We watched her grow up before our eyes on TV as one of EastEnders’ best known characters, but now Maisie Smith has moved north for the next chapter of her life. Maisie played Tiffany Butcher for 14 years, starting out on the BBC drama at the tender age of just six as the daughter of Bianca Jackson.
Her character was to enjoy (and endure) plenty of dramas over those years, before Maisie left the show for good in 2021 after her huge success on one of the BBC’s other biggest shows – making the finals of Strictly Come Dancing. For the past four years she has made Manchester her home with boyfriend, pop star Max George, and now for the first time she’s doing an extended theatre run in her new home city.
Maisie is starring as Audrey in the iconic musical Little Shop of Horrors in a new production at Ancoats’ acclaimed Hope Mill Theatre. As fans of the comedy rock musical will know, it follows the lives of flower shop worker Seymour who is secretly in love with Audrey naming an unusual new plant after her – only for it to grow into a giant flesh-eating beast.
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We caught up with Maisie at the theatre, as she gamely played up with the monstrous Audrey II on stage – falling into the Venus Fly Trap’s gaping toothy jaws. Maisie says: “The plant is hilarious. I’ve been crying laughing in the wings, we’ve got three puppeteers, and it is just amazing to watch.”
She continued: “You find yourself completely transfixed every time the plant is talking and singing – you believe it! You believe it is happening and how it eats people, it’s just phenomenal. But some of my favourite bits of the show are the really lovely moments between Audrey and Seymour.”
The new production brings the cult movie to life in an extraordinary stage set, and bringing the colourful “B Movie” vibe to the stage in the costumes too. For the role, Maisie is showing off her American accent, fresh from deploying it in the stage tour of The Talented Mr Ripley too.
Given she’s now made Manchester her home city, I ask how her Manc twang is coming on, and she gives me some very funny phrases that suggests it’s coming on very well indeed!
She laughs: “It may seem like mockery if I do it, but I do take the mick out of Max my boyfriend all the time, but he does to me as well. His dad is from Essex, so he’s got this amazing [southern] accent. But I like how certain words [in Manc] become two syllables, there are certain things I’ve been adding into my vocab now.”
So does this mean Coronation Street could come calling for Maisie, we ask? She laughs: “You never know. I did actually do an audition once in a Manc accent, but I didn’t get it. I might have to park that one for a while!”
Perhaps EastEnders fans might be rather more keen for me to ask if she’d consider a return to Albert Square in the future. Her character departed fully in 2022 reuniting with husband Keegan for a new life in Germany.
When we asked if she would return to EastEnders, she said: “She’s only in Germany, it’s only a couple of hours flight back… but yeah, I just wanted to see if I could get out on the stage and I’ve really been enjoying it.”
Maisie on Manchester
She’s also happy that the new role in Little Shop is allowing her to be based at home for the first time “in a long time”. She said: “It’s the longest I’ve been in Manchester for a long time, I haven’t spent this much time at home for so long. it’s just worked out so perfectly. It’s nice to come home and make lunch, put on a wash! Just little normal things that you take for granted.
“I’m loving this show, it’s so much fun and everyone is so nice and talented, and then I get to go home after a nice shift and go home to my own bed, that’s the dream, I’m living the dream.”
How has she found the move to Manchester from life in London? She said: “It’s a big difference, I’m out near the canal, so it’s quite a quiet area which is quite nice when you have a bit of downtime, you can’t even hear a car near my house, so I quite like the peace of where we live. But I am quite a city girl, so I think there might be some type of move towards a city at some point.”
She’s looking forward to finally get to explore her new home city as well in the run up to Christmas. “I can finally explore technically my home town,” she laughed. She’s also loved working at Hope Mill, the acclaimed and intimate theatre space in the historic mill on the edge of Ancoats.
She says: “Maisie “I knew of Hope Mill but had never performed here, I’d never even performed on a Manchester stage which is funny because I’d been living here for four years. My boyfriend might disagree because I’ve been on tour for three of the four years! But this is my first time commuting to work this decade, so it’s very exciting!
“It’s such a beautiful theatre, I like the intimacy of being able to see everyone in the audience. Some people don’t like the exposure, but it kind of reminds me a bit of TV, how they pick up every single movement, I started on TV so it’s quite comforting for me to be able to see everyone in the audience.”
Maisie on Strictly
Maisie’s star was sent into the ascendency with her appearance on Strictly Come Dancing in 2020, dancing all the way to the finals with pro dancer Gorka Marquez. She even did a jive to Little Shop of Horrors in a neat mirror of what was to come.
Looking back at her run in the show, she can barely believe she achieved what she did at the age of just 19 at the time. She says: “It was lockdown so I couldn’t see my family very much, there was no audience, I was only 19 as well which I still find crazy. It’s so mad that like that was my first job outside acting, and I chose the biggest, hardest one to do! But I loved it, and I learned a lot.”
She adds: “Obviously I love to sing and I love to dance, doing Strictly was a part of that, it really brought out my confidence. But it was a tough decision to leave [EastEnders], it took me a long time to make. But I did do 14 years so I feel I can say I gave a lot!”
However, she did suffer from nerves on Strictly, and says she still struggles to watch the show’s new contestants as it brings back those memories. She’s not caught the new series of Strictly yet because: “It’s always on when we’re on stage,” she laughs. “But sometimes I don’t watch it because it makes me nervous. When I hear the announcer saying: ‘dancing the paso doble’, I don’t like it it makes me sick, so I really have to be in the mood to watch it.
“Because it was so scary when you stand on stage frozen, and you hear your name, it was so nerve wracking that I still feel nervous – even now it’s six years since I did it.”
What’s next…
So what does ambition look like now for Maisie, when she’s already achieved so much by the age of 26? She smiles: “That’s what is quite fun about my job, I never know what’s going to come next.
“I never set my ambitions, I don’t try and have a goal, I just like the excitement of not knowing what I’m doing next year. As long as I keep working I’m good, that’s the plan. “
Would she look to go back to TV though? “I love it all, I love TV, film and theatre, I just want to perform, it doesn’t really matter what in.” And what about a return to music – she, quite incredibly, released her first album at the age of just 14.
She says: “I still write songs all the time, but I don’t think I’m ready to go down that road again yet. I’m just enjoying playing a role.” Looking back to her music debut, she says: “I was 14 when I did that album, I just don’t stop honestly. It was like oh yeah let’s do a whole new career path, that was a funny time. So random. I was doing tours of primary schools singing the songs I wrote. I was just loving life.”
Little Shop of Horrors is at Hope Mill Theatre until November 28. The show has completely sold out for its first few weeks but for tickets for available dates in October and November contact boxoffice@hopemilltheatre.co.uk
