Star actress, Eucharia Anunobi, is a woman of few words. But when she speaks, she does so from the bottom of her heart. The fair … complexioned actress who hails from Ekwere Azu in Ahia Azu Local Government, Mbaise, in Imo State, did just that in this interview with Ada Onwuanum and announced plans to become a pastor soon.
It has been a while that you did a movie. What is happening to you?
A movie of mine got released three weeks ago, it’s called Breaking Heart. Another one got released one month ago called My Darling Prince.
Is it true you’ll become a pastor?
Yes, everyone is meant to be a messenger of God, as long as you call your self a Christian. Everybody must not, really, stand on the pulpit. But in everything we do in life; within your family, within your friends, you are meant to be good examples. If , on a wider scale when you have to reach out to a bigger audience and the Lord probably calls me to do that, why not? At the fullness of time, as soon as He has prepared me, I will pick up the mantle. You can call me an evangelist to be.
How is your son doing now?
We thank God Almighty. He is doing well, and God is keeping him for me.
What about your ex-husband?
I am not supposed to know how he is doing. He never called in the last three years since he abandoned me and my son . And he never bothers to find out how his son is doing.
What if your husband decides to come back and say he is sorry. Wouldn’t you give him a second chance. As they say, to err is human but to forgive, divine?
All those options I have thought about and I have realizsd that he does not compliement me in any way and I believe the Bible tells me that you don’t have to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. If you have friends and you don’t share the same aspirations, you don’t share the same dreams, you are thinking green and the person is thinking black, you can’t work together unless you agree. I do not think we can work together. He is the one that took a walk out, I didn’t take a walkout because I believe in marriage. I believe in staying. I believe in the statement that marriage is not going to be a bed of roses. But I guess maybe he thought life could be a bed of roses and probably there were better things for him to pick outside. So, it is not about me but because I know my Lord wants me to be happy. If he is going and that is the only way I’m going to be happy, no way. And if he is coming back, I don’t think he is going to complement me in any way.
Don’t you think that you can change him with the words of God?
Nobody changes anybody. God changes people. It’s the word of God that will get the right man for me, not him.
Does it mean you didn’t see all these things before entering into marriage?
Nobody is a magician. Nobody is a vision teller. You can’t see tomorrow. You only live on faith, the faith that you see now, the faith that you know now. Just like seeing you now, I know what you are like whether you are hygienically clean. I can see you now and know whether you are morally upright. You only take people on what you see on a day-to-day basis. So, you can go ahead and say ‘oh! I know. I see. You might just have an idea but it is only when you begin to live with someone on a day-to-day basis, then you add up to the one to be one. So, there is no way I can say I saw that my marriage was going to break up. Because one, my parents are still married and I don’t believe in marriage breaking. What I know is that problems will come and you believe that by the grace of God, you will be able to solve them.
So your career does not have anything to do with the break-up?
Absolutely not. My career doesn’t have anything to do with my break up.I have been an actress close to 12 years now. That is the better part of my life. So, anyone coming to me should know that I’m acting because I love my job and the person will love me with my job.
Now that you are single, are you searching or is there any Mr Right around corner?
How will I put it now… Well, when you are single, yes, you are searching . In fact I’m available. That is the most important thing. I’m available. And the word Mr Right, I have not seen a man to call that. Men are after me but I have not seen the one I want to fall for. So, I’m still running, I want the good one to catch me. And I pray that God will do it for me.
Your diction is one of your selling points. Where did you learn to talk like that?
Well, I thank a God Almighty. I believe it is God’s doing and again good education and good upbringing. Most people, these days, their parents are always too busy, they never pay attention to the education of their children. I give God the glory and I thank my parents, my father especially because he was very strict and believe you me, then I used to hate my father because I was like, ‘God, how can a man be this strict?’ By 6:30 p.m., the girls don’t go out of the house . And he used to have this funny thing he used to do. He would bring out news papers and sheets of paper, pencils, cleaners, pens and tell me to be copying this particular section so that he would always keep you busy. Apart from my assignment that was given to me in school. I used to do that a lot and then trying to do that, I learnt how to write long hand very fast, I could write full words complete. I write very fast so that I would fill all the pages he had given to me before he came back from work. He did it so that the moment I was through with my assignment, I was still busy. So in a way, in doing that, I learnt to read fast, I learnt to know words in English and be able to write fast. In a way, for me, it was a punishment. But I think it is not, now, because it made me part of what I have become. Now, when I see words I can recongnise them faster, I can pronounce faster. Sometimes, my father would tell me to listen to news and tell him what they said. And I had to start telling him what they said. If I wasgoing to school every morning, while he dropped me or driver was going to take me, the moment I entered the car my father would say, ‘Eucharia, let me see your bag.’ He would take the bag and ask me, ‘what is the time table today?’ He would check it with the one in your bag to know whether it corresponded. He would check whether I had done my assignment or not, he would check whether the things in my bag were the things I needed to take to school. It was that bad, and whenever I cawould me back he would still do the same thing. So, there were nothing like putting some things in your school bag to go to school. Some people have to put some clothes in their school bags to go parties. It never happened because the driver would bring you back or he would pick me. Even until I went into the university. I remember then I had to enter Ekene Dili Chukwu from Jibowu to Nsukka. My father would drop me at the station, he would pay for the reciept, he would follow me into the bus. When the bus was about to leave, he would make sure my seat was comfortable, then he would tell everybody around me, including the driver, ‘Hey! Please this is my daughter she is going to Nsukka, she will drop at Enugu, please help me look after her’ and everybody in the bus would be looking at me.
