April 29, (THEWILL) – Nollywood actress, Nse Ikpe-Etim, has opened up on how she started her career as an actress.
Nse said: “After school I didn’t think I was going to be an actor. It wasn’t the first thing on my mind. I did it in a bid to run away from getting married early.
“I ran away from home with a backpack. It was the second time ever I had got on a bus. So I got on a bus and instead of going to Satellite Town, Lagos, where we lived at the time, I went the other way towards Badagry, because I wanted to run away.
“Then, in some village along that road, I saw cameras. So I jumped down and that was the first time I met Kate Henshaw. That was 1996, when I graduated. That’s how I met Julius Agwu, Francis Agu — all of them were on that set.
“The movie was called Scars of Womanhood I think. But for me, it was not so much about the work. It was that I wasn’t home. I got down from the bus and I told them I read Theatre Arts. They said oh okay, she (Kate Henshaw) needs a friend. I met her (Kate) and we formed a bond that has lasted till tomorrow.
“Meanwhile, my mother was looking for me. I got back home after about two weeks and my mother started washing me: ‘You are going to disgrace me!’ I said ‘Ah, I don’t want to marry.’
“I didn’t tell her about the movie set. I just told her that it looks like I’m going to be an actress and she said ‘Over my dead body’.”
Ivory Ukonu is a versatile journalist with many years of experience, with entertainment and society reporting as her area of core competence.
