For her role in the film, Two Brides and a Baby, Keira Hewatch won the Best Breakout Performance by an Actress in a Lead Role at the Best of Nollywood (BON) Awards. She got two nominations at the Houston-based Golden Icon Academy Movie Awards (GIAMA) for the same movie and Lies Men Tell. The actress of Cross River/Akwa Ibom origin, who has been in several films and television productions, tells Assistant Life Editor, TERH AGBEDEH, about her journey in Nollywood.
How did you get on the Lekki Wives set?
I had worked with the producer; so when she wanted to start Lekki Wives, she called me. I did a reading for her and that is how I got cast.
Did you get to sing in the musical, In the Music?
Yeah, I am also a singer.
Have you released any song?
No, I am still trying to work on that because a lot of people have been asking me, “when are you going to do it?” Though I have been sort of putting it on the back burner, I will try and find time to work on that soon.
You have done a couple of movies and television series, which would you say is more challenging to you?
Acting generally is challenging. A lot of people feel that it is easy, breezy; they think it is to just wear pretty clothes, look nice and just say a couple of lines. But it is not that simple. Being able to tell a story and make it believable enough for people to actually watch you and believe what you are trying to tell them is not as easy as it might sound. But I really can’t distinguish the more difficult one between TV and the big screen. I think it is just the same process you go through. The shooting, the production and the long hours for both are basically the same thing.
Would you like to work abroad?
Of course, I would love to do that, definitely.
A lot of actors aspire to do Hollywood; don’t you think it is better to make Nollywood better?
Exactly, I think that is what we should be working towards; trying to build ourselves in such a way that instead of us trying to get into Hollywood, Hollywood will actually take notice of us and come here. I think a few actors have actually been able to do that; people like Stephanie Okereke, who is someone I respect a lot. She has been able to get into Hollywood. Genevieve (Nnaji) has done some productions that were shot in the United States. I am not sure how involved they were with Hollywood, but I think she is an artiste that has been recognised over there. So, I think we are trying.
It appears people are taking notice of Diaspora actors who are coming back to the country.
Yeah.
Do you think that will help the industry?
What we need do is to try and get out of our comfort zone. We are too comfortable with the stuff that we do. We are recycling the same old thing over and over, and it is starting to get old. To grow, the industry needs to get out of our comfort zone. We keep saying that it is about finance. But the truth of the matter is that if you can try to do something innovative with the little you have, I think you can actually impress certain groups of people enough to say, ‘okay, I think it will profit us to invest in this aspect of the industry’. I want to be one of those people pushing for stuff like that.
You say it is not an easy task to interpret roles, but would you say that you have succeeded?
I have been blessed with the ability to tell the stories that I have been opportuned to tell in such a way that people actually believe it. I mean, sometimes people ask me, “I hope you are not like this in real life.” That just says they believe what they saw. As much as it is not easy, I think, to a certain extent, I have been able to do my job and to make people believe that this is what this character I am playing at this point is. I played a police officer, a special agent in the force, in Murder at Prime Suites and a couple of people, who didn’t know that I was an actor, actually thought I was a police officer because of the way that I carried myself. So I think, that to a certain extent, I have been able to, at least, achieve that because I have fans who love my work and call me all the time.
The movies you have been in are what people describe as ‘New Nollywood’, would you do an ‘old Nollywood’ film?
People are just trying to come out of the comfort zone, to do innovative things. Maybe that is why they call it New Nollywood. The truth of the matter is that we are supposed to evolve. We get to a point where it is not just okay to keep recycling the same old stories. We can tell those stories in new more advanced ways. I think that is what people like Emem Isong, Kunle Afolayan and my producer, Blessing Egbe, are trying to do to meet up with the times.
Does it worry you that actresses in Nigeria are dressed in a sleep-around-to-get-to-the-top toga?
I don’t listen to gossip. I have never met an actress who sleeps with anybody for money. Personally, I don’t judge people. If there are people who do stuff like that, that is what they want to do, but I don’t think that it is fair or right that people group us into the same category and say, “oh, all actresses are the same; they do that”.
Maybe you have heard about one or two who do certain things; it doesn’t mean that you should say that every actress is the same. That is what really angers me. When people say actresses are loose, that they sleep around, I wonder: how do you know that they sleep around? Were you there in the room when they were sleeping with the person? Have you seen anything or you just hear people talk about it or you just read what somebody wrote?
I mean, people write stuff because they want to sell newspapers or get people to visit their blogs. So, anybody can write anything, and because it is entertainment, you can’t really go and say don’t write that about me. I don’t think it is fair to say that actresses are this or that.
Come on, I don’t go around saying bankers are this or that or journalists or reporters. If a woman rises in the ranks of a media house, am I going to say she slept around to get to the point she is? No. So I think it is better to just take people at face value as opposed to say they are doing this or that. If you see an actress who drives a car, you don’t know where it came from; so don’t assume that somebody somewhere bought it for her.
Does that worry you?
It doesn’t bug me because it is not like they talk about me per se or they talk about somebody I know. Even if they do, my simple rule in life is: do what you know you are doing and do it if it is right. Just keep doing what you are doing because people will always say something. If you are going to listen to what people who don’t have anything to do, except sit around and talk about other people, are saying you are going to be wasting time instead of doing what you should be doing.
Where do you see your acting career going; are you going to metamorphose into a producer and director?
Hopefully yes. I am looking at doing that because I think that if actors have the opportunity to do stuff like that, they should, because as an actor, you learn a lot from different sources. From the characters you play all the time, from the people who produce those jobs you do, you eventually begin to develop your own ideas. If you can find an opportunity to branch out, then you should obviously do and I will really like to do that. I think that sometime soon I would.
