(Part 1/2) The idea of going to that office was simply me trying not to be disrespectful to my cousin, Chinelo Ndigwe. In a bid to console me for not getting a visa to film with her in the U.K, she asked me to attend an Emem Isong audition that she saw on Facebook. Remembering I had met Emem a year earlier and had her card, I made a call and got an invite to privately audition since I had missed the general one.

Walking into Emem Isong’s office was basically the first time I had ever auditioned in my life. Sitting on that chair right across her, it was definitely the Holy Spirit that caused what happened that day. She gave me a side with two characters and told me to play one and she’d play the other person. I honestly didn’t know which to play so I asked if I could play the two characters and she said yes. I didn’t know what an audition was so this was not me trying to impress. I was just a confused 18-year-old who didn’t know which character to choose. When I finished, I guess she was blown away. She called three other people to watch me while I redid it and they were all impressed.

Emem Isong said to me, “I see you going very far in this business. I see you getting as big as the Genevieves and Ini Edos of our time because you’re pretty, you speak very well, you sound intelligent and most of all you can act.” Those were the 4 things she told me that formed the basis of me having the courage to pursue the career that I’m in today. 

(Part 2/2) I have met some horrible people, and some good ones at auditons. I remember meeting a producer/director who told me to remove my clothes so they could see if my breasts were perky enough and if my body was shapely enough for the camera. But, my thoughts kept going back to the words of Emem Isong and the fact that she didn’t say I needed to have those things to succeed. So, I walked out of that office and many others. 

Now imagine if when I started out, the first person I met told me the things I needed to have to succeed in the industry was, “Your body needs to be standing” or “I have to see your body to make sure it’s well augmented for pictures”. I probably would have played along on my first day.  But I thank God. My prayers were not in vain; prayers to love myself and to accept myself. God put the right people around me who made me understand who I was and what I had in me before I started meeting all the bad and ugly ones. 

That’s how I started acting. I still met so many other people that hit on me or asked for the wrong things. I recall an encounter with a colleague who almost raped me on set at night when everyone else was sleeping. I went through a whole lot, but one thing that this journey has made me realise is who I am. I am ‘Worthy’, ‘Good Enough’ and ‘Valid’.