'Eastenders' Nina Wadia: 'Playing Zainab is therapeutic'

Published May 5 2012, 16:02 BST  |  By Emma Dibdin

EastEnders actress Nina Wadia has said that she finds her role in the show therapeutic.

Wadia, who plays the often-confrontational Zainab Khan, told MSN that her part enables her to avoid real-life confrontation.

"It's great because I don't take things out on my real husband, I take it out on the fake husbands instead," Wadia said.

"It's quite therapeutic, as far as I'm concerned."

She went on to suggest that her character needs to move on from the trauma of her recent past, and her abusive relationship with Yusef Khan (Ace Bhatti).

"I think she needs to move on and be happy again, that would be a bit of fun, but who knows what the year holds."

Wadia recently expressed a hope that Zainab's storyline would "lighten up" in forthcoming episodes, admitting that she had broken down over one recent scene.