Weekend with Ebada Hassan: ‘I have to lie down and feel grass through my fingers’
The Brides actor on her favourite books, being out in nature and taking cats out for a walk
Ebada Hassan, 24, is an actor based in south London who made her screen debut as 15-year-old Doe in the film Brides, which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Hassan was nominated for breakthrough performance and best joint lead performance alongside co-star Safiyya Ingarat, at the British Independent Film Awards (Bifa).
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How do you start the weekend?
I’m not a morning person. I wish I could pretend I was.
What gets you going for the day?
I try to get outside as soon as I can. I’m a nature girlie. I go to the park and literally touch grass — I have to lie down and feel it through my fingers. I like green spaces where I can just breathe and everything’s not going at a million miles per hour.
Are you listening to anything while you walk?
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Chill music or acting podcasts. I was just listening to the Bifa one with David Jonsson. I listen to audiobooks as well.
Any recommendations?
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson — they’re making it into a TV show but the audiobook is incredible. The author reads it and it’s the most beautiful poetic prose.
My favourite book is Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, which is also a show on Apple TV. It’s a generational tale about a Korean family.
What’s for breakfast?
A chai latte or a coffee depending on how much caffeine I’ve been having. I’m trying to do more chai than coffee these days because I’ve been going overboard on the caffeine.
Favourite cafe?
My friends and I get bored of being in the same spot, so we often choose a random location on the Tube map and go there to explore.
What was your last memorable find on one of those adventures?
Custom House. We got on the cable car and walked around. I can walk along the Thames forever. I also love the canal from King’s Cross into Camden Town. I get jealous when I see people having their cosy little existences on their boats.
Living on a boat would be cute
And having a cat. It’s like a storybook.
Are you a cat person?
Yes. Her name is Aslan, like the lion from Narnia. She’s 10, just a chill girl who likes to cuddle.
My sister has two clingy cats and when I go to her house we take them on a walk to the park on the leash.
Tell us about the film Brides
It’s a coming-of-age story about two 15-year-old girls and the kind of ride-or-die friendships you have at that age. They find themselves making an incredibly risky journey after being influenced and radicalised into making a decision they shouldn’t be making.
It’s also about how the decisions you make at that age aren’t fully informed. It talks about Islamophobia, radicalisation and all the things that push the girls into going, but also what pulled them in and the desire for a sense of belonging that they didn’t find in their old seaside town.
Is this a story you felt drawn to?
Initially alarm bells did ring for me. I’m a Muslim and when you hear that it’s going to be a story about radicalisation, you’re like, ‘oh, not another Muslim story about terrorism’. But once I read the script, I found out the story was about the two girls and their perspective. It’s a story that’s never been told before. We know the cases that were happening 10 years back, but this film is a huge reminder that they were just kids as well.
The reassurance I got was not only from knowing that the story was being told from the lens of the children themselves, but also that it was written by Suhayla El-Bushra, a Muslim Sudanese woman, and directed by Nadia Fall, a Pakistani Muslim woman. It felt like we were in safe hands.
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Other film or TV recommendations?
I watched My Father’s Shadow directed by Akinola Davies Jr at the London Film Festival in October and it was phenomenal. It’ll be released in UK cinemas on 6 February 2026. It’s one of the most incredible things I’ve seen this year. It’s set in Lagos, Nigeria in the 90s and it’s about a father and his son.
Eating out or staying in?
I definitely eat at home more. I still live with my mum, which I’m thankful for — she’s the best chef. If you want Somali delicacies, you know where to come.
What Somali food should we try?
I love sabaayad and maraq, which is like a chapati with curry or stew. Also, any rice dish like bariis and hilib does it for me every time.
