EastEnders actress stars as Marilyn Monroe in new musical

Melissa Suffield was famously axed from the role of Lucy Beale in EastEnders because of her out of control behaviour and has been largely out of the limelight since.

But now she is treading the boards as Marilyn in Norma Jeane the Musical, directed by Bafta Award-winner Christopher Swann.

“I was contacted way back last summer with the offer, and of course I said ’yes’,“ explains the 22-year-old.

“It’s such an iconic part to play, and such a compliment that somebody thought I would be capable of it.”

Melissa was booted off EastEnders in 2010, after producers found out she had gone clubbing despite only being 17.

“My age in body and my age in mind had a little fight when I was around 17, and I ended up paying the price,“ confesses Melissa, whose first ever first professional acting role was in 2003 in an episode of the children’s series Magic Grandad.

“But as tricky as that was at the time, I’m so pleased everything worked out the way it did.“ She is adamant she has no regrets and even watched some of the live shows, with Hetti Bywater playing the Lucy character. “What a storyline!“

Melissa, who grew up in Harrow, has since appeared in Casualty and Total Wipeout and is discussing doing some directing, but says she has “no idea“ if the way she left the show has made it harder to get acting jobs.

In the last few weeks the actress, who now lives in south London, has put all her energy into preparing for her incarnation as Marilyn, who she says “exudes such a brilliance“ and was a “beautiful performer“.

“We didn’t want an exact replica, I’m not an impersonator, and how exactly do you impersonate Marilyn Monroe?

“I watched all the iconic films with Chris Edgerley, who is playing Doctor McCarthy, over the course of a weekend – we had a little Marilyn sleepover!“ says Melissa, whose favourite film is The Seven Year Itch.

“We all spent the rehearsal period pouring over books filled with photographs of her, mimicking her classic poses and facial expressions.

“The key was really in that. She touches her chest quite a lot, and her face, and is always emphasising her hips, so I try to remember to incorporate as much of that as possible.“

Melissa, who started modelling aged two, says performing is “all she’s ever known“, and she has enjoyed the challenge of bringing Marilyn to the stage.

“We play with the idea of her having a split personality between Norma Jeane and Marilyn Monroe, and her struggle to combine the two into a person who could find a little more inner peace. Of course, as we know, it’s unlikely that she ever really found that peace, which is truly heartbreaking.“

The show is an original work written by Belvedere Pashun, it was first performed in Walthamstow in 2013 as a script-in-hand version with Kerry Katona, and inspired by real-life events which took place in February 1961, just 18 months before Marilyn’s death on August 5, 1962.

Melissa does not believe the theories that the film star was murdered, and says her death was down to a “lack of knowledge“.

“She was prescribed two different sleeping tablets by two different doctors, which in this day we know to be a lethal cocktail in the quantities she was likely to be taking them in. It could have been that she just didn’t know, and that was the downfall. But who can really be sure?“ So does she hope this part will set her back on the right path to be as famous as Marilyn?

“Famous, no. Successful, yes. I want to be the very best that I can be, and that is all Marilyn ever wanted too, especially later in her career.

“She constantly pushed herself to be more than the pin-up icon that she had become – she wanted to be seen as a real actress.

“I applaud that move and I hope I can echo that drive.“

Ye Olde Rose and Crown, Hoe Street, Walthamstow, E17 4SA, until March 22, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm, Sundays 2.30pm, no show Mondays. Details: 020 8509 3880, yeolderoseand crowntheatre.co.uk, normajeanethemusical.com