“There could be a storyline where I come back for a week – those things are great.”
Former EastEnders actress Natalie Cassidy has said she would be open to returning for guest appearances in the soap, after leaving the long-running BBC series earlier this year.
Cassidy, who played Sonia Fowler in EastEnders, made her first appearance on the soap in 1993, leaving in 2007, before returning briefly between 2010 and 2011, and again in 2014.
Reflecting on how life has changed since leaving the soap, the actress told Prima magazine: “It’s been freeing leaving EastEnders. I feel liberated and just happy.”
Speaking about a potential guest appearance, she added: “Albert Square will always hold a place in my heart, and I love it there. There could be a storyline where I come back for a week – those things are great.
“But it took up a lot of time. I used to be learning lines in the evening, and that’s gone now. And then I’d be up at six in the morning.
“You’re not a scaffolder or a heart surgeon, but it did take a long time, whereas now, my evenings are free, unless I’m recording a podcast at home.”
Talking about how she has enjoyed reinventing herself since leaving, she added: “Sonia isn’t the most glamorous of characters, bless her, but I wanted to stay true to her character, so I never got extensions put in, or dyed my hair.
She continued: “She was just a worker who didn’t have a lot of money and worked for the NHS. But coming away, and breaking free, I just thought, ‘I want to be glam. I want to wear coloured nails. And just feel like me’.
She added: “I do feel like my face has changed a little since leaving EastEnders, because I was quite sad and depressed when I was playing Sonia, or angry all the time. So I feel like my frown lines have sort of faded away, which is quite nice.”
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