, Michelle told the new issue of Inside Soap magazine: "Yes, and more shows on TV should be like that.
"When Cindy had an affair with Junior [her ex-husband George Knight's (Colin Salmon) son, played by Micah Balfour], the audience didn't question why women of a certain age can't be with a younger man.
"When I was younger, if someone had told me I'd still be acting in my 60s, I thought I'd probably be retired or dead by then!
"I feel youthful, I'm still ambitious and am probably the happiest I've ever been."
Michelle is taking a break from EastEnders as she prepares to make her debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Motorhome Marilyn - which runs from July 30 to August 25 at Doonstairs Gilded Balloon.
The production - which is based on Michelle's "brief encounter" with a Marilyn Monroe impersonator "years ago" in Los Angeles - follows Denise, who left her "difficult" life in England to seek fame and fortune as an aspiring actress in Hollywood.
But as her vision of making it big in Tinseltown does not work out, she lives "an isolated life" in a trailer, and she spends her time impersonating Marilyn to earn a living.
And Michelle said there are similarities between Cindy and Denise.
She explained: "There are parallels. Denise is more likable than Cindy, a bit more vulnerable.
"They've both had dreams that didn't come, abandonment issues, and are a bit deluded.
"But neither of them let go or give up. Cindy and Denise are survivors, they've been through a lot, but they are brazen and will fight for themselves until the bitter end!"
And Michelle thinks Denise could fit perfectly into EastEnders as the "long-lost twin sister" of Cindy - who made a shock comeback to the soap after a 25-year hiatus in 2023, when it was revealed that her manipulative and scheming alter ego did not actually die during childbirth in prison, and was instead put into witness protection under a new identity - Rose Sawyer - for decades.
She said: "Maybe Denise could come into EastEnders as Cindy's long-lost twin sister!
"We don't know much about her upbringing..."
