Uche Jombo recently featured in the movie Stone Face where she is Stephanie, the vice president’s daughter. In the movie, she is a terror who generously slaps anyone that crosses her path. In fact, each word she speaks is accompanied by a slap.
The first question that comes to mind is if the slaps are real. Uche replies in the affirmative. And yes she enjoyed it all!
“It was real but after I will apologise to the actress. The slapping part was the part of the movie that I enjoyed most.”
But if presented with such a situation in real life, would she go about slapping and terrorising people?
“I will. But I think as an actor it’s very important to know when acting begins and real life stops, where real life begins and acting stops.”
Uche has said that her portrayal of an aggrieved jealous lady is a trait from deep within her, one of the things people need to know about her is that she is a very jealous lady.
“I think I’m a jealous person that is why I’m in one relationship at a time.”
This beloved boyfriend of hers is like a pearl which she guards jealously as she would not disclose his identity. “Of course, I have someone I’m dating but I will not tell you his name. He is not in the industry.”
Peeling off a slice of the mysterious lover, she only revealed, “he’s a Nigerian, not a foreigner.”
The question, is he based here? ended the conversation down that road; “This is where I draw the curtain in answering your questions.”
Though she is dating this mysterious lover, Uche still maintains that she is single and her ideal guy is one that is romantic, a trait which she once confessed to be lacking in her boyfriend when she said: “I am still teaching my boyfriend how to be romantic.”
“If I see a romantic guy in the industry that I can marry, I mean why not. You can’t really place barrier on love; I don’t think so, you can never tell the heart this is who to love and who not to love.”
Still on Stone Face, Uche narrated her experiences:
“The difficult part was working with an actor that speaks a language you don’t understand. It takes acting to another level because you have to watch the mouth to know when the mouth is closed, and then you will know that the lines are over and you will say yours. Sometimes when the lines are long, I will have to warn the other actor to make sure he’s not improvising because it will definitely affect my response.”
The rumour is that this ace artiste knew the role was not realistic but chose to accept it because of the money, but Uche denied this. “It was not for the money. I did speak a little French, which I forgot later on but I did not even see it in the movie, maybe the part was taken out, but then the concept is that both of us understand our different languages but he chooses to speak French and I’d rather speak English.”
Recently, it would seem Uche has been playing more of bitchy roles though she denied this. In When the Heart Lies, she is the daughter of Chief Tombra, who would not allow a gold digger such as Petra to marry her .
“I have been playing many different roles. I don’t think you can say I play only this particular kind of role. In one movie I wrote I played a lawyer who is in love with the wrong person. I have played other roles so it’s not only arrogant roles that I play.”
People may think her to be arrogant but her reply to that is, “I don’t think so. But then, I truly think there is no character that you will play that you will not deposit something of yourself in. (This is)because you are the person through which the character is coming to life so I might have displayed a bit of myself but I don’t think I’m an arrogant person. “When I read the script, there was a little of her that I understood, for example, I understand something you hold dear being taken away from you, and you fighting to get it back. I understand when someone suspects that something is going on and the person is saying that nothing is going on but at the end of the day something is actually going on and you feel stupid. I understand those little things so it makes up for part of her character that I can’t understand, so I use what I understand to build the character.
On the journey so far she said: “I’ve been here for 10 years. It’s been a long journey that I’m grateful and I’ve learnt from it. I would say I have no regrets so far”.
Her acting career is something that came to her by chance. According to her, she had walked into Fidelis Duker’s office as one of the marketing committee members of REEL Awards and was promptly given a script to read. What started like a joke led to her career in acting and her fame in Nollywood. For Uche, she is still growing, “I’m hoping to make more movies, and to still grow because the truth of the matter is that you can never stop growing on this job. You grow with each job, and I’ve learnt more with each job. I hope to develop more of my acting skill.”
Although Uche has had experience of acting during her childhood days, she never imagined she could end up an actress, “though three years of my secondary school was paid for by an acting scholarship, I never thought that I’d end up an actress. I used to think I’d be a talk show host, have my TV show, interview people, especially celebrities. This was why I grabbed the opportunity of the MMS presentation job when it came. That was what I dreamt of growing up to do, not acting.”
But so far, she is happy with her choice, “acting has taken me places that I never dreamt I could be. It has been both a blessing and a curse. The curse is that your life is no longer yours; and everything you do is under scrutiny. The good thing is that doors of opportunity are opened to you, and you get all the good things and guarantees that come from being in the frontline. I don’t think I can do any other thing apart from acting.”
If you want to catch Uche unwinding, just look out for her anywhere football is being played, especially if Manchester United is involved.
“If I’m not on set, I go to Silverbird Galleria to watch films. I also enjoy the game of football. I watch movies when I’m at home.” Though many see her as a club girl but Uche blamed this on journalists, “People just assume that since I love dancing I should love clubbing. People’s perception about me does not bother me, I cannot please everybody and I know that I cannot avoid living in a world where people hate me.”
