Casualty Goodbye, Connie!
AS AMANDA MEALING TAKES A BREAK FROM PLAYING CASUALTY HEAD HONCHO CONNIE, SHE ASSURES US THAT SHE’LL BE BACK SOON…
When I was just on the phone to the broadband company, I was absolutely pure Connie – it really helps to have her in your arsenal!” chuckles Casualty actress Amanda Mealing. “If I’m talking to people who drive me mad like that, Connie comes out. The ‘Connie stare’ used to work on my sons – but they just laugh at me now!”
After playing the acid-tongued medic both on Casualty and sister show Holby City on and off since 2004, Amanda recently announced that she was taking a break from the medical drama in order to focus on other projects. Meanwhile, Connie makes a rather low-key exit from our screens this week after deciding to focus on daughter Grace – and Amanda tells us that she was happy to bow out with very little fanfare…
What made you decide that now was the right time to take a break from Casualty, Amanda?
I’ve been on the show for almost seven years, and it’s full-on. I worked out that when we went back after the Covid episode, I’d worked 73 out of 80 days – and even my spare time was taken up with making short films for my production company. So I thought, let me have a proper break, and maybe I can sleep in until 7am!
Will you still be working on other projects?
At the moment I’m having a complete break. But I’m not very good at just sitting still and doing nothing, so going back to work as a director on Casualty is on the cards as well.
It’ll be nice to be on the other side of the camera, and see the gang again. Directing has been interesting – the first time I did it, I did think one or two people might be a bit tricksy with me, having a little power play or something like that. But it was absolutely the opposite. They wanted to embrace the story and me as a director.
Your Casualty exit this week is pretty low-key. Was that a deliberate thing? Yes, I didn’t want any kind of contrived story. For Connie to realise that she’s collapsed her relationship with her
daughter again was enough. She finally recognises Grace as a young woman – it’s now an equal relationship, and something that needs to be nurtured before she loses it entirely. I thought that was quite a nice way to leave it, rather than have a helicopter crashing down!
What’s it been like for you to have Emily Carey back again as Grace? Emily is a phenomenal actress. We were lucky to get her, because she was playing young Wonder Woman recently, and she’s been off doing big feature films. Grace has always been Connie’s Achilles heel, she can say things and do things that no one else can. So to see those two on a more level pegging was really nice. Connie goes to New York and takes a job there to be nearer to Grace – so fingers crossed we get to film out there at some point!
Will you miss playing Connie?
I will miss her, yes. I was bowled over by the response when I said I was taking a break, and how upset people were. Despite the fact that Connie’s quite despicable at times, people love her. I don’t know if that’s because they love to hate her. But she won’t be gone forever – she’ll be back with a bite!