EMMERDALE’S M
SHE has kept her character’s murder a secret for five months but now Emmerdale actress Mimi Slinger can finally breathe a sigh of relief it’s out in the open as millions tuned in last night to watch Leanna Cavanagh be pushed to her death by the soap’s psycho, Meena Jutta.
Readily admitting it has been tough not breathing a word to anyone – not even her friends and most of her family (except her mum) – about Leanna’s demise, Mimi says she is pleased Emmerdale viewers know the truth.
“It’s been so hard to keep this a secret as I’ve known about it since last December and I am so glad it is finally out,” confides the actress. “Only my mum knew, and I didn’t breathe a word to anyone until the scripts actually came out on set.” Over the past fortnight, speculation has been rife as to who would fall prey to the menacing villager with the soap’s David Metcalfe, Jacob Gallagher and Victor Sugden all potential targets after getting on the wrong side of Meena.
But last night, millions watched in horror as Leanna fell to her death off a bridge during an angry showdown over the contents of a box belonging to Meena that contained a newspaper clipping about an unsolved murder.
And when Meena confessed it was she who had killed the girl in the newspaper, called Nadine and her ex-best friend, it became clear there was no way back for Leanna who suddenly found herself at the hands of the remorseless psycho.
For 18-year-old Mimi, the murder is the culmination of a brilliant three years spent on the ITV soap playing the troubled teen, but it’s also been an emotional one knowing her time on the show has come to an end.
She says: “Leanna has been through so much over the past three years and she is a troubled and complicated girl. Whenever I’ve had scenes where she has been mean, I have found myself apologising saying ‘I wouldn’t say this myself ’!
“Recently she has been more sensitive to others and kinder. She was about to go off travelling with her whole life ahead of her but now that has been cut short by Meena. It’s such a tragic ending for Leanna and I did burst into tears when I read the amazing scripts because it is so very sad how she goes.
“It was also emotional filming the death scenes. We shot them on my final day and after we finished, I did cry.
“I’ve loved my time on Emmerdale and I am going to miss it so much.”
Yet as she points out, there were also surreal times filming her death scenes after both Paige Sandhu, who plays Meena, and Mimi formed a bubble to enable them to get up close.
Realising it would be impossible to film a murder two metres apart, the pair took Covid tests daily for 10 days before self-isolating for another four to then be able to film the angry showdown. But after months of adhering to strict rules on set, it then felt “weird”, says Mimi laughing, to suddenly be close again.
“At first standing two metres apart was hard but then we got used to it and so when we filmed those final scenes, it then felt weird to be close to Paige,” says Mimi. “We kept checking we were both ok about it all. I was nervous beforehand but I needn’t have been! Paige made it so easy to be terrified of her. She is amazing playing Meena. I did all the fight scenes with her, but I had a body double for my death from the bridge.
“Meena is a dangerous psycho but I think it will come as a shock to a lot of fans that it is Leanna who is killed as there are three other people she could have gone for.”
Now as Meena prepares to cover her tracks in the soap, Mimi is wasting no time embarking on a new chapter. Not only has she been signed up by a prestigious London-based acting agency, United, she is now also on the books of Storm Management. “I have been signed by United Agents for acting and by Storm for modelling,” she reveals.
“It is amazing and I never thought I would do something like modelling. I’ve already done a few quick-fire e-commerce jobs for people like ASOS