BEVERLY HILLS, December 20, (THEWILL) – Popular actress and social media personality, Idia Aisien, has said that being sexy was no guarantee of roles in the film industry.
Aisien disclosed this on Sunday while speaking with The Punch as she spoke about her role in the remake of Nneka the Pretty Serpent’, saying that she didn’t get the role that easily.
She said: “Being an attractive lady might help in general but I am not sure that being sexy counts if a role doesn’t require it. Despite what anyone says, I also don’t think getting any role could be anything short of God’s grace. There are millions of attractive and sexy women in Nigeria. It is hard to break into any industry because even if one gets hired for a job, one must prove oneself. I definitely had to prove myself by being focused, strong and able to work. No matter what time of day or the challenge, I showed up and was ready. Some people feel that I had it easy because of my background but I am proud of who I am.
I know how hard my parents had to work. I can only pray I work hard enough for someone to assume the same of my kids.”
She also talked about how challenging to fit into the character was for her. She said: “Becoming ‘Nneka the Pretty Serpent’ was one of the most challenging things I had to do in my life. Firstly, the character has a lot of pain, so I had to tap into past tragedies that I had locked up. I had to face all my emotions head-on, which I am not used to doing. Secondly, playing the character embodied acting three different roles― a very angry Nneka, who felt she had lost everything and is very tomboyish in her dress sense; a possessed Nneka, who is confident, fierce, strong and sexy; and Nneka, the ‘queen mother’ who is powerful, determined and out for revenge. Thirdly, Nneka is Igbo and I had to start learning to sound Igbo and to speak the language for months before the film.
“Even though I had never acted before this, I believe that acting is about embodying a different person altogether. I had to learn to dance, swim and fight. The scariest scene for me was definitely the underwater scene. We filmed it late at night in a really deep tank in South Africa. The water was really cold and dark, and because my shoes and backpack kept floating to the top, I had to have weights put in my bag and on my ankle. I am also not the strongest swimmer, so it was definitely an adventure for me. I am not used to snakes. My first encounter with a snake was during my shoot for the movie. I was extremely scared, but I had overcome much more while training to film. I just had to be brave.”
