Hot Issues | 20 January 2011 07:58 CET

I don’t harass people with my dressing—Jenifer Eliogu

By CHIBUEZE OKEREKE

'Don't judge me by my outward,' look she seems to say; beautiful, talented, nice and naturally endowed are some of the words that best describe her. Having put 15 years of her life into an industry that has made her a household name over the years, Anambra State born actress and mother of two, Jennifer Eliogu in this no-hold-barred interview with CHIBUEZE OKEREKE bares her mind on some issues that have surrounded her name in recent times. She lets us in on the truth behind her marriage, her career, family and her latest project…

For quite some time now, you have been on the move, travelling from one place to the other, what have you been up to?

First I must say, happy New Year to you and the News Star family and to my fans out there. We ask God for a prosperous and fulfilled 2011. I've been up to a whole lot really, but, as you know, I am not the type that sings about it until I am sure that I am ready. But what I can tell you is that whatever it is I am up to is good news.

Nollywood seems to be in recess, how have you been coping?

I guess people say Nollywood had gone on sabbatical because they don't see the regular faces they are used to seeing on screen anymore. It's called show business and there's got to be other things you do aside acting. For me, I have other things that I do aside acting. I took a break for a couple of years, made a family and I have two kids and now I am back. I am working on a few things, I am sure that other artistes are busy trying to do other things aside acting and whatever it is I am doing is still within the entertainment industry. It's been great for me; I haven't done a whole lot of acting in the last two years but I have been doing things and for me I am fulfilled in what I have been doing.

Aside acting, I know you do compare jobs, has it always been a part of you or is it something you just picked up?

It wasn't part of the plan, just like acting wasn't my original plan. I set out to sing but for some reason I found myself acting and thank God, 14 years later, it has been good. In another one or two months it will be 15 years. I started doing MC work like a joke. It began at a friend's wedding. Things were not going according to the plan and it there was chaos everywhere; I just picked up the mic and started talking and everybody was so impressed with the way I handled the whole thing. At another wedding, the live band wasn't doing too well so I called the guy, gave him some cues and we startred singing some popular songs and just like that. It wasn't a pre-planned thing, but it is working well for me.

So what is happening to you singing skills?

(Laughs) I sing for fun, maybe professionally, I haven't really done anything but I am still singing and will always do. I love to sing. I do, not just karaoke, I also do live performances and all this I do for fun. The truth is, everything that I have set out to do concerning entertainment is working. I am living a dream. It is not a competition. I am not going to sing just because every other person is singing. I'm going to sing to live my dream. I produced a movie not because others are doing so but I saw the need to positively contribute to the growth of the industry. It came a time when I realized that it wasn't enough to just criticize what others were doing; I just tasked myself to make an input. And so, I wrote my story, back in 2006. I had just had my daughter in Switzerland; I wasn't working so it afforded me the time to really write. I did not write in a hurry, I wrote at leisure.

What is the story all about?

It's a family story. I think it's about time we brought back those stories that don't just entertain but also educate and I tried in my little way to bring in a little bit of education for the young girl child. It stars Kenneth Okonkwo playing the male lead and myself. We also have Aunt Ebele Okaro, Thelma Okoduwa, Dorothy Njemanze and a whole lot of others. In fact, I featured a friend of mine, Abibat Lasisi, who was acting for the first time and she did really well. It's a beautiful story that you and your entire family with your children can watch together without you having to tell your child to close her eyes because of the rate of nudity in our movie these days. It is something that I am proud of. Basically, one of the reasons for writing that story is that it is my own way of trying to sanitize the industry from nudity. We all go crazy sometimes, we all flaunt it, I do, I am sure you know (Laughs) but for the movie, this is something that lasts forever. In Nigeria, a child could walk into a video club and request for any kind of movie, and there is no restrictions irrespective of the age grade on it. So I think it's high time we brought some of those moralistic films back on the shelves.

What could have prompted you to say that you have no rival in the industry?

A couple of times reporters would always ask you whom you see as a rival in the industry, who do you see as your biggest challenge. Truthfully, I don't see anyone as a challenge neither do I see anyone as a rival. I am me. If it is my job then it will come to me and if it is not, it will go to whomever it is destined for. Like I said, it is not a competition. I appreciate a whole lot of my colleagues, but I know where to draw the line. For me, I don't see anybody as a rival. I am not particular about playing lead roles. Whatever character you give to me, I give it back to you to the best of my ability. I don't try to be like anyone else. I am just me. There is really no basis for competition.