Were you comfortable with that, then?
What could I do? In a way, it was good because if you have good parenting, you wouldn’t step out of the line. You will know where you are coming from and they will tell you, ‘remember where you are coming from.’ At the end of the day, good diction, good articulate manner come from the parents who pay attention to their children. And that is what is lacking a little bit because lot of parents are too busy forgetting that they have to learn to balance it. Give a little time to your children and then give time too to your work and by the grace of God everything will get sorted out.
How do you get along with your colleagues, or are there some that you can not actually work with?
I get along with every one of them. But it must not be deep friendship that you can share. I’m one of the actors that are very friendly to every one of them, both female and male. Yes, of course, I might be closer to a few more than others, but I want to believe that we are all good friends. I don’t have any problem with anybody , because , one, the job requires that you don’t keep enemies because you never know who you are going to meet along the way.
Thinking back over the years, is there any experience you find very memorable or remarkable that you want to share?
Well, I want to say that when I became born again. Actually, I say to myself, why wasn’t I born again earlier because I found out that being born again does not take anything away from your life. It rather adds to your life. I found out that a lot of people find it difficult to take that bold step to go to the front of altar and declare that ‘I’m born again’. They think that God is going to restrict you from doing a lot of things. Yes, really, He does restricts you from doing a lot of things, but what He will restrict you from doing are those bad things that will derail you from being a good example to your family and being a candidate for heaven. When you know you have God, you know you have the omni-present watching over you.
Any regrects being an ctress?
Absolutely none. It has been wonderful. It is one of the best things that can happen to any one. Why, because if you are talented and you do your job very well, you get a lot of appreciation along the way. People will like to identify with you and learn one or two things from you. Because when they see you, they will say ‘oh! my God! I like the way she dresses, I like the way she carries herself. Indirectly, you impact on people. For me, it is a door-opener. In real life, you need to be good looking to be an actor, look charming, very attractive. In all I just love being an actress.
How are you giving back to the society?
Yes, actually I have one or two things I’m cooking up. But right now I don’t want to disclose it. As soon as it is ready, I will let you know. I don’t believe in talking any how. ‘I will do this, I will do that’ when it is not ready. Let it be ready first. Because I can’t determine the time . But God Almighty will be the one to determine the time to say yes. This is what I’m giving out to people that have loved me, people that have cherished me all this time.
How did you get into acting?
I started as a model. Photographic modeling and fashion modeling. I still do that once in a while. In fact, before I did my JAMB, I had been modeling. The big fashion houses you know in the country today, I have modeled for them. As soon as I was done with my Youth Service, I remember my good friend Peter Ononiwu. Whenever went go for an audition or a photographic job he would tell me, you are beautiful, you are very articulate. I think you should do more, something deeper not just modeling because this thing doesn’t fit you. I was like ‘where are they doing the movie’ because then I used to watch actors like, Kanayo O. Kanayo on television when they were doing Living In Bondage. He told me there was a movie coming up and the audition, actually, that he would like to take me with him. I said okay. So, after he took me to the audition I thought I didn’t get a role but I was chosen among the first people that were called, but the movie didn’t take place. After that, one lady called Christiana Micheal wanted to put on a production and we had a lot of rehearsals for like three months and that would have been my first movie because I was cast to play a lead female along side Charly Boy and that was my first time of seeing Charly Boy and a lot of stars like Kanayo 0. Kanayo. But we eventually didn’t do that. And I’m like, ‘are you sure I’m going be an actress?’ Then one day, Jane Oliseh, she was the junior Nneka in Nneka the Pretty Serpent Part One, came to my house. She wanted me to see Kanayo o. Kanayo and Idiala because they were shooting a movie. It was somewhere in Festac, so I went and I got to the place they now asked me whether I could speak Igbo. I said, ‘yes, of course I’m Igbo.’ They told me to read the line and I read the line. And we discussed the price, and later I left but not too long after, they called me back and said that they had chosen me for the movie. That was how I started as an actress.
Which film brought you to limelight?
That was Glamour Girls Part Two in 1996. It was not up to a year I started acting that I featured in the movie. It was a Nek Videos movie
I could remember that it was in this Glamour Girls Part Two you had your bathed naked with Zack Orji .Were you really naked?
No, I was wearing a worn pixel suit. Come on, nobody is going to be naked. Are we doing a blue film?And Zack Orji was wearing a worn pixel suit too.What they did was to put a lot of foam bath and the foam was almost covering the entire wash basin, so it would be able to cover the tracks I was wearing so that people wouldn’t be able to see what I was wearing. The whole art of acting is to make people believe.
