
Moroccan-Spanish Actress Mina El Hammani On Living In The Moment And Ignoring The Pressures of Stardom
The star of the Netflix hit series Élite discusses the importance of empathy, mindfulness, and why she’s not focusing on the future right now
Mina El Hammani is one of those people who gives off a cool, calm and collected vibe, even in a photograph. Her Instagram is full of effortlessly chic pictures: signature curls framing her face, lips slightly parted, eyes so vivid that they appear to stare straight into your soul.
The 26-year-old actress, who grew up in Madrid with Moroccan parents, found fame playing bright and self-assured schoolgirl, Nadia, on the hit Netflix teen drama, Élite. Having left the cast at the end of season three, she spent the summer shooting El Internado, a new project for Amazon due to air next year.
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Despite the trajectory of her career being interrupted by a pesky global pandemic, it seems that she embodies the serene energy that she projects. The first question I’ve put to every single person I’ve interviewed since March is ‘How are you doing at the moment?’ – asked in such a way to try and get across that I’m interested to know how they really are – and despite the limitations of our interview being translated from English to Spanish and back again, Mina understands this instantly.
“Right now I’m very calm,” she smiles. “The truth is I’m at a very relaxed stage of my life, with a lot of energy and positivity, regardless of what’s going on with coronavirus, which gives me a lot to think about, too. And… well… I want to live here and now, and not think as much about the future as I used to.”
It’s that last line that’s particularly interesting – not thinking as much about the future. Living life one day at a time is something that is taught in mindfulness, a form of meditation that focuses intensely on the present, without any distractions, as a way to reduce anxiety and improve mental wellbeing. Wherever Mina gets her outlook on life from, it seems that it’s a conscious choice. Having said that, leaving a successful TV show and moving on to other projects is always an uneasy time for actors. Mina describes being “surrounded and protected” by the cast of Élite: “Leaving was truly very sad but it was a time of wanting to move forward, too. I spent many years on this project and this character… it has given me so much. I adore and admire the cast and my colleagues, and the truth is that it was very sad… very emotional.”
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It’s not surprising that saying goodbye to Nadia stirred up so much feeling. When Mina first arrived on the set of Élite she was only 24, and although she had other roles under her belt, none were as big as this. She credits Nadia with teaching her “almost everything” she knows professionally, however, her relationship with the character runs much deeper than that.
“On a personal level, she’s such a beautiful character and she made me tell myself what it is that I want. She’s a very strong woman. The character of Nadia knows perfectly what she wants, and how she wants to do it. I also know [what I want], but sometimes it’s nice to remind yourself from time to time. Even more so when you do it through a character – that character gets inside you and comes out through you in the end. Nadia has taught me to continue being the way I am, to be authentic, strong and independent, to work on what I want to do and, well… to enjoy life.”
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Of course, Nadia had to be strong. Arriving in a new school as the only person wearing a hijab, she was the victim of Islamophobia and racist bullying. Mina thinks that it’s important for these stories of everyday racism to be told on screen.
“In the end, for me fiction is about telling stories,” she explains. “If we tell stories that are real, that are about the everyday, I think it’s fundamental – especially for a younger audience – to bring about that debate. Also so that we can share and understand other people’s situations, above all, so that we can empathise with the person who is next to us. If it’s a person who comes from abroad, then also understanding that it’s not easy. It’s not easy when you are not in your hometown or when you are not in your own world, so to speak. I believe empathising is very, very necessary. As well as being there for other people.”
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Although Mina’s background is different to Nadia’s, her own dual culture brought a deeper level of understanding to the role. She is from a Moroccan family who settled in Spain, and both of these countries are important to her sense of identity, as well as being something that she’s proud of. “My parents are from Morocco and since I was little, the Moroccan culture has been present daily,” she says. “I’ve breathed it… and abroad, it has been the Spanish [side of my culture]. It has been the best thing that could have happened to me, having that double culture and being able to enjoy it.”
Mina grew up surrounded by strong women, and they have clearly helped to shape her into the person she is today. “The most influential people in my life have been my grandmother, my mother and now, my sister,” she says, clearly happy to share the affection she has for her family. “They are women whom I admire; they are very strong women, very brave. They have been through very bad times and very good times and have also found that balance in their lives. The values that they have always instilled in me have been, in my view, the basic but fundamental ones – to be in harmony with this world. I love them very much.”
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Hearing Mina speak, it’s easy to forget that she’s still relatively new to fame. Her sense of self seems far beyond her years of experience, and she explains that although she felt the pressure to be flawless when she was younger, she no longer feels it: “[The need to be perfect] is something I don’t have deep inside me. I know who I am and that’s enough. As long as I am acting well, that’s all that matters to me.”
She’s also keen to point out that when it comes to societal pressures surrounding body image, she doesn’t care. It’s refreshing to hear that someone who spends their life in front of cameras is so comfortable with the way she is, both inside and out.
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Although Mina has a relaxed outlook on life, she is strict with herself in other ways, and takes her work seriously. “When I was little, my father told me, ‘Look, it’s better to arrive an hour early than a minute late,’ so I’m very strict on the matter of punctuality,” she explains, noting that she’s quite happy to wait for people for two hours if she’s decided to get somewhere comfortably early. “But if that person is five minutes late and doesn’t tell me, it really bothers me. Punctuality is essential for me. I don’t like it when people don’t arrive on time, or don’t let you know they are late. In the end, time is very valuable, and one’s own time is more valuable still.”
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Speaking of time, when she’s not working, she generally spends it with her friends and family, and pre-pandemic she’d often visit the theatre or cinema. Now that cultural activities have taken a back seat in Spain, like many other countries, she’s trying to be more active, and has turned her hand to boxing.
As a cat-lover, Mina also enjoys being at home with her beloved feline companion, Makki. She tells me that her friend got him from a farm in Murcia after his mother was poisoned, and with Mina living alone, it was the perfect time for her to get a kitten.
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“He gives me a lot of peace, a lot of tranquility and he actually is a very good cat,” she says. “I don’t know… he’s like a son to me. And of course, I’m pro-animals. I need to be with them, to fight for them not to be abandoned or to be mistreated, because I think that’s the worst thing that any human being could do. And, yes, I love my little kitty madly!” she adds with a beam.
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If you follow Mina on Instagram, you’ll probably have already seen Makki, as well as her regular doses of sartorial inspiration. Her style muses include Zendaya and Beyoncé, which culminates beautifully in an androgynous-yet-feminine mix. And with more projects in the pipeline, it seems certain that pretty soon a new generation of talent will cite Mina as their muse.
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However, showcasing her deep affinity with the present, Mina isn’t thinking about what’s in her future. “I don’t know and I don’t want to know either,” she reasons. “I’m in a moment of my life in which I want to live day by day, here and now. Whatever the future holds, it will be welcome.” Wherever life takes Mina, it sounds like she’s already found true happiness, and that’s got to be more important than anything that comes next.
Photography by Vladimir Marti
Styling by Anna Castan
Editor in Chief: Olivia Phillips. Art Director: Oscar Yáñez. Make-up: Manuel Losada for Guerlain. Hair: Cristo Rodríguez. Set Designer: Marta Loza and Jose Tirado. Photography Assistant: Xavi Vega. Digital Assistant: Pablo Rodríguez. Producer: Elle Hutchinson
From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s October 2020 issue