In a revealing interview with Venture Africa, Nollywood screen goddess - Genevieve NNaji, reveals the vital role her childhood played in shaping the woman she has become. She said selling for her mom taught her to be humble and appreciative of what she has.
Talking about her movie Road to Yesterday, she revealed that it was during on of her mind journey mixed with stories her mother had told her that inspired her to write the movie.
She talked about her family, her company, leaving school to pursue acting and her first movie role.
Read excerpts of the interview below...
Speaking about her childhood, she said "“I was a tomboy. I had three brothers right behind me. My sisters were too busy with themselves – you know how elder sisters are. I played football on the street,” Genevieve told me. She also used to engage in fistfights with the boys who lived in her compound. “I got into a fight with a neighbor of mine who was a boy and I beat him up… I was six years old. We were mates and he was fat. He definitely asked for it and he got it,”
On how helping his mother shaped her " She traded, she sold stuff, she got her children to sell stuff for her and we had to. We had no choice. We were living in her house. We cried. She did things you needed to do at that time. Your friends are not doing it. Why should you be the one to be doing it? You’re embarrassed about it, but I’m grateful for that because I think if I wasn’t even given that chance to be humble, I probably wouldn’t appreciate what I have today and understand that it doesn’t make me better than the next person. And I just know that everyone is equal and everyone is entitled to love and respect."
On her first movie role 'Most Wanted' she said "My role was to interview Regina Askia, a former beauty queen turned actress who was a goddess at that time. That was major. I had to pull it off as a pro and I did it, and the producers asked me if I had done it before and I said no. They were amazed at my confidence—probably I had some training in church or something— but I remember I enjoyed doing it,”.
Find the complete interview here.
