’Elite’ Star Mina El Hammani Reflects on Career and Moroccan Roots in New Interview

"El Principe was my first role. I was 20 years old and I worked in the morning and studied in the afternoon. [...] I also remember Elite. In fact, the last time I went down to the storage room to get some clothes, I found the jacket I wore in the series, which I kept. Nadia, my character, will always be with me, because she gave me everything," Mina El Hammani confides to Instyle. The young Madrid woman of Moroccan origin recalls how difficult it was for her to assume her fame. "I needed to exchange with a lot of people, to be listened to... Obviously, I had my moments of anxiety, but now, at 30, and with everything I’ve been through, I let go. I know who I am and I’ve grown as a woman," she added.

Mina El Hammani also addresses the racist discrimination she suffered at school and believes that things need to change. "I think it’s important that there be a debate in schools, that school principals take responsibility. At home, parents have an obligation to educate their children, but in institutes and schools, it is the teachers who must act. I am very saddened when I learn that young people are trying to commit suicide because they do not feel loved, protected or cannot live the life they want," she laments. The young woman recounts that, like "any aspiring actress," she was a "waitress" during her lean periods.

"I think everything is learned. I loved being a waitress because people told me their lives. Moreover, I worked on the Plaza de Santa Ana and many foreigners came there, which also allowed me to learn English... My worst experience was at McDonald’s. I stayed there for four months and the people became very nasty. I always say: if you behave well with the person who serves you, she will surely serve you a little more chocolate in the ice cream. Keep that in mind (laughs)," added El Hammani, who now runs a production company, Quiet Productions. "We have already produced the short film Rubio cobrizo, directed by Pablo Quijano. We want to provoke changes in the industry, tell stories. The public is tired of always seeing the same thing," she details.

Speaking of her immediate dreams, Mina El Hammani confides that she plans to "go to Los Angeles for a month, learn English and see how the job market is doing there," then "finish the construction of her mother’s house in Morocco," a project she has "started to develop since the time of El Príncipe." "I’m sorry my father, who died two years ago, can’t see it, but seeing my mother happy makes me very happy. What matters to me now is that I can eat, I’m fine, my cats are fine and my family too. That’s enough."