EastEnders star Rita Simons is bursting with pride after her daughter starred in a children’s TV drama that went on to be nominated for two Baftas.
Rita, best known for her role as Roxy Mitchell in the BBC One soap, has a daughter called Maiya, who featured in Silverpoint, a story about four children discovering why they have a mysterious connection to an alien presence in the woods where a Summer Camp is held.
Last year, the show ended up being nominated for two of the prestigious awards.
Maiya played the role of Kaz, a rebellious teenager who often ended up in trouble with the adults in charge at the camp.
The teenager is only now starting her acting journey, but she’s learnt a lot from her mum, who would often take Maiya behind the scenes at EastEnders while filming as Roxy:
‘I give Maiya lots of advice’, Rita told The Mirror.
‘She used to come and wait in my dressing room at EastEnders so she could see me on the monitors. But with Jaimee [Maiya’s twin sister], she tells me some of the questions in her homework and I’m like, what are you talking about? She’s the opposite to me, I was even thrown out of drama for being disruptive!
Reflecting on what it’s like having her daughter follow in her footsteps, Rita added:
‘I’m constantly asking her [Maiya] if she really wants to do it. I’ve told her it’s going to be difficult, that she’ll be 46 and still having to go for auditions. But she loves it and she’s amazing at it. She’s deaf but fearless, she doesn’t let her disability define her.
‘Season 2 of Silverpoint is coming out and we’re hoping for a season three, so she’s doing brilliantly.’
Recently, Rita discussed the love for her EastEnders character in a new interview, explaining that fans still to this day ask her if a possible return could be on the cards, with some even sending her scripts with believable ways to bring her back.
‘To this day, I will get – whether it’s tweets, whether it’s someone in the street, whether it’s someone on Instagram, whether it’s a parent of a school – not that I go to school anymore: “Why did they kill you? Why did they kill you? I stopped watching. Come back, come back. Come on. If they can do it with [Dallas character] Bobby Ewing, they could do it with you,” the soap star told Radio Times.
‘Yeah, I get it every day. I get scripts sent to me of ideas of how to come back from fans. Fans send me scripts that they’ve written. It has not stopped in six years.
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