EE: Stuart Laing (Rob) interview

[carmelina]

Stuart Laing

Digital Spy
Saturday, December 23 2006, 00:33 GMT

By Kris Green, Soaps Editor




Walford's Rob Minter (Stuart Laing) certainly made a splash when he turned up in Albert Square back in June this year. His on-off love affair with Dawn (Kara Tointon) has been the talk of Walford - and everything's about to step up a gear.

As we move into 2007, Rob finds himself torn between his wife of 10 years, May Wright (Amanda Drew), and his 'bit on the side' Dawn Miller (Tointon). The situation took a turn for the worse this month when Dawn revealed she is carrying Rob's baby - and May can't have children.

Dawn threatens to abort the child, but a determined May decides that if Dawn doesn't want the child, she'll pay for it...

Staurt Laing, 37, spoke to DS about how he came to land a role in EastEnders, his forthcoming baby-buying storyline and the future of his character.

You've only been in EastEnders since June. Were you originally drafted in temporarily?

"I originally came up for a smaller part - for four or five episodes - and then they called me back and said there was this possibility of a character they were looking to develop, which would be in it for a longer time. I don't think they knew quite where the storylines are going, but they had a faint idea of relationships that they could establish.

"[My original contract] was six months - till October - and my first two months were quite quiet. I'd come in and do a day every couple of weeks and the story was very slow-burning, really. The writers got their teeth into the story and started to develop more and more ideas for it and that's where it started to take off."

So you're in EastEnders for the foreseeable future, really?

"Yeah. Your contract extends six months at a time, so at the moment I'm in till April-May, and we'll take it from there."

There's normally an interesting back story for an actor landing a role in EastEnders. Are you any different?

"I don't think it's particularly interesting. Julia Clancy, who was head of casting, and [executive producer] Kate Harwood had seen me in a couple of things, and Julia had been trying to get me in for a while. I did a live episode of The Bill last year, which I was the guest lead. it was an hour-long live special. Then I was away for a bit working up in Liverpool and then they called me down and said they wanted to see me and liked what they saw during that. That was it, really, they'd seen two or three things I'd done and thought I was right for the character they were developing. The timing was quite fortunate."

And you've never looked back?

"Well, yeah, it's been really exciting. When I started I didn't know where the storyline was going to go, and that's quite an unusual situation for an actor to be in. Normally you've got your scripts, you know your beginning, middle and end, or you do a play, you know what happens, your character's psychology from A, B through to C. This was a very different kettle of fish. It was like, you don't know where your character is going to go, psychologically, and you have to play very much where you are at present. Once you get your head around that, it becomes quite an exciting thing, as the character veers off in a different direction - and it's not like the character is someone else. You're constantly surprised. It keeps you on your toes. It adds a spontaneity to where you're going."

For a newcomer, how does it feel to have juicy storylines - one of the Christmas storylines, no less!

"Yeah, absolutely. Really proud to be part of it [and to have been] given the opportunity. I think when I saw where the storyline was going I was very excited, I felt it was a great storyline and I felt confident about the people around me that I was working with. I think it's a brilliant storyline. They've kept it three-dimensional, they've kept the characters visibly shifting from one thing to the next, you know, there's a lot of ambiguity to the characters - their motivation is clear one minute and not the next. So, I think from an audience point of view I think hopefully that will sustain the characters - being very real, but also very unpredictable and that's good for a story."

For you, what's been the highlight so far?

"What we've just been speaking about. I'd been in the show two or three months, and when Kate Harwood sent me for a meeting and said 'this is where the storyline's going', it was just a relief, because I didn't know what was going to happen to that person, plodding along in the Square, having the odd pint in the Vic and dramatically not really going anywhere. I was really glad that this character, all of a sudden, had these really dramatic storylines. I didn't want this person to be some flash guy coming into the Square with money to loan around. I thought that was a bit dull. So, for me, that's been a real highlight, knowing dramatically that I'm going to be fulfilled while I'm here."

