Connect with us

Entertainment

Blood Sisters – Ini Dima-Okojie Opens Up About The Emotional Stress of Acting

Ini Dima-Okojie

Ini Dima-Okojie is an exceptional actress in every sense of the word. When she’s on-screen, it’s easy to tell that she is a thorough professional who puts in every effort required to embody her role. The actress butressed these facts in her latest interview with Pulse Nigeria where she spoke about the emotional demands of embodying a character especially one as broken as Sarah, her character in her latest outing – Netflix’s Blood Sisters.

Sarah is a new bride who is emotionally and physically abused by her husband. She excaceberates her woes by killing him and what unfolds for her is an emotional roller-coaster. The producers couldn’t have chosen a better actress for the role. Thanks to her track record of acing similar characters, Dima-Okojie was contacted by producers for the role. She was picked to portray Sarah after what she described as a rigorous process.

When asked by Pulse what her most challenging character was yet, she said;

Sarah definitely was a hugely challenging role on different fronts. There was the physical aspect to it, and it was a different kind of physicality cause it is not an action film where you train and stuff. It was a physicality where she had to struggle in that journey.

It was crazy what we did. We were in Makoko, jumping canoes, going for hours on the run. In Epe we were barefoot half the time. But even more so challenging was the emotional aspect to Sarah.

It was challenging for the character and for me. As an actor, I am unable to emote from the surface. I am not one of those actors that can get their eye ducts to produce tears at will. If I am going to break down, it has to come from within. It is how I am able to perform.

To effectively portray Sarah, Dima-Okojie had to break through a wall she had put up in an effort to protect her emotions after a disappointing experience she had with Ndani TV’s series Oga Police. She had earned the role of Laitan, a character she described as the most beautiful and intense she’s ever had. Having “unlocked” the character and given it her all, she was left devastated after producers canceled the show after airing just a single episode. Speaking on the aftermath of the fiasco she said;

I was in a place as an actor where I had sworn never to break myself for any role and this stemmed from Oga Pastor. I remember that character like it was yesterday. Laitan was the most beautiful, intense character ever and as an actor, I unlocked the door to the character. It felt like a drug, being able to be there but not really be present. There is no way that doesn’t impact your life. There were scenes where I just wasn’t there to a level that it was almost scary.

When the show got cancelled, it hurt more than a heartbreak. I cried for at least a year. Like I would think of Oga Pastor and would literally start crying. It really shattered me. It just didn’t make sense to me. I thought about the point of giving so much of myself to a character that no one got to see, then swore never to go that deep into a character.

So when I got Sarah, I was like Wow! Not again! I knew I was going to have to break that wall and give it everything I could cause you see, Sarah is broken on every level. She’s bullied by her friends and family so much that she is unable to stand up for herself. There are a lot of layers to her which is why the scene when she finally tells Kola no is so monumental.

Her most emotional scene while filming Blood Sisters, the actress revealed, was when Sarah and her best friend Kemi are discussing running away to avoid jail time for the murder they had just committed. “It (the scene) played out completely different to how it was written,” she said. “They were having a conversation and Sarah was more like her gangster self. However when we were filming, Nancy (Isime who portrays Kemi) and I burst into tears. We were crying and they just kept rolling. When they yelled cut we just kept crying.”

READ ALSO: Success in Nollywood Involves Intellectual Work – Actress, Kehinde Bankole

Thankfully, Ini Dima-Okojie is able to relief herself from the emotional burden of playing broken characters by immersing in her favorite guilty pleasure – bringing on reality TV shows with a bottle of wine to drown all of the stress that comes with embodying fictional characters. Then, there are also genuine friends on whom she relies for honest feedback.

Dima-Okojie’s performance on Blood Sisters has received rave reviews from viewers across the nation. Many have taken to social media to praise her performance, something that leaves the New York Film Institue alumnus feeling incredibly fulfilled and grateful. In her response to these praises, the actress encouraged people to chase their dreams no matter how late it seemed while referencing that she dumped her investment banking job to pursue her dream of a career in Nollywood starting out as a production assistant.

Related Topics:
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Entertainment

‘77% of Nigerian women bleach their skin’ — Nollywood actress Beverly Naya speaks up

Nollywood actress Beverly Naya has opened up about the personal experience that inspired her Netflix documentary Skin, tracing it back to bullying she faced as a teenager in London.

Speaking on the One54 Podcast, Naya explained that although the bullying she experienced growing up wasn’t rooted in colourism specifically, it deeply affected her self-esteem during her formative years.

After relocating to Nigeria, she said she initially wanted to start an anti-bullying campaign, but felt the idea needed sharper focus to genuinely resonate with audiences. During her research, she came across a quote attributed to Willie Lynch, a figure some historians dispute ever existed, allegedly describing a strategy to divide Black people by skin complexion. Whatever its origins, Naya said the idea stuck with her once she connected it to modern data on skin bleaching in Nigeria.