Have you had a situation where your fans mistook you for one of your characters?

(Laughs) Well yes, a couple of times. Recently, I received an award in the US in North Carolina, myself and Mama Gee. One day we went out shopping and one Black American lady walked up to me and was saying something like, “O my God, that was good the way you stood up to those in-laws of yours. They wanted to take everything away but you didn't let them.” I didn't believe that an American lady will be doing that. Apparently, she has seen one of my films called Plane Crash and I had a little row with my in-laws. But while she was talking I told her that it was just a movie and she said “Yes I know, I'm just so glad to see you in person”. At another time, I was in the market and someone just hit me from behind and said “Why you kill Genevieve, wetin she do you”? And I laughed while I told her that it was just a movie. So it happens. Some people tend not to be able to differentiate between an actress as him/herself and the character he/she plays in a movie. The same way some people just assume that you are what character you play in a movie. If you play the role of a witch or a prostitute then you must be it. I don't know how else to make them understand that it's just make-believe.

You once played the role of a widow in a movie and you rejected the same situation happening to you in real life. Don't you think it's high time you did away with characters that don't agree with your spirit?

In most cases I don't have problems with such scripts simply because I am very particular about the scripts I choose. I must be passionate about every film I have made in the last 14 years. As for that character of a widow, sometimes people don't know that we just don't act because we want to entertain; most of the movies are true life stories and the aim is to educate people on traditions and norms that should have been abolished a long time ago. So I was happy to play that role and I play about every role I play, no matter how positive it is. If it is a positive one I claim it and if it is a negative one, I reject it big time (laughs) it doesn't bother me. A producer once gave me a script; it was a movie about the marine world and I was going to play the role of one of the alien spirits and I wasn't comfortable with it because I had shot something like that before. That was my second movie in the industry. It was called Bora. After that time, I started having nightmares about the water world; snakes, pythons, sea dragons and all that. I didn't like it; I had to go for deliverance. So now, I am very careful. But if I find a script that is good enough, I will take it as a challenge and pray about it because I know that whatever I stand against, my father in heaven stands against it. But if the character is not relevant in the story, I turn down such script.

Can you turn down a mouth-watering script that must be signed on the same day that you had promised your child to attend his open day at school?

That is a very tricky question. I have to be honest with you, the reason we are working so hard is to give our children the best of education, exposure, comfort if not luxury. So, I know that I need the deal to be able to maintain that lifestyle. I also know that it will mean a lot to my child if I come for that day at her school; like I have a five-year-old daughter who is very intelligent and she is very sensitive. There are times she criticizes my dressing. But to be very candid, I really can't give you a direct answer to that right now. I can't say to you that I love my child so much that I will forget about the deal and I can even say that I will take the deal and forget about my child. This is a very tricky question. I will pray for God to give me the wisdom to be able to achieve both.

What could have fuelled the rumour that made people think that your marriage was in trouble?

I am glad you called it a rumour and that is what it is. For some time I have kept quiet about it because it doesn't make sense to me. I don't owe anyone any apologies or explanations. The truth is that I don't know where the rumour came from and I don't intend to find out. The fact that he doesn't live here and they don't see us hand in hand walking around, kissing on the street, going to occasions together should not make someone just wake up one day and cook up stories “Are you sure” and because I don't owe that obligation to anybody, I have kept mute over the whole issue. But I know that I wish myself well. So I am not bothered.

So are you saying that your marriage is intact?

By God's grace.

One of the stories had it that when the crisis was much it worsened your asthmatic condition, how true is that?

I reject it in Jesus name. Asthma, I have never read that. Let me ask you something. Do people at any point stop to think that we are human beings like them? I mean, we are normal people, we breathe air like them, and we defecate and do other things like human beings. We have families who get upset when certain things are written about us. They write things that make you want to regret going into the industry. Why would you wish somebody Asthma, when she doesn't have asthma? I don't have asthma for the records. I have never had and never will have. I know that in most cases that people who have might not be able to say that they have but I don't. I send it back to the sender.

Did the strictness of your parents shape you into what you are today?

Yes, it has shaped me in the sense that with my popularity, I have a whole lot of friends but you hardly find me hanging around with friends as many that I have them. Most of my friends call me mother superior, not because I am better but for some reasons; I might appear crazy on the outside but I am not an introvert and I am also not an extrovert completely, I swing in-between but in my heart, I am more intro than extro. It shaped me in the sense that I became conscious of the kind of association I keep and everytime I pray, I ask God to separate me both spiritually and physically from every friend that won't add value to my life. I am not a perfect person; if you don't live my kind of life then we can't be friends.

