Phil Mitchell has been an EastEnders staple since 1990, and now actor Steve McFadden has opened up about playing the role in a rare interview.
The character is currently in the middle of a heartbreaking storyline that has seen him struggle with loneliness and depression, as well as psychotic symptoms, for several months.
In upcoming scenes, Phil’s psychosis will see him hallucinating figures from his past, as well as becoming an onlooker to a pivotal moment from his adolescence.
‘It felt to me like this was a valid and worthwhile story to tell,’ actor Steve said of the story in an interview with TV Times.
‘I don’t talk about my work very often because I believe that acting is a magical process, and I don’t want to spoil it by deconstructing it too much.
‘What happens is I tried to connect emotionally with a story as much as possible, and I felt like I connected with this one a lot.’
With the show celebrating its 40th anniversary next week, and Steve having been a part of it for 35 years, it is no wonder that he refers to the role of Phil as his ‘life’s work’.
However, it wasn’t always intended to be that way, as Steve revealed that Phil and brother Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp) were only supposed to be in Albert Square for a short stint.
‘It’s amazing, and I’m very proud [to still be in the show],’ he told the publication.
‘Ross and I were on the screen the week after the fifth anniversary. We’d signed a three month contract, and the producers had an option to keep us for another three months, but within two weeks, the bosses said they wanted to keep us for two years.
‘Amazingly, 35 years later, I’m still here doing these huge storylines. What it means to me is that EastEnders is my life’s work. I didn’t plan it, but it’s what my career became. But I’m very happy that’s how it’s turned out.’
Steve also revealed how acting hadn’t always been on his radar, but after a trip to see a Shakespeare play, he knew it was what he wanted to do.
‘When I first decided to become an actor, people in my life couldn’t believe it, because this was not on the cards, to put it mildly!
‘Anyway, a mate took me to the Royal Shakespeare Company because his sister was an actor. I watched the play and thought “This is what I want to do, but not here, because this isn’t my arena”.
‘I remember saying to him, “I want to do something that people down the market will talk about, and kids in the school playground will talk about in their lunch break,” like I used to talk about Minder and The Sweeney.
‘I wanted to do that kind of work. And that’s what’s happened. I’ve ended up where I wanted to be without really knowing it, which is lovely.’
