EastEnders spoilers: Zack Morris teases Keegan’s exit scenes: ‘Loose ends are tied up’

It’s the end of an era for EastEnders fans as Keegan Baker is set to make an emotional exit, in the wake of the return of the love of his life Tiffany (Maisie Smith).

But in a week of angst and trauma following the reveal that Gray killed Chantelle, a happy ending hangs in the balance.

We caught up with Zack Morris and he revealed all on how it felt to have Maisie back and also his proudest moments and memories on the show.

So are you missing Walford yet?

I haven’t really had time, if I’m honest. We had an evening celebration but since then, haven’t had time to have that feeling. I am sure I probably will when I get back! It’s going to feel weird, definitely.

What was behind your decision to leave – you wanted to try other things?

Yeah, exactly that. I’ve learned so much there, it’s the best place to really learn the craft. You work with all of these big storylines, different actors and directors and that is a skill within itself.

I learnt a lot for the skill of acting but also what it’s like to be an actor. You leave your house at 5:30pm, get back at 7 and then have scripts to get on with learning and don’t go back til about 12!. It’s real, it’s real life!

The job is more mentally challenging – sometimes there is physical stuff – but it’s mostly mental. It’s like an endurance; a show like EastEnders really harnesses that. When you think you don’t have enough left to squeeze out that creative juice, you find it from somewhere.

I was fortunate to join at 18, I was at a time when I was still studying. It was a three year course and I joined in my second year; doing both. So I was always learning, I was at a place in my life to just learn all that I could.

I just kept that same energy for five years. If I am proud of anything, I am proud of that because I said that to myself from the start.

I don’t want to take my foot of the gas pedal; you can talk about storylines, but for me, personally, that is the proudest thing – I did all of that, I stayed hungry, I gave it my best and I couldn’t do anything more than that. I’ve given everything; blood, sweat and tears, literally all of it!

Were you glad that Maisie came back?

It was nice, yeah. I didn’t know it was happening, I wasn’t expecting it. It nicely rounded up all the loose ends, with Tiffany leaving the way she did and the Liam situation. I thought that was it, so when she came back. First of all, I wondered why as it was a big ending but then it made sense. We’ve worked together how many years now, it’s crazy how many scenes we have done. It was a nice feeling for me to end on a high and hopefully for the fans as well.

What were the tense final scenes with Lorraine like?

Working with Lou has always been great; we like having an argument. We don’t argue in real life but we love doing it on screen. Karen was always there to give Keegan a clip round the ear. It was nice to go out on a final one of those arguments, it felt right. We just conjured up all of the emotions and went for it.

Were you glad to be part of the Gray story aftermath?

Yeah, of course. Gray, the big serial killer of the Square, he had his massive moment and Toby is great, he deserved that. Filming on the new Square was really good and working on a story so big, the first on the new lot. It tied up other loose ends in the aftermath; any questions get answered.

What are your big storyline memories?

The knife crime story stood out for sure, the main reason for me is it was one of the first times in my career that I did a story that really woke me up. It wasn’t as simple as learning lines and giving a performance. There was so much more weight to this story and it’s peoples’ lives that I was representing. People who had felt those feelings were watching this.

For the first time I was seeing life through their lens and for me as a person, it’s something that really stood out to me. The performances were received because of that, it felt raw and truly emotional and powerful. Regardless of what it may have looked like, it felt that way.

The stories following, the same feelings I learnt there, I have been able to channel from that place. It made me find some things as an actor that I didn’t know I had. That’s the blessing of working of working on a show like EastEnders that I care about so much.

I also got to work with some great people who I learnt from and the writing was just amazing and the race bias storyline. As a whole, when I talk about learning, that’s the kind of material I love doing, I never want to stop learning.

Do you think you might ever return?

It’s one of those you never know things, isn’t it? The classic never say never. You never know what the producers and writers will want but right now, in this moment – whatever day it is today? Wednesday! As of Wednesday March 9th 2022, I am having just tunnelvision!

I am going to try and go for gold, take every opportunity I can get. Trying new characters, reading new scripts – just broadening my horizon and testing myself. I am hungry, I am ready. It’s not about the show itself, it’s about me as a person.

Once I have had a shot at all of that, but who knows, I love the show to pieces, I’d never have a bad word to say about it and it was always good to me. But right now, the new opportunities are my focus.