Janine Butcher is set to take ‘warped’ action in the wake of a potentially fatal car crash in EastEnders, which leaves Linda Carter (Kellie Bright) in a bad way.
Charlie Brooks, who plays the villain, has warned that Janine will ‘do anything to keep her man’ in Mick (Danny Dyer) – which suggests that she will behave in a very Janine-esque way as the smoke billows from the car.
Off screen, the actress has enthused about working with Kellie on the scenes and has described the thrill of filming a stunt.
But on-screen, things couldn’t be worse, as she explains below.
Just before Linda and Janine crash, Janine is pouring her heart out to Linda about Mick. Why does she do that, what is she trying to prove to Linda?
We see a bit of Janine’s truth actually. She opens a vein to Linda in a desperate attempt to save her relationship with Mick, and convince Linda not to tell Nancy and Mick, and that does come from a place of truth. I think it almost captures her by surprise at how truthful she is, but truth isn’t something Janine’s good at. So it’s a rare occasion and from the heart. It is desperation I think.
How far do you think Janine is willing to go to stop Nancy finding out the truth about the money?
I don’t think there is any end to how far Janine will go. What she feels for Mick is real, he makes her feel safe and protected. And this is her one opportunity at having her family, and the perfect dream family that she’s longed for, for so long. The second Linda comes back onto the Square she feels threatened, that’s when we see Janine being the Janine that everyone loves to hate. You think how far is she gonna go? I think she will go as far as she can in order to prevent the truth coming out.
Could Linda and Janine ever be friends?
It’s quite an interesting complex relationship between the two of them. Kellie and I love playing the enemy, but we often joke that if Mick wasn’t involved, how much would these two strong fiery women might get on. But there is a man involved so that takes over for Janine and she’s never really been a girl’s girl.
What’s happening in the run up to the crash, how does it happen?
Janine gets a phone call to The Vic from Linda who is trying to get hold of Mick and she can tell that Linda is drunk. Janine can tell that the only way to stop the truth from coming out is to try and get into Linda’s head and to stop her any way she can. She gets into a taxi, forgets all of her plans with Scarlett and then heads straight to where Linda is. She sees that Linda was about to drive the car, and so Janine drives. I suppose the question is – had they not crashed, which was an accident, what would Janine’s next move have been? I find that quite interesting. In her desperate attempt to stop Linda, Janine loses concentration on the road and crashes into a tree.
What was it like filming the stunt?
Oh it was brilliant, I loved working with Kellie. We had such fun. It’s always such fun when EastEnders gets out of the studio on location. It always feels really buzzy and everyone is really excited. We had stunt drivers for the car, the car drives itself without me touching it. It was so much fun, I loved it.
We know Janine will show her true colours after the crash, can you give us a tease of what viewers can expect?
Everything is complicated with Janine. She does not go with the flow of life, she really is swimming against the stream. There will be huge complications and you will see Janine in huge desperation trying to do whatever she can to keep her man.
How has it been working with Kellie Bright on this storyline?
Ahh, we love each other! I adore her. I just love it so much. She really cares about the character and the show. We don’t stop talking all the time **laughs*.
Source: Read Full Article