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Better… Stronger… Faster… Adam Martin discovers how EastEnder Zoe Slater became a kick-ass cyborg in new US show Bionic Woman (Tuesdays 9pm, ITV2).
So you've made the move to US television, you've been filming - and living - in Canada, and you've become bionic…
Yeah, I've had $50 million worth of mechanical upgrades! I play Jaime Sommers, who has a terrible accident, nearly dies but then gets rebuilt. She wakes up to find that she's half-woman, half-robot, with new legs, a new ear and eye, and a bionic arm. And she's not happy - she was just
an everyday barmaid before. Her boyfriend (a surgeon working for this creepy military organisation) decides to use her as a human guinea pig.
Sounds a bit like the classic 70s sci-fi series The Bionic Woman, with Lindsay Wagner.
Of course it does. It's a remake. Lindsay Wagner was incredible in the original, but we want to bring it to a modern audience, so our version is darker and more edgy.
Presumably you had to get into bionic shape for the role?
I was working with a tutor in Krav Maga [an Israeli martial art] and a personal trainer, and at one point I was trekking up mountains. I loved all that. I've always been athletic. I used to dance and I was always involved in running at school. But when this part came up, I had to change my eating habits, not eat so much junk food and start being really healthy. I found that hard at first because I love my food!
How on earth did you get from Walford to this?
I left EastEnders two years ago and this was the best offer I'd had, so I thought I should just go for it. It all happened so fast - I sent an audition tape, was called out to the US and shot the pilot. There was training and shooting for three months and then the writers' strike stopped everything… so 2007 was just a blur really.
Do you see your EastEnders pals now you're superfamous?
I don't see myself as superfamous at all! I still see Tracy-Ann [Oberman - Chrissie], Kacey [Ainsworth - Little Mo] and Kim [Medcalf - Sam]. They've been so supportive. At times, if I'm worried how things are going to work out, I talk
to other actors for advice, and then there are times when they call me about things - it makes me think that what I'm feeling isn't unusual and everyone goes through it.
Being a soap star in the UK is an intense kind of fame. It must be nice for you now to be living
in Vancouver, away from it all.
Definitely. I was never comfortable with it. In Vancouver I can live a low-key life and get left alone. I'm still recognised as the girl from EastEnders, but I think that's the power of soap: people never forget.
If you had a hideous accident and could have some body parts replaced, what would they be?
Quite a few! But I guess it's about being comfortable with yourself and that's what I'm feeling more and more - this is me and I'm comfortable with that.
After a strong start, Bionic Woman didn't rate brilliantly in America; then the writers' strike put it on hold for three months. Are you worried it'll be cancelled?
To get six months on air - or even the three that we did - is an achievement. To have a hit show that runs for years… the likelihood is one in a million. So I feel I've kind of won. The show
has so much potential. It's had creative changes; some things didn't work, but in launching a TV show, that's all part of the process. And if we go back, everyone will go back with renewed enthusiasm. Bionic has been life-changing, in that for so long I felt like I had something to prove and now I don't really have that any more. No matter what happens now - even if I end up walking away - it's all good.
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Now check out our comprehensive Bionic Woman guide
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