With Gary, Sarah, and Adam tangled up in a very messy web, poor Maria has been completely left out of the circle. While Gary is off professing his love to Sarah, Maria continues to think she's found her soulmate, and is excitedly gearing up for their wedding day. With the heat being turned up on Gary, I spoke to Samia Longchambon all about secrets, lies, and wedding dresses.
Maria hasn't had much luck in her love life over the years, but now she's found 'the one' in the shape of Gary Windass. It's safe to say she is most certainly wearing her rose-tinted glasses. Speaking about the state of Gary and Maria's relationship, Samia said: "From Maria's point of view, they're in a good place and she's happy, and all that stuff with Ali's kind of disappeared and Ali's left so her head and heart now is just all for Gary."
Samia also firmly believes that Maria trusts Gary. "She's so silly, isn't she? Maria always wants the fairytale I think, and I think to some extent she thinks Gary's her Prince Charming because he's stood by her and he forgave her for her indiscretion, shall we say.
"As far as she's concerned, she trusts him and loves him and they're going to live happily ever after."
As is life in soapland however, fairytales very rarely come true. We previously saw Sarah lie as to why she was in the road which caused Gary to get hit by the car, and this raised huge suspicions with Maria. "It got a little bit awkward in the hospital", said Samia.
"Sarah's given her account of what's happened and Maria's just thinking, 'Gosh, Gary's a hero, he saved your life, that's my Gary, always does the right thing', and then Tyrone comes in and gives a bit of a different turn of events. That's a little bit of a red flag for her, but I think under the circumstances she kind of just brushes it aside."
As we all know, Maria is being kept in the dark so much that she would never think for one second that Gary is capable of murder. However, secrets do have a habit of coming out eventually in Weatherfield.
"I think she'd be obviously furious", said Samia, wondering about what Maria's reaction would be if she ever found out the truth. "She'd be devastated that she's potentially about to be married to a murderer, especially after what happened to her first husband, to Liam. He got murdered and then she got engaged to his murderer.
"She's not got a good track record with murderers and murdering and everyone dying around her. I think she'd run a mile if she actually found out the truth. I hope she would, but I don't know. You never know with Maria."
It's bad enough that Gary hasn't told Maria that he's killed someone, but it'd be a double blow if she found out that Sarah, of all people, already knew. "I think she'd feel really betrayed", said Samia. "That's something else now that Sarah and Gary have kind of got together, you know, they've got this big secret together that Maria's not part of."
Preparing for the wedding was not only thrilling for Maria, but for Samia too. She said: "At Corrie we get our hair and makeup done everyday religiously. I've never had to do my own Maria makeup, ever.
"It's a bit of a strange feeling sitting in your dressing room on your own where normally we're in the makeup room and it's bustling. I've been putting my music on on my phone just for a bit of noise while I do my makeup, or listening to a podcast or something."
As well as having to do her own hair and makeup, Samia also had a hand in choosing Maria's wedding dress. "I spoke with Alex, our costume designer, and we both agreed it shouldn't be anything too big and extravagant... Alex narrowed some choices down and we went into Manchester luckily just before lockdown. I got fitted for it and measured and everything so it was all boxed off before we went into lockdown.
"Alex found it and then it was pretty much off the peg, just like the first one I tried on and I was just like, 'Yep, that's it, that'll do". It does exactly the job for exactly what we needed it to."
One question remains: why is Maria so unlucky in love?
"Oh gosh, that's the million dollar question, isn't it? I think she doesn't learn from her mistakes. I think she trusts people too quickly considering what she's been through."
With all of Gary's secrets bubbling to the top, will Maria's wedding go without a hitch, or will there be fireworks?
Sophie Williams
Read some more of my general natterings on Twitter soph_journo.
4 comments:
Frankly I could care less. There is absolutely no chemistry between Gary and Maria. Maria could do so much better than that loser. She really needs to smarten up and make better decisions, she has a son to consider.
Like Maria,Sarah also has a son to consider and yet is willing to lie for Gary to the police and destroy her marriage in the process.
If Gary does dump Maria for Sarah then I think Maria has had a narrow escape.
Maybe Maria and Adam should get together?
I agree, I'm not bothered what Maria does which is a shame because the character does have potential. She was quite fun in her dealings with Carla and Michelle. She's not blessed like Sarah with a huge family to fall back on when things go wrong so I find her more sympathetic. I hope she does split from Gary and meets somebody else - eventually. The soap cliche of forever making the same mistake in matters of the heart wears very thin after a while.
I think Maria had the best chemistry with Ali.
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