Stella Damasus, a Nollywood veteran, novelist, coach and singer, has said that sincerity was a defining feature that distinguished her generation of outstanding female actors in the early days of Nollywood.
Veteran actress, whose career has spanned decades across stage and television, said she and her contemporaries stood out because they remained true to themselves rather than trying to emulate others, Channels TV reports.
“We were very genuine,” Damasus told the Pulse Old vs New show.
“We didn’t try to be like everybody else. We are not attempting to be someone else or copying someone else. All of it was real.”
“I, like Genevieve Nnaji and Omotola Jalade Ekehinde and other big actresses in the early days of Nollywood had no idea how far and how big we would later become from doing what we passionately enjoy doing,” Damasus, who wrote the book Mama It’s a Girl further noted.
“I’m going to assure you, we were not doing it for the fame or the money. We didn’t have social media telling us how huge we could be. “We didn’t know,” stated the veteran.
“You see yourself on a poster and that’s all. In that time you’ll know people here and there and all that. It wasn’t the fame. “It wasn’t about the money. What were they paying us?”
“We just loved the work. “It was more about passion.
The famous screen actor recalls how hard and brave a thing it was for any woman to be seen as an actor.
“It wasn’t easy for females at that age to gain entry to the industry by their parents and family at that time,” she said. “So the bold people were the ones who could.”
Damasus said one of her most challenging roles, one of the biggest because it changed her career overnight at home and abroad, was in the movie ‘The Widow’ in 2005, where she played the role of a grieving wife who was subjected to intense emotional and physical degradation by her husband’s relatives following his sudden death.
But I am thankful for the part because I saw what could happen, and then it happened.
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