So what did you take from your parents, now that you are a mother?

I took a whole lot from my parents. I give my child everything that I can afford, and I try to make her understand that this is what we have and we live according to our means. It doesn't matter who she makes friends with out there; I teach her never to be intimidated by anybody. If you begin to make her feel that you don't have as much as others, complex sets in; but if you make her understand that she is the best even with the what she has, it will give her a level of confidence. Sometimes, I also allow her to make choices, to be herself. While growing, my father tells you what he wants you to be and that is final. He was disappointed in me when I went into movies. It caused a whole of problem in my family. It took him a long time to accept my decision because he wanted me to be a lawyer. In fact at a point, I dropped out of school and faced acting after my Diploma; but with time I understood that, you needed education as well to be a better person, so I went back to LASU. So now, I am encouraging my child that even while in school, you still can be what you want to be. I won't make choices for her but I will guide her and I will protect her but I will not lord it over her. When you are too strict with your children, you really don't know them because they pretend when you are around and become their real self when you are gone and that is dangerous.
But when you know them you help them on how to channel their strength and work on their weaknesses.

You tend to be conscious of your dressing, how many hours do you spend in front of the mirror before you certify yourself okay to go out?

I don't know (laughs); it depends on how much time I have.

What was your husband's response to the commotion one of your dressings caused on facebook?

I didn't really feel anyhow then, we all have our minutes of madness. We are human, once in a while you want to explore. I am not a very conservative person when it comes to dressing . My husband and I saw that dress and he felt it was good. We both liked it and we went for it. It didn't bother me that they felt that I exposed my body. If my family is comfortable with it and my husband is not complaining and my children love it, even as young as they are, I don't see why it should be anybody's headache. That is the truth. I know that because I am a role model, it's in my place to be able to tell people what is good or bad. But the dress in question was not worn to a wrong occasion. It's not like I wore it to church. Its showbiz for heaven's sake. There was no response from my husband on the matter. We bought it together. I wore it for him to see before I eventually wore it to the occasion. If he didn't like it, he wouldn't have paid for it.

How far can you go as regards nudity in movies?

Flaunting is an entirely different thing from nudity. Flaunting I will forever do, nudity, forget it (laughs) never. With flaunting you are free to tease with those areas that you know you are endowed. If you have fine legs, once in a while you want to show off, obviously if you've got a good face, you can't hide it even without a make-up. Same also if you have a good skin, you don't need anyone to tell you that. I can't be wearing long sleeve all the time when I know that I have got a good skin. A little bit of cleavages every now and then, it's allowed (laughs).

Don't you think all this attracts men to you despite your status?

Even when you wear covered dresses from head to toe, men will still come. They have eyes like eagle. When they see a good one, they know from miles away even when you wear a hijab. There are certain things you can't hide. Men would always be men and if you are woman and you don't have admirers; you don't have men make passes at you, then there is something wrong with you. It's a part of what makes you a woman; for people to look at you and thank God. But then, it's now left for you as the woman to be able to draw the line. I don't have a problem with men admiring me but I try not to put myself in a position where I will be molested or harassed.

But have you had issues with your in-laws complaining about your style of dressing?

No I don't because I am hardly immodestly dressed in real life. I don't harass people with my dressing unless you begin to have ideas in your head. I don't dress provocatively. I don't walk the street wearing dresses with very low cleavages. I wear it to occasion like awards, beauty pageants; I mean, common, its showbiz but it's not like I wake up every morning walking the street half nude. They know me and my dress sense and they know that he doesn't complain about it. I will never wear anything that will embarrass them. I will never wear anything that will make them ask some questions. Even some families complain when you dress modestly so just be yourself. I know that I am a good person. I know that I have a good heart. I am very free spirited person.

What will you consider your greatest fear?

My greatest fear is growing too fat to the extent that I cannot fit into my clothes. I have a tendency to blow up if I don't control it. My mum is like a size 18/20. I used to be afraid of a whole lot of thing but the more spiritually strengthened I became I understood that your greatest failure is fear. You cannot be afraid of something you have no control over. Just do the best you can and allow destiny play out naturally. I try not to make fear a part of my vocabulary

Other sites The Nigerian Voice