According to the World Health Organisation, 77% of Nigerian women use skin bleaching products, the highest rate recorded on the continent, compared to 59% in Togo, 35% in South Africa and 27% in Senegal.

Naya said that statistic, paired with the historical quote, is what ultimately shaped the direction of Skin. She pointed to a cultural hierarchy around complexion in Nigeria, where lighter skin is often treated as more desirable, and said she saw the culture around bleaching as its own form of bullying that had never been properly named or discussed.

She recalled how dark-skinned people were often casually insulted using derogatory terms, without the behaviour ever being classified as discriminatory. Naya said the documentary was her way of giving that pattern a name, colourism, while highlighting the health effects of bleaching and encouraging people to embrace their natural skin tone.

“That’s basically what inspired that movement,” she said of the project, noting that Skin premiered on Netflix roughly two weeks after George Floyd died in 2020, a period marked by heightened global conversations around race.

Beyond the documentary’s origin story, Naya used the conversation to reflect on her broader journey between London, Lagos and New York, discussing how moving across three continents shaped her identity, accent and worldview.

She also spoke about her decision to build her career in New York rather than Los Angeles, and shared thoughts on protecting her mental health while navigating fame, comparison culture and public scrutiny.

Naya, a Forbes 30 Under 30 Africa honoree, has continued to expand her work as an actress, filmmaker and producer since Skin’s release, with the documentary remaining one of the more widely discussed projects to tackle colourism within Nollywood and the broader Nigerian entertainment industry.

Continue Reading

Celebs

Veteran Actress Ngozi Nwosu appeals for N30 Million For Three Surgeries as she battles health crisis

Veteran Nollywood actress Ngozi Nwosu has made an emotional appeal to fans, colleagues and well-wishers as she battles a serious health condition that requires urgent medical attention.

The actress shared a photo of herself lying in a hospital bed, revealing that she has been hospitalised for the past three weeks. According to her, speaking publicly about her condition was a difficult decision, but she could no longer remain silent as she urgently needs three life-saving surgeries estimated to cost ₦30 million.

“My people, my fans and my family. I know you have not seen me in circulation for some time. I’ve been hospitalised now for three weeks.

“Pls, the thing has gone beyond my control. I need your help. Don’t let me die. I know that you people never forsake me, and I know that God will always see me through. But I am begging you my fans and family, don’t let me down.”

Nwosu also revealed the physical pain she has been enduring, adding that anyone willing to support her treatment should reach out to her management.

“I am going through a lot of pain. I have like three surgeries to go through.

“If there is anything you want to do for me, pls contact my management; they will be there. Thank you, God bless you. My sickness will never be anybody’s portion.”

n the caption accompanying the post, the actress reiterated her appeal, asking fans to share her message and contribute towards her treatment.

“Please don’t scroll past. Share this post and support if you can. God bless you, and may you and yours never experience this affliction.

“Please contact my legal representative/management for more details.

“Total amount needed for all surgeries is: N30,000,000.”

Nwosu is one of Nollywood’s celebrated veteran actresses, with a career spanning decades. She is widely recognised for her memorable performances in films and television productions.

Continue Reading

Entertainment

Nigeria’s image isn’t worth protecting when school children are being kidnapped – Davido

In a new interview on the BBC, multi-award-winning superstar Davido explained why he chose to use his platform to bring global attention to the kidnapping of school children around the country.

During his performance on one of the side events at the ongoing FIFA World Cup hosted in Mexico, the United States of America, and Canada, Davido wore a jacket with the names of the school kids from the Oyo Kidnapping pinned all over the black leather jacket

Davido’s choice of outfit and activism generated both criticism and praise, with some commending him for using his platform to amplify the plight of Nigerians confronting record levels of insecurity. Other critics, including popular Hausa praise singer Dauda Adamu Kahutu, popularly known as Rarara, accused Davido of a lack of patriotism for airing the country’s dirty laundry on the global stage.

The award-winning star, however, doesn’t agree with the idea of protecting the country’s image. According to him, there’s no image to protect when school kids are being kidnapped.

A lot of people don’t really want to talk about what goes on in my country (Nigeria) simply because they want to protect the image, but there’s no image to protect if the little kids are being kidnapped,” Davido said, strongly communicating his stance.

As much as I was happy to do the World Cup, we also have to understand that things are going on back home in our country, which we have the power to let the world know through our own means. My own means is music and performances, so I used my platform to project what is going on.”

Davido’s decision to use the World Cup stage for his activism continues his trend of joining his voice to echo Nigeria’s sociopolitical crisis. During the famous ENDSARS protest against police brutality and corruption in 2020, he took part in the protest, and his smash hit record ‘FEM’ became the unofficial anthem.

As Nigerians at home and in the diaspora continue to await the return of the school children and teachers of the Orile kidnapping in Oyo, Davido and other celebrities are speaking up on the rising insecurity and economic hardship across the country.

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Recent Comments

Trending