Former EastEnders star Max Bowden has opened up about his departure and claimed his role made him ‘fearless.’
Max left EastEnders earlier this year after Ben Mitchell was sent to a prison in America for fraud. Prior to this, he was involved in a hugely powerful and emotional storyline that saw Lola Pearce (Danielle Harold), the mother of Ben’s daughter Lexi (Isabella Brown), die after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.
When it comes to Ben Mitchell though, his life has never really been quiet or smooth sailing.
Speaking about his time on the soap, he told Daily Star newspaper’s Hot TV column:
‘EastEnders’ is one of the hardest gigs, if not the hardest gig, in acting because a lot of the time you have to strip away your technique and rely on impulse.
‘I carry quite a lot of ‘the method’ in my approach to my acting, and it’s easy to get a bit lost in the work as a result.’
He added: ‘So it’s shaped me in that I no longer approach anything with fear. It’s a brilliant place to hone your skills, so I’m very grateful for my time there.’
Max was previously on The Lewis Nicholls Show, and revealed he started to experience burnout after playing the character for five years
‘I did nearly six hundred episodes in five years, which is a hell of a lot, and it was time for a rest,’ he said.
‘The character was tired, I was tired, they [the producers] were probably tired of me being tired.
‘From an honest perspective, I think yeah, a lot of it was that I needed to go for a bit. I needed to go work on me, get myself back to a place of really good mental health, focus on healing and also be a dad.’
Reflecting on Ben’s involvement in Lola’s final storyline in the soap, Max explained filming this was like ‘life imitating art to an extent’, after he lost his best friend to a brain tumour as well.
‘It laid a lot out on the table, and it exposed me to a lot of vulnerability which probably at the time I didn’t navigate well. It was a tough old time, but you know what, I’m a hell of a lot stronger for it.’
Back in May, Max opened up about the death of friend Maxwell during an interview on BBC One’s Morning Live.
‘I felt like it wasn’t well registered or understood as losing a family member or next of kin,’ he began.
‘Of course because I spent so much time with him, I really noticed his absence when he was gone. That overwhelming sentiment of loneliness was so apparent.’
