Corrie - Samia Smith

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Corrie's Maria reveals all
By Claire Donnelly
Mirror.Co.Uk
28/11/2007

Man-eater Maria Sutherland has been around the block so many times the Weatherfield cobbles have worn down her stilettos. And while Samia Smith, who plays her, might giggle at her racy on-screen image, she can't deny that her past as a "Corrie babe" - wearing little more than scanties and a smile in lads' mags - has boosted Maria's raunch factor. So when Samia confesses that, actually, she is a bit of a "prude" who hates showing off her body and prefers staying in baking cakes to nights out on the razz, it takes a few seconds to sink in.

"My hobbies are making cakes and cooking," admits Samia, 25, laughing. "My lemon drizzle cake is to die for. If you catch me with any white powder it will be baking powder. That's how rock 'n' roll I am. I really do look forward to going home and cosying up with Matt." Matt is a 31-year-old property developer who she met in 2000 and married in September 2005. And she would far rather be at home with him than doing steamy soap scenes at work.

Yes, even though "work" involves snogging Liam Connor, played by Rob James-Collier - the tastiest man on telly. Liam is Maria's latest conquest and tonight she tells him she is pregnant. It's all a bit of a bombshell since Liam is in love with his sister-in-law, Carla. Oh dear. "Bizarrely, Rob went to the same school as me," says Samia. "We didn't know each other but we're from the same area - so he's just Rob to me. People are always asking me what it's like to kiss him and saying how jealous they are but I can't think of him like that. It's all in a day's work - we have a great laugh but I get embarrassed when people go on about it."

She also squirms when I suggest she's a sex symbol. "I find the pin-up thing really weird because I don't think of myself like that," she says. "No one fancied me at school - if they did they must have been geekier than me, I was a swot." And despite being a former lads' mags favourite, Samia's days of posing half-naked are over. When I ask if she would do it again, she blushes and insists: "Oh God, no! It just isn't me any more. I enjoyed it at the time but I've moved on. People have this idea of me doing all the lads' mags but I'm a bit of a prude now - even my mum hasn't seen me naked since I was about seven. I grew up modelling but these days I wouldn't be comfortable showing off my body. Anyway, there are other ways to be sexy than showing it all off...."

Marriage has obviously changed Samia in more ways than one. She says: "I love being Mrs Smith. I still get excited when I see it on my passport. It's a contented feeling knowing you're going home to your husband at the end of the day." They have just celebrated their second wedding anniversary with a holiday in Egypt. "We're still soooo romantic," says Samia. "I got him a miniature version of our wedding cake and he made me my favourite meal - spaghetti bolognese.

"Matt thinks of everything. When I walk in, the candles will be lit and the wine glasses put in the fridge, chilling, ready..." The couple live in an ultra-modern house in posh Cheshire - surrounded by footballers and their glamorous other halves. But Samia isn't intimidated by her swanky WAG neighbours. In fact, it means she can bag some of their designer cast-offs.

"It's WAG-tastic," she says. "There are about six footballers in our village and the shops are fab - even the charity shops are full of designer gear. All the Cheshire wives take their stuff in there. I love trawling through for bargains. I had horrific dress sense before I met Matt. I don't mind admitting that because the pictures speak for themselves. But Matt has a really good eye for what suits me and I trust his judgment. He came with me last weekend to buy a dress for an awards ceremony."

Being part of a couple has been good for her figure, too. Since they moved in together Samia ditched her fattening TV meals-for-one and learned how to cook - and lost a stone. She also keeps fit by walking their Maltese terrier, Sonny." "I'd probably be heavier if I didn't do this job," she says. "It does make you conscious of how you look. People will come up and say, 'You're not as fat as you look on TV' - I never know whether to be insulted or to take it as a compliment."

Maria's shape is set to start changing now she is pregnant and Samia is about to be fitted with a prosthetic bump for the role. She says: "Matt's probably worried it will make me broody but it might work the other way. Having this big, heavy thing on me all the time might put me off." And the plot is about to thicken along with Maria's waistline. "We get this situation where there are three of us in the relationship - Maria, Liam and Carla," says Samia. "But Maria loves Liam so she is prepared to stick with him. She is a lot more tolerant than I would be. I hate cheats - I don't know how one woman could do that to another. I wouldn't. I've known women who've been cheated on by men who wanted to have their cake and eat it, it's awful. It's not something I'd stand for."

Ahh, we're back to cakes again...

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Samia: I still love Street life
Adam Moss
3/12/2007

HER Street mates may have quit the soap for pastures new but as far as Samia Smith is concerned her future lies firmly on the cobbles of Coronation Street. Samia, who plays the Street's Maria Sutherland, was one of the trio of young soap babes - alongside Tina O'Brien and Nikki Sanderson - who joined the soap as teenagers and won an army of new, younger male viewers for the show.

Nikki quit the programme in the autumn of 2005 and Tina filmed her final scenes last month. Now Samia is the only one of the trio left in Weatherfield. But she's vowed that she is going nowhere just yet and she's just put pen to paper to cement her future.

"I have just signed a new contract at Coronation Street. You're the first to know about that. So I can say confidently, I'm going nowhere," she tells me as we sip champagne inside a huge cushion-filled cocoon at the sumptuous new £5m Vermilion restaurant in the shadow of the City of Manchester Stadium. "I still see Tina and Nikki, but not as much as we used to do obviously, and it did feel strange when they were no longer working with me but I am very happy at Coronation Street. Being an actor, it is amazing to get to act all year round. I'm very lucky indeed to be in such an amazing programme. The last thing I am thinking about is leaving."

Samia's homelife is just as settled as her TV career it seems too. The Eccles-born actress has been married for two years to 31-year-old property developer Matt Smith, who accompanied her to the launch night of Vermilion. But she's adamant that, despite being asked the question regularly by family, friends and media, the patter of tiny feet is still some way off yet. "I have two nephews and that's plenty just now. Me and Matt still want to be able to get out and enjoy ourselves at the moment and enjoy some time just the two of us together. You can't do that if you have children. I get to give my nephews back if I have them," she says, giggling.

And she's settled into the domesticity of married life with consummate ease too - she's even trying her hand at cooking these days. "I love Thai food," she tells me, which is fortunate because we are sitting in the most expensive Thai restaurant Manchester has ever seen as we chat. And I've even tried to do Thai green curry at home. In fact I've tried to cook lots more since I have been married."

Betty would be so proud.

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