"I’d love to tread the cobbles."
As the feisty and formidable Zainab Masood, Nina Wadia became an icon on the BBC’s EastEnders.
Nina played the Pakistani matriarch from 2007 to 2013.
However, the actress recently admitted that she would love to join ITV’s Coronation Street.
She said: “I’d love to tread the cobbles. That would be a lot of fun.
“When you’re on a soap, you get the chance to develop your character during a workshop at the start.
“Then, because you’re living the character, you find out more about them.
“I haven’t been offered any soap roles lately, but who knows what will happen?
“I know a couple of the Corrie cast, but I wouldn’t put them under pressure to help me get a role!
“Being on a soap is very busy. But I love hard work. That’s what I thrive on.”
Nina Wadia also delved into her future projects. She explained:
“I’ve got projects lined up for next year. I’ll be doing my first-ever video game.”
Swapping Walford for Weatherfield is not a new concept.
The actress, Michelle Collins, who was famous for playing Cindy Beale in EastEnders, went on to star as Stella Price in Coronation Street from 2011 to 2014.
Michelle later returned to EastEnders as Cindy in 2023.
Meanwhile, Nina was a key part of some of the BBC soap’s most explosive storylines.
Some of her key plots included her problematic prioritisation of her reputation over her family.
This was highlighted when she forced her gay son, Syed Masood (Marc Elliott), to marry Amira Shah (Preeya Kalidas).
In 2011, Zainab divorced Masood Ahmed (Nitin Ganatra) and reconciled with her ex-husband, Dr Yusef Khan (Ace Bhatti).
However, Yusef subjected Zainab to harrowing domestic violence before ultimately perishing in a fire he started in the B&B.
Although Zainab and Masood got back together, their relationship broke down in 2013, and Zainab left Albert Square for Pakistan.
Detailing her reasons for quitting the show, Nina Wadia said:
“I’m an actor who needs to be challenged and pushed a bit more.
“I missed the creativity of coming up with a new character, so it was a tough decision.
“In all honesty, I was missing my kids growing up a bit too, because they were very little at the time, and EastEnders is a lot of work.
“Also, I was turning into my character, to which my husband amazingly said, ‘I don’t like the woman, so can I have my wife back?’
“That can happen when you play a character for a very long time.”
“You sort of start to melt into the character a bit, so you need to get out.
“And she wasn’t a particularly pleasant woman.
“She’s a complicated, angry woman, and I was turning into an angry woman, and that’s not me.
“I’m a positive person! So that was not fun.”
Although Nina is yet to reprise her role, she has stated that she would return if she were asked to do so.
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