Laila Morse Settles the Score; Ten Questions with 'Big Mo'
By Larry Jaffee
The Slater family stormed into Albert Square over six years ago (just a year or two ago for us stateside public television fans), and life in Walford never has been the same.
Keeping the often unruly clan in check is none other than 'Big Mo' Harris (never to be confused with 'Little Mo'). You don't want to fool with Big Mo, whose comical side emerged when she ran a phone sex chatline, among the numerous schemes she's come up with to make ends meet for the family.
Advises the official EastEnders website of Big Mo: "Woe betide anyone who messes with matriarch Mo or the family she rules over. She's hard as nails and doesn't suffer fools gladly," and what she is likely to say is: "Look what I got down the market," while her profession is listed as "Dodgy dealer."
Laila Morse, the fine actress behind Big Mo, recently gave the Walford Gazette an exclusive interview, in which she gives her impressions of the indelible mark her character and her on-screen kin have left on EastEnders.
Laila and I met briefly a few years ago, when I also made the acquaintance of two of the four infamous Slater girls, Elaine Lorden (Lynn) and Jessie Wallace (Kat), in the foyer leading to the EastEnders internal sets.
Apparently acting is in Morse's blood, as she is the real-life sister of the great English actor Gary Oldman, but she's a late bloomer in the vocation. She made her acting debut in Oldman's 1997 film (which he wrote and directed), Nil by Mouth, loosely based on his own life growing up in London with their abusive father.
(Through Gary, Morse is also the ex-sister-in-law of Uma Thurman.) After Nil by Mouth, she made episodic appearances in several U.K. television series, including The Bill, and got her big EastEnders break in September 2000.
Her EastEnders' co-star Wendy Richard (Pauline Fowler) implored her to get a lump checked, and as a result her doctors caught her breast cancer in time.
The Walford Gazette thanks Wendy's partner, John Burns, for facilitating this interview. Walford Gazette: When the Slaters were first brought on six years ago, did you realise what a phenomenon the family would become?
Laila Morse: Actually I suppose that would have been from before we first turned up at the Square. We had meetings and press releases, which had not been seen on EastEnders since the first episode, because of the number of new characters introduced all in one big hit.
WG: How much background did they give you for the character of Mo?
LM: I suppose just being the grandmother of an all-girl family living with my son-in law. I was glad Mo was a ducker and diver.
WG: Obviously Mo has a bit of history with the likes of Pat. Did she relish going back to Albert Square and settling old scores?*
LM: Mo loved it... the history between Pat Wicks and Mo and the scores to settle-it was just great because Mo knew the history, held the trump card, and played it very well. (*EastEnders trivia: Mo was also played by Lorraine Stanley in a soap 'bubble', which aired in 2004: Pat and Mo: Ashes to Ashes, delving into her past with Pat Evans.)
WG: Mo is the matriarch of a house of women (except for Charlie, of course). The sisters' various love trials and tribulations have dominated the proceedings for several years, but do you feel that Mo should also get a romantic storyline now and then? (Maybe she has, but we're five years behind the U.K. episodes.)
LM: Maybe I do, maybe I don't. Speak to me in five years' time (hopefully).
WG: Did you ever object to the dodgy deals that the scriptwriters are always giving to Mo? For example, last week here we just saw her supplying Paul Trueman with perfume bottles filled with water to sell to unsuspecting suckers in the market.
LM: Never, because I live just over the water from the East End and know a lot of people who have to make a living out of that way of life. Good luck to 'em.
WG: Any favourite moments behind-the-scenes on the set, such as practical jokes?
LM: I have had so much fun on set. But the green room is the main source of fun—mostly instigated by Wendy Richard and Leslie Grantham, particularly picnic lunches in Walford Park.
WG: When did you decide to become an actress and what did you do before that?
LM: Before being an actress, I had done a variety of jobs including driving a medical van. Then when my brother offered me the part in Nil by Mouth, I thought, I'll give it a go, and I went from there.
WG: I'm a big fan of Nil by Mouth, and in fact reviewed it in the Walford Gazette. I wrote that the menace of Ray Winstone's character would scare even Grant Mitchell. Do you agree?
LM: Absolutely, but never mind that. I think he'd even scare Pauline Fowler.
WG: What was it like to work with your brother Gary on it, and is he still thinking about directing more films?
LM: It was fantastic to work with my brother. You'd have to ask him about other projects.
WG: Does Gary watch EastEnders? Did he even before you were on it?
LM: Yes, he's watched it when he has time.
WG: Any chance of an e-mailed photo of Laila and Gary together?
LM: Sorry Larry, that is family business....
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