What's been your favourite episode or scene?

"The one where May slaps Dawn, that's a great one. And there's also another one where there's a real confrontation between Dawn and Rob where more information gets let out - May starts to find out things about Rob, things become more convoluted, really. Suddenly, I think, the relationship between Rob and May becomes quite fractured as well because of the stress of it. We've had some good scenes where I think suddenly the attention between Dawn and Rob, their relationship becomes quite intense. I can't really think of one specific scene."

I have to say the scene where you dropped yourself in it with May was your character all over - it was brilliant.

"It was a great scene to end the episode on. I think we were both pleased it came out like it did. There's this real shock within Rob in the way the information's uncovered. Those scenes where there's a real dramatic hiatus. There's a lot of them to come - people are going to go 'sh*t' at the end of it, think 'oh my god'. I thought after that 'where can I keep going?' but I was amazed at the team of writers that can find more cliffhangers and more ways in which, without sounding sensationalist or melodramatic, they've tried to ground these characters' needs and wants, and they're not caricatures."

What's it like working with Kara (Tointon) and Amanda (Drew)?

"They're both fantastic, and I've been very fortunate. Kara was one of the first people I started to work with. She's very charming, and she's not got a bad bone in her body! She's got a natural spontaneity and innocence as an actor and as a person. So, you know, it's very easy for me to say 'she's gorgeous as well', but I feel very protective over her at times. She's just lovely.

"Amanda, again, is a very strong actress, and she's got an intensity about her, which is great to kick off with. They get on very well as well. The three of us really trust each other. The nature of the thing - you get more out of actors when you can trust them, and you can take more risks. We're very close, and it suits the story better, because we can go further, we can take those risks with each other."

Dawn and May are very different characters. What does Rob get from both of them?

"He's spiritual - his wife of ten years is May. There's a real connection - she's his soul mate. Their marriage has hit the rocks; they've split up for a while; the stress of going through IVF three or four times; it's been incredibly stressful... and made them split up, the relationship isn't what it was. There's a huge amount of respect and love, but sexually, the relationship isn't perhaps what it was.

"In this break, he's met this girl who's very different from May. She's young, she's got a charm about her, she's gorgeous, and he's swept away by that. When he went back to May, he tried to finish it with Dawn in the most honourable way possible - he was quite honest with her. He apologised to her about everything and said he has had really strong feelings for her but he owes it to his wife to go back and try and save his marriage. I think his intentions aren't completely dishonourable at all - I think that's become confused.

"A certain amount of the time I think he wants to make it work with May, he doesn't want to hurt Dawn... and then there's this bombshell of the pregnancy. I think from then on because of the extremities of some of the characters - certainly May's character is going through an incredibly intense period - and he tries to sort of help her through that, but by doing that they make some choices which I think are dubious, or wrong, but they're doing it through desperation and loss and I think he's got huge feelings... he never stops feeling feelings for Dawn. She knows that he is incredibly attracted to her."

We've seen the news of Dawn's pregnancy as taking Rob and May a step further back in their relationship. Dawn lies and says she had an abortion - has it crossed Rob's mind that she might not have?

"I don't think so, I never thought that to be honest. I think he's genuinely quite shocked. He doesn't know her that well either, although over the next few months their friendship is set to develop in all kinds of different ways, but he doesn't really known Dawn particularly that well. I think he's shocked by how selfish she can be, but then the next turn she can be incredibly vulnerable and his heart goes out to her as well. He has incredibly contradictory feelings for her."

Before you started the IVF storyline, did you research how it affects a relationship?

"A little bit. I'd seen a couple of documentaries. I've got friends who've been through that before, although that's a very personal thing to talk to people about. It's a situation that happens around me in my world. I think it's such an alien thing to get your head around - we learnt about the facts; we learnt about how it can affect you hormonally having to take all the drugs; how relationships [are affected]; and the stress of it all - extraordinary.

