After starring in that best selling premier movie, “Living in Bondage” , in 1992, Nnenna Nwabueze-Okonta who acted Merit in the movie disappeared into thin air. She happened to be one of the matriarchs of contemporary video culture in Nigeria. Showtime Celebrity caught up with her, last week in Asaba, where she was featuring in another Igbo film titled, ” Ndi Gbo Ochie”(Primitive) to relaunch her career. In this engaging interview, Merit takes us on a trip into the story of her sudden disappearance from the screen, and why she has decided to stage a comeback to acting, among other interesting revelations…
After featuring in Living in Bondage in 1992, you disappeared from the screen. Have you staged a comeback to the industry?
Yes, I have. I returned to the industry since September, last year. In fact, since that time till now, I have featured in over five movies. One of the movies is already making waves in the market. It is called “My Father’s Crime.” I also featured in “Mary Magdalene,” and another one I’m yet to know the title.
Are they all Igbo films?
No, since I returned to the industry, this is the first Igbo film I am featuring in.
But where have you been all these years?
I have been around. I was in Lagos for a while, before I moved to the United States with my family. I am married to a man from Delta State. So, we relocated to Delta State a few years ago. That is where I am based for now.
Did you miss acting while you were away?
Yes, I did miss acting seriously, and that’s why I am staging a comeback.
What would you say you missed most about acting?
I missed the freedom and the opportunity it affords me to meet people and interact with my colleagues. There is this closeness and oneness in the industry, and it’s like one big family. People make you laugh all the time. I also missed travelling to different places, and experiencing different cultures. I missed taking on different characters and interpreting them. I equally missed my fans and basically, everything about the world of make-believe.
How has it been since you returned to the industry?
It has been fine; everybody has been supportive. The marketers, producers, directors, executive producers among others have all been very supportive. Everybody wants to work with me, and I am surprised because I actually thought I was going to be begging them for roles, and re-introducing myself to them. But once they heard that I was back, they called me to ascertain if I was free to work with them. Of course.
What’s the biggest challenge you have faced since you returned?
There have been challenges as there have been improvements in the industry. People see themselves as stars and try to separate themselves from others. You will be surprised when you get on set and people will be in their cars for hours with their air-conditioners on. You will beg the same people for rides, and they will turn you down. They will be telling you that nobody comes into their car. I find it very appalling. For me, people think too much of themselves. You should be humble, no matter who you are. I don’t see why people should not associate with others because they think they have arrived. That’s the part I don’t enjoy at all. But there are lots of new ones who are still nice when they see old actors like us; they still respect us, and that’s okay.
Do you still come in contact with most of your old colleagues?
Yes I do, and they are wonderful people. I was with Chioma Chukwuka on set, and when she saw me, she greeted me. Muma G was anxious to know my whereabouts. I told her that I took a break. But now, I am back. I still talk to Kenneth Okonkwo who acted Andy in “Living in Bondage” and a lot of my colleagues. I went to UNIPORT with Francis Duru, Hilda Dokubo, Ejike Asiegbu among others.
Why are you relaunching your career starring in another Igbo film, several years after Living in Bondage brought you to limelight?
It is the love I have for my language and culture that drives me because there is nobody without culture. Besides, I read sometime ago where UNESCO said that Igbo language may soon go into extinction and I find it very scary.
How can my language disappear from the face of the earth? So, I have to contribute my own quota even if it means I have to shoot Igbo films. Somebody actually called me and asked why I was shooting another Igbo movie; that people are saying that I left the movie industry because I could not speak English, and that I was not educated enough.
I said, well, if that is what people are saying, I don’t care. But I know that I have a Masters Degree. After I left UNIPORT, I studied Environmental Education; I did my masters in Administration and Planning. So, I don’t know why they are saying that I act Igbo films because, I cannot speak English. That is not true anyway; It is just because I love anything Igbo, and anytime they call me for something like that, I am willing to go and do it. The film that I am using to relaunch my career, Primitive, is so wonderful.
