EastEnders star Tameka Empson couldn’t help but grin as she talked about working with Phil Mitchell star Steve McFadden, sharing that she ‘causes him to turn red in the face all the time’.
The actress, who portrays Kim Fox on the BBC One soap, reflected on her 15 years in Walford so far and confirmed that the now iconic moment in which Phil delivered her character’s baby is a personal highlight.
‘Do me a favor – we couldn’t stop laughing that day!,’ she told Metro.co.uk in an exclusive chat. ‘I think people think Steve is a very straight guy, do you know what I mean? But I cause him to turn red in the face all the time.
‘I don’t know, maybe he likes me, maybe he's attracted to me,’ laughed Tameka, ‘there’s something going on.’
Could she be any more iconic?
The answer is yes as, when asked if she was upset about not being a part of The Six story, which saw six of Walford’s most iconic women including Kim’s sister Denise Fox, cover up a murder, Tameka said: ‘Well, let me tell you, they said, “Six”, I said, “Seven?” And they said, “No” and I said, “OK.”
Tameka, 46, was full of praise for the BBC One soap’s critically acclaimed festive offering, telling us that she was ‘hooked’ as she labeled the episode ‘brilliant.’
‘But where does it go from here?,’ she pondered, and that really is the question, with the six women in question doing everything they can to keep their crime a secret.
With Kim currently off on a cruise, Tameka has taken some time away from EastEnders to star in a revival of The Big Life.
‘It’s a musical like no other,’ enthused the soap star. ‘It’s centered around these four Caribbean men who come to the UK on the Windrush after the Second World War. They’ve made a pact saying, “OK, no women, no alcohol, we’re just going to make a life for ourselves.”
And of course, one by one, they break the contract and fall in love, and everything else happens. It gives the story of the Windrush generation’s hopes and dreams and what actually happened when they got to this country. They weren’t always well received.
‘But having said that, it’s not a show of doom and gloom – it really celebrates the music of the Caribbean, and the people who came from its different islands.’
The Big Life is at Theatre Royal Stratford East, London, until Mar 30, stratfordeast.com
