WHY RITA IS PUTTING ROXY BEHIND HER FOR KRAYS FILM
Former EastEnders star Rita Simons talks to KERRIANN ROPER about new film The Krays: Dead Man Walking and why it was important that her new role was as far removed from Roxy Mitchell as possible
RITA SIMONS believes in the law of attraction. Her first film project since she left EastEnders after 10 years in 2017 is proof enough.
The 41-year-old is back in her first screen role since she played Roxy, one half of the no-nonsense Mitchell sisters – and it’s a role she knew she wanted before it was offered to her.
“When I left EastEnders, I said I wanted to do a gangster movie. A friend of mine was doing a gangster movie and I was doing Legally Blonde, the tour.
“I had a break at Christmas, and I just said to myself, ‘I’m going to do a gangster film in my break’,” she explains.
“This is how my career always goes. (I say) I’m going to do this and then it happens, law of attraction I’m sure.”
The role she’s talking about sees her playing the gritty female lead in a hard-hitting new feature film, The Krays: Dead Man Walking.
The film sees notorious London gangsters Reggie and Ronnie Kray arrange for Frank “The Mad Axeman” Mitchell to escape from a high-security prison.
Rita plays Lisa Prescott, the nightclub hostess enlisted to help keep Mitchell “under control” after his prison break, while he lays low at a safe house in London.
Since leaving EastEnders – when Roxy and her sister Ronnie (played by Samantha Womack) were killed off on New Year’s Day in 2017 – she’s been treading the boards playing Paulette Bonafonte in the musical stage version of Legally Blonde.
Rita says the film was an immediate yes when it crossed her path, while on a break from the theatre.
After hearing it was a “Krays type film”, Rita says she didn’t even need to see the script. “I was like, ‘This is my film’ and it was as simple as that. For some reason, in my career fate has thrown everything I decide I want to do at me.”
Rita did her fair share of research on Lisa Prescott, who in real life was reported to have been kidnapped by the Krays for four days, but says she found a lot of “conflicting information so I just sort of picked one and went with that and went with how I feel she would have been”.
What she was clear on was that she wanted Lisa to be a departure from her EastEnders character.
She explains: “I really tried hard not to have her be like Roxy, because for my first drama role since EastEnders it was important for me not to be... it’s very easy to slip back into the same character you’ve played for 10 years.”
The film sees Boardwalk Empire’s Marc Pickering playing Reggie and Guerrilla star Nathanjohn Carter as Ronnie.
British star Josh Myers plays madman Frank Mitchell and Guy Henry (Holby City, V For Vendetta) stars as Lord Boothby.
West End star Darren Day and Linda Lusardi also star in the film, as does the late Leslie Grantham, known for playing EastEnders’ “Dirty” Den Watts, in his last role before his death in June.
To make Lisa as believable as possible, Rita said she had to master a “particular twang of Cockney” from the Sixties.
“I wanted to make sure that I didn’t sound like Roxy because Roxy sounds like me.”
She adds: “For me, it was freeing to be as gritty and real as I wanted to be.”
■ The Krays: Dead Man Walking is available on DVD and download now.