Max Parker
“Even if Luke stays with Victoria, it won’t be plain sailing…”
When Max Parker made his Emmerdale debut as troubled Victoria’s kindly stranger in the hospital canteen, we had no idea about his character’s connection to her rapist Lee Posner. Since then, his family ties have made life extremely complicated for Luke and his grieving mum Wendy, as he’s fallen in love with Victoria, the woman his late brother raped. However, for actor Max Parker – who plays Luke – this complex, difficult arrival story is a gift, and he hopes this is just the start of his character’s adventures…
“Even if Luke does stay with Victoria, it won’t be plain sailing,” says the star. “I don’t know what’s going to happen yet, but Luke’s a contradiction as a character. He’s cheeky and assured, yet there’s definitely some cogs broken inside. We haven’t seen all sides to him yet.”
So far, we’ve witnessed Luke falling for Victoria, falling out with Aaron, and struggling to fall into line with mum Wendy. For Max, that’s meant a lot of scenes with co-stars Isabel Hodgins, Danny Miller and Susan Cookson, respectively.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better trio, they’ve been amazing,” beams the actor. “Susan is like my best mate, and a lot of the time we get asked to shut up as we’re always chatting. It’s feels as if I’m working with two mums, because Issy is like my Emmerdale mum too – she’s years beyond her age. I’ve started working with other people now as well, which is nice because our storyline has been a lot of doom and gloom. Now
I’m getting to work with characters such as Bob and Marlon.”
But it might have been so different for Max – he could currently be working at Home Farm, if fate hadn’t intervened.
“I auditioned to play Jamie Tate, which was funny!” laughs the star. “At the time they did so many rounds of auditions, more than usual I think, as they just couldn’t find anybody to play Jamie. It was in my screen test that I first saw Alex Lincoln, who now plays Jamie. So when they said he’d got the part as Jamie, they told me that they’d like me to play this other character, Luke. Iknew what my storyline was going to be, but I couldn’t say who I would be related to!”
While Max feels settled with Luke, things aren’t so solid with Victoria. Despite the pair sleeping together this week, Victoria continues to feel confused about
Luke. But Max is hoping her confusion won’t spell the end for them.
“I would love to stay for a while!” he enthuses. “Before I started working at Emmerdale, I spoke to people and they said it was a really good show to work on, you’ll work really hard and it’s a great learning curve. I’d never watched Emmerdale before I joined, but when I rang my parents and told them about the role, they were like, ‘Oh, my God!’ It’s nice to do a job where you don’t need to promote the show – everyone knows it!”
Luke and Victoria’s romance is hardly conventional, so what has the fan reaction been like so far?
“People seem to have warmed to Luke, and like his character,” says
Max. “But some viewers don’t necessarily agree with Luke and Victoria being together, because of the past. Yet that’s exactly how Victoria is feeling, and she can’t really get that out of her mind. But people do want to see them happy, whether they are together or not – that’s what everyone is rooting for.”
Luke’s a – we haven’t seen all to him yet…