Big, bold and beautiful Adaora Ukoh is one interesting screen diva. In a recent chat with the plus-sized actress on the TV series Lekki Wives, she opens up to MERCY MICHAEL on marriage – why she’s keeping it under wraps. She also speaks on her recent endeavours and other things.TELL us what you’ve been up to. Lekki Wives is getting a lot of accolades. I’ve had Lekki Wives seasons one and two this year. I’ve done a lot of films in Asaba. I got a few awards abroad. And each time, I get pencilled down for a couple of things. It’s been a busy year for me work-wise.
You didn’t talk about the fact that you got married
I’d rather not, because I haven’t really invited anyone to come do the proper celebration with me. Since it hasn’t gotten to that level, you just tend to keep everything as quiet as it can be until you are ready to call people for the proper celebration. I’m still on it, maybe that’s why a lot of people didn’t get to hear it.
But what’s the experience like?
It’s not easy. Well, I just noticed that it’s really not an easy world. When I look at the Omotolas that have kept theirs, I give them kudos. It’s really not easy because men come with a lot of drama and they want to hold it down for you at that point when they’ve entered. And sometime it looks like you are trying to fight it out.
What are the things it has changed about you?
It actually just reduced the way I go out, the way I clubbed and danced. Also, how I deal with the male admirers. It’s something that I have been dealing with throughout my career. I always know how to shove them off. Most of them come as my fans and I just appreciate them in return. That’s it. I just know where to draw the line.
How did you feel when, last week, the story was all over the place that your marriage crashed?
Is it today? We’ve been dealing with it. That is the downside of the job. When I heard it, I didn’t even bother to comment. The story is out, it’s out; we just keep doing our thing.
What roles can’t you take?
Maybe near-nudity roles. Well, I can’t be caught dead doing it now; not like I really have the body, especially nudity that is not a part of the story. But outside that, I would go all the way.
I’ve not seen you play sex roles. Why?
It’s not my thing. Sex role is not my thing. When you look at every movie, there is usually a theme. Like the movie I’m shooting currently, there is sex scene but the producer decided to shoot it like a silhouette, where you light the wall. You will be doing all the sex scenes but it will be showing on the wall. Not that if he decides to shoot the sex path straight, he cannot, but as long as they know how to move with the cameras, I will do it because it’s an integral path of the movie. But it’s not me to go shoot a movie that has sex as the theme. Not that I don’t do romance, I do romance in movies but I might not do outright showing the sex scene that probably could look vulgar, and then coupled with the fact that we’ve not learnt how to shoot it because at the end of the day, it tells on the actor not on the camera man.
You did a short docudrama sometime ago. What next?
I have actually done my own short film, Epitaph. It has been getting nomination. It is a short docudrama on emotional abuse. It’s actually an advocacy film. I’m looking at doing more advocacy movies. I believe in using my platform to push a message out there, so the next one is going to be my true life story. I’m going to be talking to a lot of people as well because it’s a project that a lot of people can relate with. It actually has to do with the struggles of a plus-sized.
What is the most important aspect of movie-making?
There are two things you cannot take for granted in movie-making – scripting and casting. If you get it wrong with these two, the movie is a flop, no matter how beautiful the story is. You can have a beautiful story, the moment it is poorly screen played, that is where the wahala starts. My problem with movie-making is that they try to cut corners. And then these corners that they try to cut, are even cheap corners. After all, what we are still doing is drama; we’ve not started doing real movie. Here, cameras are stationed. Cameras do not move. But the truth about movie-making is that, it is a movie, everything must move. Cameras talk; characters move on set. But here cameras will be stationed; you walk in and out of camera. Honestly, I look forward to sitting down on that director’s seat much later in my career after I must have gone to have a formal training.
Talking about struggles of a plus-sized actress, what is your experience?
I was arguing with someone recently and I said, it’s harder for a plus-sized to really gain your stand in Nollywood than in Hollywood and the reason is because in Hollywood they see beyond your looks. What they look out for is the talent. In Nigeria, if you’re not careful, you will die with your talent especially in this our industry where all that strive are other things beyond talent.
