Best known for her comic skits on social media, Etinosa Idimudia is one of the rising stars in the Nigerian movie industry popularly known as Nollywood. The graduate of Computer Engineering in this interview with Newton-Ray Ukwuoma tells of her passion in the motion picture industry. Excerpts:
Journey to Nollywood
I started from church drama then to school drama. While in school, I joined this drama group called Radicals for Jesus. The group did more of comic drama. I was acting all through the five years I was in school. When I finished I wanted to get my acting career to a professional level. I didn’t want to upset my parents.
“Engineer, do you know how much we spent on your school fees!” I got Lagos posting for NYSC. I was happy because I didn’t know much of Lagos at that time. I had lived in Benin City almost all my life. Towards the end of my NYSC, I got two job offers in oil and gas, big company. I couldn’t tell my father that I wanted to reject the job. So, I picked one of the companies. The first year I worked as a graduate trainee, the second year I worked as the planning and scheduling engineer for oil and gas construction project.
I later became a field engineer. I started travelling from one Niger Delta region to the other. During work hours I would gather some of my colleagues and we will be shooting skits with my phone. That was how it started. I didn’t know how to begin my acting career. I just felt I needed to do something. My first skit was shot in 2012. It got a lot of views and likes. I stopped at some point. I tried to face my job. But it got to a point that I realised I wanted more out of life. I knew I had to do this. Then I heard about Royal Academy, a film school. I like reading. I wanted to polish my talent. I didn’t tell my parents. I took a six-month study leave. My parents assumed that I was working. And I went for the training. It was after I had spent some time in the school that I told my parents I was leaving Computer Engineering for acting.
Parents’ consent
My mum always knew I wanted to be an actress. She was with me on that. But my dad couldn’t just understand why a person would leave his/her field for something like acting. He was mad about it. But I had to beg and persuade him. I told him it was my happiness. My mum also helped to convince him. I got my first acting role during my first month in the academy. I didn’t do much. It was a small role in the movie entitled, A Little White Lie. It is available on Iroko TV. I was happy regardless. It was the first time I saw myself on big screen. It encouraged me to do more. Better things came along the way. I started meeting people.
Skits
From Instagram I started getting people who were interested in me. People introduced me to a lot of things. I started doing more skits. I signed a contract deal with MTN comedy plus. That also encouraged me. It wasn’t much money, but it encouraged me to do more. Pulse TV came along. I started EtinosaTV series. It is about a Benin girl who came to Lagos for greener pastures.
Passion for acting
Yes, my passion for acting is so strong. Even when I don’t have roles I take to shooting skits with my phone and my HD tablet. I keep acting whether or not I have a job. My mindset about it is whether or not you have a job, if you love acting find a way to act. If there is no door, build a door and open it yourself. Just push. My life is a story. I didn’t think I will make it this far. And one should make sure one is creating value. Because right now, I entertain people and I have some kind of relevance. I have created a niche for myself and I am still building.
Reception of the skits
It has been awesome, beyond my imagination. There are some skits I put on line that I don’t think are funny, but they get more views than the ones I felt were really funny. And celebrities send me messages about my skits. It has been awesome.
Handling fame
I want to be able to go to Balogun market and buy bend-down-select [second hand clothes] without blogs talking about it. I want to be able to enter Keke without any stress. I just want to make people happy. I want to still enjoy myself without people crowding me. I have my shy moments. But I know all these come with fame. We go manage now. But you know what I tell my friends? I am so happy that people know me for comedy, so even if I am fooling myself on the road, no one will take me seriously. So, it is good. But if I were those super posh celebrities, I cannot drink pure water again, I cannot buy gala. But now, if they see Etinosa TV buying gala, people will think I am shooting a skit. I don’t want fame to change me. I want to be able to play, to have fun without living a pretentious life, like having accent and buying expensive things just to keep up with the fake life. Some of my male fans send me marriage proposals. You know, some guys see your skits and be like, “I love your skits. I want to marry you” or something like that. And I am like, “Na so they dey marry e?”Who marries because of funny videos? Marriage is more serious than that.
Turn on
The only thing anyone can do to get my attention right now is to tell me something that will add value to my career. If you are adding something to my career, then we can take it up from there. In fact, if you say, “Let us make a film”, even if you are lying I will still consider you. That is one way to get my attention. And if you are serious about it then we can continue. Another thing is comedy. I am a sucker for comedy. If a guy makes me laugh, he will earn some points in that direction. But I think I will fall for the man with whom I see a prospect of building a movie empire. He doesn’t only have to like film alone; he has to love making films. Uncles, if you are not building a film studio for me, carry your own and go. I don’t want any other thing. Acting/movie production is my life, it is all I am interested in. It is all that wakes me up in the morning.
Interpreting roles
I will give you an example of how far I have gone in interpreting a particular role. In fact, it wasn’t even a movie. It was a skit. I wanted to play the role of a village girl, the type you see selling food along the road. I had to spend a whole day at Balogun Market, under the bridge. I went there, bought some things, sat down with them and began to converse with some of them. I wanted to learn how they behave, how they talk and the current expression they use. I spent a whole day with them. I felt if I was going to play that role, I should make them relate to it when they watch it. Yes, I was able to play that role after spending time with them. That is how far I have gone. Basically, I am willing to go to any length to interpret a role, if it takes research and mimicry. My mirror is a victim of a lot of assault. There is something else that I do. Once I get a role that is similar to a role someone else I know had played, I go and watch that person.
Achievements
I was nominated for as the online comic act at the 2016 SCREAM awards. This year, my channel, Etinosa TV has been nominated for AMAA’s People’s Choice Awards for the best online comedy skit.
Selling Point
I am not a stand up comedienne, at least not yet. The stand-up people have not been able to convince me to join them. Some people have made effort to buy me over. For now, I am not a stand-up comedienne. That means I cannot tell jokes. I can only make you laugh by my behaviour, but not by talking. That is what I am doing differently. I am a comic skit maker with passion for acting. I think I have more passion for acting than speaking. I like to demonstrate. In fact, I am looking for a role where I play deaf and dumb all through, because sometimes it is not about what you say, but your face, the way you move your body. It is like pure acting.
About Nollywood
I like the fact that we are open to improvement. I like the fact that we are evolving, that we are growing and getting better. I like the fact that we are getting international recognitions and partnership. But we are still plagued by poor distribution network. The government or those responsible needs to intervene. It is really sad that movie makers don’t get to recoup their money due to piracy. I pray that the distribution system gets better so that movie makers would have more avenues to distribute their film to wider audiences.