The producer, Emmanuel Odife, gave me the script and I read it. He later asked me what I thought about it; and I told him that the script was wonderful and that I would like to work with him. I am playing the role of a Priestess, who is the custodian of culture and tradition.
Living in Bondage stood against certain traditions in Igboland such as the outcast system. Is your current movie, Primitive, towing the same line?
I think there is a sharp contrast. The former was exposing the ills in the society: the get-rich-quick syndrome of our people at that time. While the latter is a film set in 1914, and it’s about the white men who invaded the Igboland to introduce Christianity. It also talks about how the white men were perceived by the natives, and how, through enlightenment and bearing all sorts of things that they were able to win them over. I think they are two different stories.
What actually made you to abandon acting?
Let me tell you an interesting thing about my private life. I met my husband for the first time on February 28, 1994. On March 12th,, we had our big introduction party, and on the 26th of the same month, we were married traditionally in my village.
There was no courtship. We just saw each other, and he told me, ‘You are my wife.’ By the time we got married, we faced a lot of challenges: cultural, emotional and personality differences. But we were determined to make the marriage work. I know the kind of personality I have, and I also knew that if I continued acting, I was going to end up as a divorced woman. Meanwhile, that was something I did not want. So, I stopped acting and went back to school while still married to my husband.
When we were 20 years in marriage, he called me and said, ‘I know you have this acting bug in you and despite everything I have done for you, you still want to go back to acting. Will it make you happy?’ I said yes, and he said, ‘You have my blessing…you can go back to acting. Now, if someone tells him that they saw his wife in a hotel with someone, he will just ignore the person. He will later ask me politely, ‘They said they saw you somewhere, what is happening?’ And I will simply tell him what happened. He trusts me.
That is the kind of relationship I have established with my husband over the years. Sometimes, people would ask me, ‘Why did you leave the industry? I always tell them that I appreciate what I have now. My six children would wake up, and see their parents around them. That is very important to me. My parents are not divorced; they are still together, and I don’t think I want to see my children living separately either with their dad or mum because they are divorced. So, I would say I abandoned acting to solidify my marriage.
There was this rumour that you were divorced?
Well, I am not. My husband brought me to the location this morning. We couldn’t locate this place (location) for hours but he was with me until I finally found the place.
Do you think you took a big risk by not dating your husband before getting married to him?
It was a risk that worked out fine. And that is the reason I tell people that you don’t have to date for 7 to 10 years before you find true love. If you are determined, it will work out. We had problems but we loved each other. We were determined to make the marriage work, and it worked.
Would you say Living in Bondage opened the way for you both in marriage and other aspects of your life?
If I had not acted in the movie, I would still have gotten married. So, I don’t think it opened the way for me in marriage.
What is the most nasty thing you have experienced in marriage?
I will not say it’s nasty, rather I will say it is funny. A lady called me and said that the kind of charm I used on my husband is very active. No matter what happens, he still comes back to me. She said, I should keep it up. Those are the kind of funny things I have seen in marriage.
After featuring in Living in Bondage, it appeared all the men wanted to marry you because of the qualities they saw in you.
Funny enough, the people I met before starring in the movie were more genuine than the people I met after the movie. The people I met after acting in the movie wanted to marry the character in the movie, (Merit). But the other people I met before the movie wanted to marry the real me, (Nnenna). I was not crazy about all those big guys who were coming for me after starring in the movie.
The character, Merit, seems to have overshadowed your real name?
Yes, it is a real name and I like it. People don’t call me Nnenna anymore, and I don’t mind. My parents, and my husband call me Merit. So, I am comfortable with that.
Looking back to when you started and now, what do you think has gone wrong with the industry?
I see a lot of indiscipline in the industry these days. Those of us from a theatre background know that there is hierarchy in the industry; you do not argue with the director. You have to do whatever he tells you to do. If you have a problem with that, you quietly talk to him.
What kind of roles can you reject now?
I asked my husband if they say I should smoke on set, what will you say? He said, it does not matter. But as a matured woman, I don’t think I would do nude scenes. I don’t even think I can simulate sex on screen. Those are the kind of scripts I cannot take.
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