What with her abusive relationship with Patrick, to dealing with his decline into motor neurone disease, Maxine has hardly had an easy ride.
This month, we spoke to actress Nikki Sanderson about her role, what we can expect from Maxine in the coming weeks, plus her fitness and beauty secrets.
Your recent story lines have been really hard hitting. What can we expect from Maxine in the coming weeks?
So you’ll be seeing the final stages of the Patrick and Maxine saga and everything he’s been putting her through.
She’s obviously unaware that he’s trying to frame her for his murder.
He’s asked her to do a huge thing for him, in helping him die, which is obviously taking its toll on Maxine emotionally and physically as well. She wants to make the last two months of Patrick’s life as happy and fulfilled as she can for him. Behind all that, he’s setting her up for a huge fall.
It’ll be an interesting two months on screen with Patrick getting further into the disease, Maxine trying to care for him, look after Minnie and Nico. She’s putting herself on hold to make sure everybody else is alright. It’s quite sad to see that she’s being used by Patrick in such a horrific way again.
How will she cope when she finds out the truth?
I think you just feel so sorry for her. All she wants to do is the best for people and make sure everyone else is alright. For her to be backstabbed in such a horrific way will have a huge effect on Maxine. It will be something that she won’t be able to easily get over or move away from unfortunately.
Your previous domestic abuse story lines were really harrowing, how did that take a toll on you personally?
I’m one of the actors that doesn’t use tear sticks, I like to get myself into that state and cry for real so yes, it does it take a toll. You’ve got a twelve hour day and in every single scene, Maxine is hysterically crying. By mid afternoon, I was physically exhausted. It does take its toll on you emotionally, physically and mentally, but it’s so worth it when you see it on screen.
Over the years, I’ve used different techniques to get myself worked up - and I now get called the crying robot because I can just do it on cue. But that’s just years and years of practice.
After one of those long emotional days, I just come home and have a big glass of wine and watch the TV!
What do you hope she’ll do next?
I really do enjoy doing all the hard hitting, serious stuff and I’d like to do something like the domestic violence but maybe different. But with everything she’s going through at the moment, it would be nice to see a little light in her life, see her be happy. And then knock me back down again. I do enjoy the contrast.
When you make red carpet appearances, you always look incredible. What do you do to stay in shape?
Not a lot. People hate me saying that but honestly I’ve only been to the gym four times in the last year. I’ve done three London marathons which have taken their toll on my knee, so I probably won’t do that anytime soon. I also did a cycle ride Vietnam to Cambodia last year, which was incredible. I’d like to do the London to Paris one and maybe climb Mount Kilimanjaro for charity. But day to day I really don’t do much.
So how did you get those abs?
Honestly at the moment they are buried under a layer of jelly - but I will admit that I do naturally have quite toned abs. The only thing I can think to put it down to is that I laugh quite a lot - which seems to tone them!
What does your beauty regime consist of and what are your hero products?
99.9% of the time I do my own hair and make up, and I will just use whatever I have. Most of my stuff is MAC and I think their products are fairly priced. They last for ages and they do work really well. I use Studiofix powder base because I can get quite shiny, and I also swear by Astral cream. My mum uses it and she has got fantastic skin!
People assume that the more money you spend the better quality it is, but that’s not always the case. Some of the cheaper creams have the same ingredients but just don’t have that following.
Astral have just brought out a lightweight version of their cream which I love to use during the day, then the thicker one at night.
What about styling, do you pick out your own outfits or does someone do that for you?
I tend to pick my own things. I get help from stylist friends but I tend to wear what’s comfortable and fits me nicely.