"It takes a very strong relationship to go through that - the disappointment; the long-term understanding is that you might not have children, which is a thing a lot of people had to get their heads around. I tried to understand it emotionally more than anything. Understanding the drug [side of things] was one thing, but understanding the sense of being told you couldn't have a child... Rob don't have children, but I has them, and Amanda... I'm just trying to imagine myself in a situation where you were told that, and you have to re-evaluate your life plan."

During Christmas week, May's IVF is still failing. Knowing Dawn is pregnant, her mind starts to go into over-drive and decides she wants to buy the baby off Dawn. How does Rob react?

"Rob's initial thoughts are that it's not a good idea - he's sceptical about it. Also, he's concerned about how Dawn will react. He feels very uncomfortable about it, very awkward about it. He doesn't see it as a good idea. He's persuaded by May, really, and it's May who persuades Dawn. When he commits to the idea, it's a part of him that goes with it. She says to him 'this might be your only chance of a child' and he does take to the idea. He always feels quite uncomfortable about Dawn, but there's a sexual tension between them."

When they decide to buy the baby, Rob hears that Dawn is going to have an abortion, so it's a race against time to stop her. Does he get there?

"Well, the relationships with May and Dawn, although there's been an agreement made, there is a lot of underlying resentment toward Dawn, and vice versa. Although they're trying to go through this contractual agreement, Dawn changes her mind - I'm not sure if it's once - but Rob has to try and stop her... There's constantly a sense of her (Dawn) taking it to the edge, and if I am going to persuade her, what means am I going to use to persuade her? We don't know what that means just yet."

Dawn has different ideas, and believes that if she has Rob's baby she still has a chance of getting Rob back. Is Rob really devoted to May or is he the same player we saw walk onto the Square?

"No, he isn't that player. His devotion is to May, and he's tried to bury any of those feelings towards Dawn, but that's difficult, and it's not because he wants to let it out of the bag and act on it. Dawn exploits that to a degree, because she knows he has those feelings, though he tries to deny it to her, he kind of admits that he has. He says 'it's not on the cards, we're finished' and you get a sense of 'is he trying to convince himself?' And in his dark soul, when things are bad between him and May, there is that part of him which thinks 'maybe there's another life out there'. It's not the case that he wanted to play it, he's 95% devoted to May, but there is that part of him that thinks 'when the going gets tough with May, the grass is greener on the other side!'"

No more love interests on the cards, then?

"He's got quite enough on his plate at the moment as it is! Possibly, but I wouldn't have thought so."

Is it true that when you join EastEnders, you're paired with an existing member of the cast to act as a mentor?

"Yeah, it's a huge machine here and you get a bit lost and confused about what's going on half the time, so they give you someone for, if you've got any questions you need to ask, they're just there... I was with Adam Woodyatt, because my first ever day's filming was with him. Your first day here is quite daunting - you're aware [that] you're coming into this great, huge show that's been established for such a long time. It's comforting to have so many people looking out for you, making sure you're comfortable in your first few days."

Do you have any other projects on the go?

"I'm just doing EastEnders and that's all I'll be doing till the end [of my time] here, really."


On a more personal note, what do you like to do in your spare time?

"I like to play football, and catch up with my mates a lot of the time. I do a martial art, which I've been doing for a couple of years - keeps me fit, I really enjoy it. It's not like I'm a really high level, I'm quite near-beginner, to be honest.

"When I had more time on my hands, I did quite a lot of writing. I've written a couple of scripts, one of them with a friend of mine. As well as the acting, I've always tried to keep the writing going on the side, but it's very hard when you're in EastEnders. It's difficult because it's so time consuming; you're constantly learning stuff. At the weekend, it's have a few beers, catch up with my mates, and hang out with my girlfriend!"


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[Skylace]

Thanks once again for putting these up!

[eefanincan]

Good one! Thanks.

[carmelina]

happy to do it