Nollywood actress, Eniola Badmus, popularly known as ‘Gbogbo Biz Girls’, is no doubt bitter about criticisms she has received because of her plus size. In this interview with The Point’s Adeleke Adesanya, Badmus, who features in both English and Yoruba movies, says she has encountered so many challenges that nearly wrecked her career. Excerpts:
What should your fans be expecting from you this new year?
Thank God for the grace to see this new year. It is quite wonderful. Nigerians should expect more wonderful things from me this year, especially in movies. And apart from this, I want to start a non-governmental organisation, which will be my little way of giving back to the society. I know that this year will be great for me and my fans should be expecting a lot. Among the thrilling things they will see from me is my coming movie called Basira in London, which was shot in the United States of America. It is a movie for all to watch.
Have you ever encountered any major challenge in this career?
Of course, I have experienced a lot of challenges while I was struggling to grow in this career. As you know that Rome was not built in a day, for me to get to where I am today, I went through a lot, and I thank God for his grace to have crowned my efforts. I really encountered a lot of challenges. Should I start from what I saw before I could be accepted by people, or financial challenges? At a time, nothing big was really happening and I almost quit, but I just had the hope that the future would be good, and as God would have it, I broke through.
Who is Eniola Badmus off stage?
I am just a calm, lovely and funny person. I’m the kind of person you would like to associate with but I don’t just take anything in my life, I have standards for everything I do. Also, I am not a frightening person, and I can be very funny to people around me.
But some have said on social media that you are careless, particularly with words…
They really don’t know my personality. They need to know me. And that is human being for you. In most cases, they judge you based on the roles you play in movies but life is not like that because when you are on set, you are not your real self, you are another person entirely. You are the character you are asked to play, so you have to transform yourself into the character. And I am surprised that some people in most cases judge us actors and actresses from this angle, which I believe is always wrong. The fact is that I am not the same character they usually watch in movies. In real life, I am a jovial person whom you would love to be with.
Can you recall a particularly embarrassing moment in this line of work?
Yes, I had an experience last year, which was so embarrassing to me. On this day, we were acting a movie and the person in charge of property was expected to help come up with something that would look like faeces because the scene had to do with me opening a place and seeing such. But to my embarrassment, when I opened the place, what I saw was real faeces. I almost vomitted, and I felt so embarrassed because I never expected such a thing. The property guy made use of real faeces. For me, it was a sort of an embarrassment. In fact, the producer and director sacked him immediately for such misconduct.
A report has it that you are planning to lose weight because of certain challenges. How true is this?
God forbid. In fact, let me use this medium to tell Nigerians that they should leave me alone. They should stop talking about my stature. Do they have problems with me? Everybody can’t just be slim, I don’t understand, I am a typical African woman. I can’t imagine why everybody is talking about my stature. We are from different places, different homes and we can’t be the same. All women that are in this world are not meant to be the same; I wonder why they are disturbing
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