Coronation Street Blog Interview: Samia Longchambon

There's nothing quite like an eleventh hour wedding interruption, and when it comes to Coronation Street, we've been treated to more than a few. On Monday's Corrie we had the pleasure of experiencing yet another when Maria burst in in the middle of Aidan and Eva's lavish ceremony. A rather smug Eva tells her she's too late, Aidan has already confessed to their affair, and they're going ahead with the wedding. But what the bride isn't prepared for is Maria's rather unique favour for each guest; a copy of the baby scan Eva has been passing off as her own. Yes, Maria stuns the room by revealing that Eva is not pregnant, and it's a showstopper.

I travelled to Manchester to meet Samia Longchambon who plays Maria at Coronation Street studios to hear all about it. Those not wishing to read any spoilers should look away now.

We also now know that, in scenes to be shown tonight (Wednesday, 20 September), the girls take it outside to thrash it out in the fountain.

First up, how did Samia find these scenes? "It was so much fun actually. I was dreading it before because you feel so much pressure to get it right and I just wasn’t sure, I couldn’t envisage how it was going to work. But on the day John the Director just gave us the freedom to do whatever we wanted to each other basically and we just went for it".

Asked what was the worst thing Cath did to her, and what she did to Cath, Samia laughs, "she grabbed my hair and shoved my head under the water, dunking my head up and down" adding, "it wasn’t the nicest thing that Cath’s ever done to me. And the worst thing I did to her was rip her hair extensions out and throw her tiara across the garden. I think I might have tried dunking her in but it was bloody hard in that wedding dress because it was massive, so even getting close to her in my shorts and t-shirt was quite difficult. It was much easier for her to dunk my head under."

Speaking of Maria's motives for exposing the lie, Samia says, "even though her and Aidan aren’t together now and she’s kind of closed the book on their affair, she still cares for him and she still wants him to know the truth that the woman he’s marrying isn’t the person that he thinks she is and she still thinks that he needs to know."

Samia loved bursting through the doors at the wedding, telling us "it was everything that I imagined it should be because it’s been like a really slow burner this affair, it hasn’t just been a flash in the pan and it’s meant a lot to Maria." She adds, "she did actually love Aidan, so yes, to culminate in the way it did was brilliant, it was such a treat to get those storylines and to film it."

Samia admits to feeling sorry for her character, and describes it as "devastating" for Aidan that there was never a baby, adding, "I think that’s what Corrie do really well in the writing in that you actually feel sorry for all of these characters in some way at some point and you’re also frustrated with them all because all of them have done something wrong but all of them have also been wronged as well, so it’s kind of up to you guys as the audience to decide which team you're on. I’m Team Maria! Obviously!" she laughs.

We're told that Maria does feel remorse for her actions and Samia explains, "the fact that even Kirk, who’s like her most loyal supporter, her brother, he’s saying to her ‘Why have you done this? How could you do all this?’ she does feel bad. But she did love him, that’s her kind of thing, you know, it wasn’t out of spite or revenge...she’s just been really unlucky."

With regard to Maria's previous relationships, Samia says, "It’s interesting for me that Maria’s always unlucky in love. I think since Liam, even though she was really unlucky with Liam her husband, he was like the love of her life and she’s always trying to get that back and she’s never had that with anybody since and I think with Aidan she thought she might get that."

Now that Maria has had her big reveal, it will be interesting to see where Aidan and Eva go from here.

By Emma Hynes

www.emmahynes.net
Twitter: @ELHynes
Facebook: @EmmaHynesWrites
Instagram: emmalouhynes

You can also read my interviews with Shayne Ward,  Cath Tyldesley and Sally Ann Matthews, view the Coronation Street Promo Video for the double wedding, and read about the announcement of a sixth weekly episode of Corrie from 20 September.

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