You come to a movie set where there are four to five girls and then a particular brand is not represented. I am a plus-sized and I have embraced it and the world has come to love it like that, but it’s very unfortunate that if they get a role that a plus-sized can play they turn you down because you’re big. Take a look at the Ghanaian movie industry, it is not as bad. There is this movie, Four can play; the plus-sized girl in the movie was what made the movie nice. The truth about this weight issue is that it is what every typical African woman deals with because of our kind of food, if for nothing, palm oil.
Even those who are trying to keep trim, it is still a weight problem that they are dealing with, how much more when you have it genetically. The best you can do is embrace it. You can’t kill yourself. If it was in Nollywood, Whoopie won’t be a star, Monic won’t be a star, Queen Latifah won’t be a star. I know a lot of slim people that are very impressed with me and say to me, ‘God! You make me feel like adding some weight.’ Being a plus-sized doesn’t take from you as a person. It’s been a big challenge, I must tell you. I am not going to pretend like it’s not, but thank God, today I’m being referred to as big, bold and beautiful and I love that title.
Can you recall one particular scenario when you were turned down?
I know a couple of scripts, even the ones I sat down with the writers to script, they go back to the sponsor of the movie and say ‘no, we can’t give her the role because she’s a plus-sized.’ I do not want to call names of movies but I know a couple of movies that the person they later cast for the role, ended up spoiling the movie. I remember talking to some of my fans, do you know that even on twitter some fans want me to start up a group where we should start up this plus-sized thing as a movement? But I said no, that there is a way we’ll go about it and it will look like it’s a fight or there is a beef, but when you look at it, they too feel that bad.
They feel they are not represented. A plus-sized doesn’t stop you from being the best that you can be. Do they go to the market and their dresses are not there? Even when you travel outside, there are shops for the plus-sized. Plus-sized actually starts from 14 and a size 14 in Nigeria considers herself to be a slim person. Who are they deceiving? Abeg, leave matter.
How did you get on the set of Lekki Wives?
It’s a story of five women and there is no way there won’t be one plus-sized actress and when they thought about plus-sized they probably thought about me. I got a message from Blessing, so she told me about it, sent me the synopsis; when I saw it, I just believed in the script. And I told her that the story was going to fly. So, we started the process. I went for reading and all that. We put a lot into it because it’s worth the effort actually. When I saw the script, I’ve never really shot something that challenging, and for all I care, throughout the seven years of my career I have been looking forward to something challenging. So I got that from Lekki Wives.
What is it that is so fascinating about the script?
I guess it’s the uniqueness, and because it’s almost like a true life story. And the fact that it exposes a lot and at the end of the day it still boils down to educating people. I played the role of Miranda, a rich, domineering wife. I guess she’s bitter about life. She’s bitter because her husband got involved in some sort of money ritual, this kind of money that you don’t take out of the family. If you use it to help anybody, the person will die. She’s lost a few people before she found out and because of that she just did not believe in men. She’s a lesbian. She’s very dominating but at the end of the day it still teaches a lesson because the house girl ended up living with the man.
That role must have come easy because there is the notion that you are domineering?
Sometimes, friends, a lot of people, mistake a level of confidence to being domineering. Like my friends would say, you play that role well because that’s you; but that is not me, really. I just had to interpret what I am given. I’m not domineering; I’m just a very confident person.
What is happening to your couture business?
Well, you know how you want to do something on a big scale and funds tend to tie you down because it’s a big market – everybody is all up on my neck and then it’s just something I can do on my own. I just do the one I can until I’m able to get a larger work force. Right now, it’s just an online and I clothe a few friends and then wear my own thing on the red carpet. I just keep pushing, that is it.
What do you do for leisure?
I use my laptop a lot. I write a lot. I’ve slowed down on going out after I had my last accident. Besides, I have partied, clubbed enough. I was born in Lagos, so where is the nook and cranny that I don’t know. For me to go out now, it has to add up. There is a need for me to go out, even when it comes to partying or clubbing. The last clubbing I actually did was when they hosted a colleague of ours who won an award. It was a red carpet event, so it still added up. I go out and I get paparazzied, interviews and all that. Everything I want to do now must add up. Outside that, I stay in my house. It’s as comfortable as anywhere I want to go to.
