EastEnders actress Lindsey Coulson feared she would be typecast after soap

FORMER Eastenders actress Lindsey Coulson has revealed that she feared she would be typecast after playing Carol Jackson in the long-running soap.

The actress is currently starring as DCI Michelle Newman in ITV drama The Level - but had turned down a number of other parts prior to accepting her current role.

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Lindsey played Albert Square's Carol on and off for 22 years, between 1993 and 2015.

Speaking to , she revealed that she had taken time to think about the type of character she wanted to play.

She said: "There were some things I didn't want to do, because I still felt like they would be a little bit like Carol."

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The actress said that she "needed to feel like Lindsey again" otherwise she would have "just felt like [she] was just Carol in a different wig".

Following her second stint on the soap, which lasted five years, she revealed that she didn't want her next role to involve crying. Tough DCI Michelle Newman sounds like the perfect role.

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She added that working on The Level was very different to working on EastEnders and that it involved a lot of thinking on her feet but admitted that it was tiring: "So many lines to learn, all the time."

While she enjoyed the process it did take a bit of adjusting: "Sometimes, you think, 'God, are we still on that scene? I'd have done 20 by now on EastEnders!'"

Speaking to The Sun last month, she said that she wasn't "sure how much more she could take as a character to be believable": "“She had the death of a son, then she had cancer.

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“I think, unless you change her completely, which I don’t think they’re up for doing, I don’t know what would be of interest to her that I haven’t already played. I’d like to explore other characters’ sides.

“But watch what I say in 10 years’ time. I’ll be too old to do it then, I don’t want to work
at that pace. I’m getting older and I like life in-between [acting jobs]. I cycle, I swim, I’ve got two children that I spend time with, a lovely husband and two dogs. I’m very privileged.”

The Level, 9pm ITV

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